Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Film Strip: Eddie Redmayne Empathizes with ‘Fantastic Beasts’

(L-r) An attentive Kathrine Waterson and pensive Eddie Redmayne at the NY Four Seasons.
(L-r) An attentive Kathrine Waterson and pensive Eddie Redmayne at the NY Four Seasons.

Sitting next to Eddie Redmayne at the Four Seasons hotel in New York for the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” press day, I asked if he felt any pressure inhabiting and taking on the iconic world of J.K. Rowling.

“The honest answer is I feel enormous pressure,” he said. “We were all fans and we grew up watching her films and, for me, getting to go and see a ‘Potter’ film every couple of years was like diving into that warm, cozy place that made you happy about the world.

“I’m sure you can relate, too, so we had quite high expectations on ourselves. We didn’t want to screw it up, but once we read the script and once you realize it was all those things that you were familiar with in J.K. Rowling’s world, all of that everyday magic [a calm prevailed].

Katherine Waterson and Eddie Redmayne in scene from 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.'
Katherine Waterson and Eddie Redmayne in scene from ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.’

“So the pressure actually decreased for a moment and it’s only now when I’m meeting people and they’re saying, ‘How are you dealing with the pressure?’ that I start to really feel it again.”

Long before Redmayne received an Oscar for “The Theory of Everything,” I met him for the thriller “Black Death,” in 2010 and knew then that he was special and had a great career ahead of him.

Sitting next to Redmayne was his co-star Katherine Waterson. She added how the subject matter of “Fantastic Beasts” left her also with a feeling of euphoria. “One of my favorite messages of the film is that there’s so much more to people than initially meets the eye. This is one of the great discoveries in the film, I think, at least for my character Tina.”

Syndicated Entertainment journalist Marie Moore reports on film and TV from her New York City base. Contact her at [email protected]

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