Eddie Redmayne isn’t doing too bad for himself; after critical acclaim for his role in films like Les Miserables, he won the Oscar for Best Actor at last years ceremony for his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and not long after that he managed to fend off some stiff competition to win the lead role of Newt Scamander in the Harry Potter Spin off Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, due out later this year.
But now Eddie has confessed that before Newt Scamander and Fantastic Beasts came along there was always one other role in Harry Potter that he really, really wanted to play, back when he was a much younger actor with very ginger hair…
Ron Weasley, of course! Or any of the Weasley’s, in fact; he didn’t care what Weasley he was, but he thought he’d be perfect for it considering he had naturally ginger hair!
The Harry Potter films, of which there are 8, featured an ensemble of British actors, and does seem like almost everyone was in them, with some of the best and biggest names in acting amongst their ranks; Dame Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes…the list of incredible actors in Harry Potter is massive, it’s just a shame that Eddie weren’t a part of it sooner!
Talking to IGN, the actor, who is tipped for a second consecutive Oscar Nomination for Best Actor (and possible Oscar win!) for his role as the Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl, had this to say:
“For years I was always like, in the Harry Potter films, there was a whole ginger family, and I never got an audition. And I was like, come on, it’s outrageous! Every actor in England was in the Harry Potter films, but I never got the call.”
We hear you, Eddie, we never got the call either…
Every cloud has a silver lining, though, and we doubt we’ll hear Eddie do much complaining about the fact he’s now the star of a Harry Potter related film. The script was penned by author of The Harry Potter series JK Rowling, and takes place in the 1920’s, sixty years before the character Harry Potter was even born, and in an entirely different country; this one takes in New York.
Fantastic Beasts is planned as a trilogy, and whilst Eddie might have preferred to be a Weasley, we’re glad to see that the starring role in this new series has went to such a big fan of the originals!
The first trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was released in December, and can be seen below!
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