Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Religious Music and Entertainment
Eddie Redmayne on ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ the future of the series, acting, and his Christian faith

Eddie Redmayne on ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ the future of the series, acting, and his Christian faith

Last updated on: November 15, 2016 at 9:04 pm by DeWayne Hamby

Eddie Redmayne on ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ the future of the series, acting, and his Christian faith 2016-11-15T21:04:33-04:00 DeWayne Hamby

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Eddie Redmayne may be the nicest Best Actor Oscar winner that you would ever speak with. That’s not to cast aspersions or assumptions on any of the other icons who have held the golden statue, but when you speak with him in particular, you get the sense that he is genuinely bewildered and grateful yet still largely unaffected by his newfound notoriety.

Eddie Redmayne plays Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them. Image courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures

Eddie Redmayne plays Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them. Image courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures

During our conversation last week, Redmayne was gracious, even after a string of unexpected dropped calls and he even took a moment to record a somewhat lengthy birthday greeting for my niece, a fan since he made his mark as Marius in Tom Hooper’s big-screen adaptation of Les Misérables.

As a new father of his first daughter, the four-month old Iris, I shared one statement I received that warms my heart. Because of the bond between father and daughter, I was told, “You’ll always be loved. You’ll always be cared for.”

“What a beautiful thing,” he replied. “I will always hold on to that. Gosh, that’s wonderful, wonderful.”

This week, Redmayne’s quickly accelerating star status will get another boost, playing Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, the first of a new blockbuster franchise from the universe and creator of Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling. As this big-budget adventure, also starring Katherine Waterston and Dan Fogler, was readying release, news came out of Warner Brothers’ intention to grow the film into at least four additional sequels. Redmayne is hopeful about his future as the shy hero, Newt.

It’s been announced recently that there will be four more films in this series. Without giving anything away about this one, is your character slated for future installments?

I think so. The impression is that he is. You can never be sure. We’ve been given these snippets of details from J.K. Rowling about what the future of films may be. What’s interesting thing to me is that Newt and his suitcase filled with creatures, they’re our inroad into this story that J. K. Rowling wants to tell on a much more epic scale of good verses evil. So hopefully I’ll get to go along for the ride, but first let’s just see if people enjoy this film.

Eddie Redmayne and the cast of Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them. Image courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures

Eddie Redmayne and the cast of Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them. Image courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures

Looking over your body of work, what I noticed was I don’t see a lot of easy acting projects. What you’ve done, either with Fantastic Beasts or The Theory of Everything (for which Redmayne won the Oscar), is physically demanding roles or acting against a green screen. Out of all of those, what is the hardest?

Do you know what’s interesting? I was doing a television thing several years ago in Budapest. Tom Hooper, who’s a director I’ve worked with a few times, was working on something else, and we went for lunch. And this television, it was called Birdsong, and it was like the first World War and it was incredibly intense, the experience of making it. I remember having lunch with Tom and saying, “This one, this feels like the hardest.” And then Tom turns to me and said, “But don’t they always feel like the hardest?” And he’s kind of right, like each time, if you’re giving everything you can to a part, you’re always trying to kind of push every ounce and I suppose they always feel like the hardest. So I had a huge amount of fun on Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, but at the same time, as you say, the CGI element or working with puppeteers and other sort of thing, it was wonderfully challenging. They always feel hard but I love what I do and I’m very lucky to do a job that I enjoy hugely. So it’s hard and rigorous but wonderfully fulfilling.

You played Stephen Hawking, a man grounded in science, and now you have Newt Scamander, who really knows there is a world beyond this one. Personally, where do you fall more into?

I grew up, I sang a lot in choirs when I was a kid so I was often in church and then I studied of history of art, so there was a lot of symbolism of Christian iconography as a massive part of my youth. My faith, I’m Christian, but I see it as a journey and a long, sort of extensive one and a dialogue constantly. I suppose I’m a religious person but not sort of massively.

Also, having studied for this film, all the beauty of nature. One of the things playing this part is that Newt is passionate about nature and creatures so I did a lot of looking into meeting people who spend their lives with animals and creatures and nature itself. I always think that you have to look to nature and the extraordinary scope and scale of it to be more, to think there is someone up there who (is directing)- that it’s no accident, put it that way.

Speaking of singing in choir, on YouTube, there’s a snippet of you singing “God Is With Us” with the Eton College Choir (Redmayne attended there at the same time as Prince William, Duke of Cambridge).

Yes, that was actually at school. I loved that piece, it’s a very beautiful piece of music.

How did your life change when you won the Best Actor award?

I was in the middle of making The Danish Girl and as soon as The Danish Girl finished, I started making the Fantastic Beasts and while I was making Fantastic Beasts, we were promoting the The Danish Girl and it was a rigorous year or two, energized, but it was almost impossible to sit down and take any of it in. It’s only been since finishing that film, with Iris arriving and Hannah, my wife and I, taking a bit of a time out just to be fully together as a family that I’ve had any sense of perspective on it.

Eddie Redmayne plays Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Image courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures.

Eddie Redmayne plays Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Image courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures.

In a weird way, it’s lovely to feel some form of great gratitude in the affirmation that you get from like the acting and the film community. At the some point, it just really galvanizes you to keep telling interesting stories and trying to get to keep pushing you in the right direction to do what you enjoy doing.

Watch the final trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, starring Eddie Redmayne, here:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

J. K. Rolwing

Newt Scamander

Warner Brothers

Previous Post

November 4, 2016

VIDEO: Lacrae Performs Deeply Personal 'Can't Stop Me Now' on 'Tonight Show'

Next Post

November 15, 2016 TRAILER: Disney's New 'Beauty and the Beast'

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Comics Movies Music Plays and Musicals Podcasts Television Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 September 2015 July 2015 March 2015 November 2014 September 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 May 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 December 2011 November 2011 August 2011 July 2011 March 2011 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 April 2006 February 2006 December 2005 October 2005 September 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 February 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I was thrown into a den of these beasts for praying three times daily, but they did not harm me. What creatures were they?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Wolves Serpents Bears Lions