What makes a good actor? Good actors make you forget their real name. Their success lies in being remembered for the characters they played, the lives they portrayed and the work they did.
It is the sheer hard work and perseverance that makes an actor great and worth remembering. There are actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Sandra Bullock, Leonardo di Caprio and others who have displayed the power of hard work with their seemingly effortless acting.
Eddie Redmayne is one of the biggest examples. The actor prepares for his roles by meeting and reading about characters he plays. The actor met Stephen Hawking before he started rehearsing for his role as a scientist in The Theory Of Everything.
But this time, the challenge was a bit different. The actor had to play Newt Scamander for his new project Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Unlike real life characters, he did not have any personality to meet. Until he met J.K. Rowling.
In a discussion with PEOPLE and EW editorial director Jess Cagle, Redmayne talked about his meeting with the author. He told how his conversation with Rowling helped him prepare for the role.
When asked about the meeting, Redmayne said,
“When we first met, we only had an hour, and both of us just talked at each other about Newt,” Redmayne said.
“It was kind of amazing, and a lot of it was very personal to her. She has this extraordinary imagination, but I think where a lot of these characters come from are places in her heart or the people that are around her and she knows. So Newt, I can’t really say much about it, but he came from quite a specific place. And what was lovely was to be able to talk about all the qualities in him.”
Redmayne also explained how he understands Newt’s character and what kind of hero Newt is. He said,
“He [Newt] finds the sort of hero in him, but really, it’s about his relationship with the creatures that galvanizes him to move forward”.
Fantastic Beasts is out November 18.
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