In an interview with Gay Times, Ezra Miller talks about his character in the Fantastic Beasts series, the Obscurial, Credence Barebone:
Among the new characters we are introduced to is Credence – played by Ezra Miller – who is a young wizard forced to repress his magical abilities in fear of being persecuted by no-maj (muggles/non-magical people).
“My approach to Credence was that he was someone who never got the love that they needed,” Ezra told Gay Times.
“He was also subject to this sort of violent indoctrination that made him believe that he was bad, and that stopped him from allowing the truth of who he is to arise to the surface.
“It seems like the character himself is sort of an exploration of the results of that type of trauma and that sort of repression, what happens when we don’t let ourselves be ourselves can actually be pretty sad and scary.”
Speaking about how outsiders are a consistent thread through J.K. Rowling’s work, Ezra agreed that he could relate to Credence’s struggle through his own experience of feeling “ostracised” while growing up.
“I experienced my fair share of bullying and teasing as a youngster with strange interests,” he told us. “I also had a speech impediment when I was a kid, which made me an easy target, because I was the Quirrell [from the Harry Potter films] on the scene.
“And when I started going through puberty and having sort of confusing feelings about wanting to kiss people [laughs]. So, yeah, there were moments in my life where I felt ostracised from my contemporaries or from my peers.”
Ezra added: “Those times are really painful, but, of course, also very formative because they prompt us to step outside of society and to look at the world with fresh eyes, which is why I think that so many of our great minds have been ostracised folks and disenfranchised people of the world.”
Also commenting on his Fantastic Beasts character, Eddie Redmayne spoke to the Telegraph:
“I’m in the hands of one of the great storytellers of the 21st century. Parts of Newt’s character began to be unpicked in the film, but I feel there’s a long way to go – and that in itself is intriguing.”
