Eddie on what Newt has learned from Dumbledore over the years: “I feel like sort of Dumbledore’s caught Newt out of his shell a little bit. Newt’s someone that is most happy in his own company or the company of creatures. He’s an introvert ...Gentle nudges and occasionally a shove...Dumbledore’s kind of made him engage and entrusted him with stuff, so he sort of I think in this film he sort of asks Newt to step up to being a leader, and what I love is that Newt does it but in like most Newty ways possible. Since he’s not quite sure how to be a leader but just sort of vomited his way through it.”
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore cast Q&A with Tom Felton
Jude Law discusses his newest projects, joining the world of 'Star Wars,' going nude when it's called for and his future playing Dumbledore.
Law met with J.K. Rowling, whom he still regards fondly, in 2017, and she filled him in on the complete arc of the story she’d hatched for these new films. “I had a pretty clear sense of where it was going to go,” Law says, recalling that Rowling gave him many notes, including one that Dumbledore saw himself as a monster.
“And that’s why he liked Newt,” Law says of the character played by Eddie Redmayne in the films, “because Newt took care of monsters.”
In the movies, Dumbledore struggles with his identity as a gay man who falls in love with the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald. “Because of Dumbledore’s past,” Law says, describing a fight with Grindelwald that led to his sister’s death, “I think he always felt guilty that he had been misled because he was in love. It followed him. He found himself to be unlovable because he trusted his heart.”
Though not a gift from Dumbledore, Yusuf Kama secretly carries a brooch containing a picture of his half-sister, Leta Lestrange, which actor William Nadylam used as an inspiration throughout filming. The brooch was inspire by a Victorian piece found by Colleen Atwood. 'You don't see it that much,' sys Atwood. 'but for him it's a memento from his life.'
Fantastic Beasts －The Secrets of Dumbledore: Movie Magic
William Nadylam: He's going to help defend the world from Grindelwald's action, and eventually, obviously, he doesn't forget. That's another subject there. He doesn't forget.
Alien Covenant, The Agency, Inherent Vice, Fantastic Beasts. Throughout your career, you’ve played characters who are fighting for control and respect in a world that doesn’t really want to give you that…
“Well, I’ve only played women. I’m always looking for roles that are complex enough that I can suspend my disbelief though. I need to be able to fall into the fantasy and it’s often those characters that are frustrated, fighting against something or experiencing tension that do it for me.”
It seems like everyone involved in the Fantastic Beasts films has a different take on whether the series will ever get finished – what’s yours?
“The last two films probably won’t get made, but that’s only based on a gut feeling. I know nothing and I’d probably be one of the last to know if something was happening because with films of that size, people aren’t calling up the performers to keep them updated. Do contracts expire? I’ve never thought about that before, but they probably do at some point, right? At the moment we are bound to them but I think that ship has sailed.”
Did it ever feel like a risk to share your views on feminism and trans rights at a time where people like J.K. Rowling were preaching the opposite?
“I didn’t think of it as a risk at all. And if it had, I would have done it anyway.”
Some people have suggested that’s why Tina’s role was cut down in the third Fantastic Beasts film…
“With these huge films, you never know why anything happens. We are just so divorced from the leadership.”
A lot of Harry Potter fans feel conflicted about watching the films or reading the books now. Where do you stand on that?
“Fantastic Beasts was such a big break for me. Those films changed my life and I learned a lot from working on something of that scale. There’s so much that I’m grateful for and I want to be really clear about that. I do think about the fans a lot though. Harry Potter is a beautiful trans allegory and what a pity for young people [not to feel comfortable] engaging with that.
“There are those questions around the tension of two different things – can you be grateful and critical? Yes, of course you can. Life is brief and rife with pain and suffering, so if something brings you joy… That’s the closest I’ve got to an answer but it’s never felt truly satisfying. I really do love those fans though and the actors I worked with are friends for life. That was the real gift of the experience.”
Most of the visuals I did for FB3 were written out of the script by the time the film came out, but the new york winter ones stuck, particularly this one of Dumbledore making his way towards Manhattan bridge.
Jude Law: "The fact that everything didn't go precisely to plan, was precisely the plan." Ah. Oh, you know what? I've got a good story about this line. That's Dumbledore. I wrote this line. I just thought it was very Dumbledore. "The fact that everything didn't go precisely to plan, was precisely the plan," yeah.
I'd read all the books to my children and I really loved that world. He was absolutely sort of the heartbeat of those books, or rather the spirit. Harry was the heartbeat. There was something in the heart of Dumbledore, there was something in the spirit of the man that I really liked, and in fact, playing him put me in a very good place. Jo Rowling always said to me that he saw himself as a monster because of the way he'd behaved in the past, and he was always trying to forgive himself, but I just always felt like he was a very good, kind man, and it's nice playing good, kind men.
