Making “Beasts” Fantastic Again

We all know and love Eddie Redmayne’s portrayal of the quirky and adorably awkward Magizoologist Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It’s no surprise that Eddie, being an Academy Award-winning actor, got everyone’s stamp of approval in his casting. But would he be able to embody Newt’s persona using only his voice?

The answer, of course, is undoubtedly yes!

Eddie stopped by Audible headquarters to record his narrations for the brand new Fantastic Beasts audiobook.

Eddie stated that he hadn’t done many recordings in the past, so he just tried to use the same techniques he uses on set.

There was one line in the original script of the film, in which Newt says: ‘I’m not sure that anything that occurs in nature can be unnatural.’ The line ended up not being in the film, but I always used it as my way of re-finding Newt’s voice. That was my way to get back into his skin today.

Eddie also seemed to adopt Newt’s demeanor while recording, hunching his shoulders and avoiding eye contact.

He’s not particularly good at eye contact as well, and hilariously, in the recording booth they have this big face […] meant to be the person [whom] you as a recording artist are speaking to, so I sort of found myself refusing to make eye contact with it, which was quite entertaining.

He also sometimes needed to suppress his inner fanboy, often interrupting his recording by exclaiming praise for J.K Rowling, saying things such as “Oh, she’s good isn’t she!” and “I’d forgotten how good this book is!”

We previously showed you snippets of Eddie Redmayne’s narrations.

The full audiobook can be purchased on both Audible and Pottermore.

Are you intrigued by Eddie’s narrations? Do you think you’ll purchase the audiobook?