Transcript of interview taken on the set of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore – all copyright to Warner Bros.
– On Coming Back To FB3
“The script is real exciting, okay, it’s like a real adventure, and so it was really fun to be back and get into the swing of things. It was tricky because we’ve had some false starts, but overall it’s been really smooth, like amazingly smooth. They’ve given me a lot to do in this one so it’s a joy to come to work every day.”
– On The State Of The Wizarding World
“The wizarding world, obviously there’s this divide that’s happening, you know, you get that building from the second movie. So by the third movie there’s really a very strong divide politically in the wizarding world where you have to choose sides – either you’re for living with muggles, or you’re absolutely against it and you feel as though wizards are the supreme race and muggles should be slaves. So it’s pretty intense, and then in the middle of that I’m trying to find Queenie.”
– On Jacob’s Role In The Story
“Dumbledore is playing this chess game and he’s getting all his pieces together, and so is Grindelwald who’s getting his pieces together, and so I am this pawn that gets to be a knight for a second. It’s so great in a very Chaplain-y kind of way where you have this guy who’s obviously, you know, he’s a no-maj, he’s an outsider, he’s an underdog, he’s a baker – he doesn’t know how to do magic, but you dress him up like that and you push him out into the insanity and the chaos. There’s just something really fun to play with that.”
– On Jacob and Queenie
“In Jacob’s life, Queenie is very important and he’s just like totally in love with her, smitten, can’t stop thinking about her. And that is just a microcosm, in the macrocosm, the wizarding world, she’s very special. So she’s coming into her own, she’s learning how powerful she is, but at the centre of it is this love story of trying to get Queenie back – and how do you get Queenie back? You gotta have Jacob there to pull the heartstrings.”
– On Working With Jessica Williams
“They let us play, and they put us together and we all get along really well. Introducing Jess in a great way, in a bigger way, she was a little bit in the second movie in the book, but here you really see her play and shine. She’s also got the comedic sensibility and she’s chosen this very great, really strong character. Love working with her on this film, we have a great chemistry – we’re both from New York, and it’s just awesome.”
– On Learning From David Yates
“So I come out, and I thought I was playing it perfectly, and he comes up to me and he goes, ‘That was fabby, I love it, was fabby. But now, instead of showing, try doing. Okay..’, [snaps fingers] and he goes snapping off into the sunset, and I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, maybe I have to go back to acting school’. No, and then I was just like, ‘You know what, he’s right, let me try just being’. And then I was just doing that for the rest of the movie and you’ll see, it’s my best work. He just said something to me and it clicked and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna be Jacob instead of showing everyone that I’m Jacob’.”
– On What Fans Will Like
“So you’re gonna see all your favourite characters, and you’re gonna see new characters playing with your favourite characters. You’re gonna see new people stepping up in new ways, in new roles, and they’re just marvellous. You’re going to see them in a way that you see them stretching new muscles, in a new style of adventure where it’s fast paced, fast talking, we’re sliding into the 30’s and it’s more of like a detective noir who-dunnit – really fun.”
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will be available to buy on DVD/BluRay/4K from Monday July 25th.
