Eddie Redmayne on Immersing Himself in Magizoology for “Fantastic Beasts”
Actor Eddie Redmayne recently finished filming Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them, and award season is in full swing, with the Oscars just around the corner. Eddie is once again nominated for Best Actor for his role in The Danish Girl. He picked up the award for Best Actor last year, for his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
In a new interview with the Telegraph, Eddie has spoken about Oscar expectations, as well as preparing for the role of Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts.
On the Oscars hype he said,
Going to the Oscars is always the most sensory overload and a huge amount of fun. I feel excited just to be invited to the party, frankly.
He further spoke about being nominated for Best Actor at the awards, alongside other such well-regarded actors.
One of my first ever auditions for an American film [The Good Shepherd] was with Leonardo DiCaprio. We had about 15 minutes, and it was pretty inspiring. In the end Matt Damon played his part. So for me to be considered in the group of nominees, with Damon, DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender and Bryan Cranston… it feels amazing.
At the time of the interview, Eddie was three months into filming Fantastic Beasts, and he reflected on the scale of production involved.
What has been so great about this one is seeing a bigger budget being used. Every single head of department on this film is at the top of their game, so they use that to the most extraordinary effect. The other day I was looking down at a set they have built, New York streets in the 1920s, and as far as your eye can see are cars, smoke machines, extras… It feels like going back to [-] and maybe we romanticise it [-] a golden age of Hollywood with this huge scale of things
Eddie also spoke about the level of research puts into his roles and the privileges that these opportunities have given him.
Part of what I do, in relation to research, is about exploiting the fact that you have one of the best jobs in the world. If you are given access to amazing astronomers to educate you when playing Stephen Hawking, why wouldn’t you meet them?
In relation to Newt, this meant spending time at zoos, including London Zoo and Port Lympne in Kent.
As I am playing a magizoologist, I thought, why don’t I go and shack up at London Zoo for a bit. I spent a few days there, and then I went down to Damien Aspinall’s place, Port Lympne in Kent, and met the amazing handlers there. Some of them sleep with baby tigers when they’re born. What was important for me here was to see how people with such a close relationship with animals communicate with them, because Newt has that. Then it is just a lot of fun.
You can read the full interview here. And if you missed it, a behind-the-scenes look at the film was released in January, which you can catch up with now.
Are you still looking forward to seeing Eddie portray Newt Scamander? What are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments!
