MAGIC ACTOR
Jude Law plays beloved wizard
Ask Jude Law, “What’s the hardest part of playing a young Albus Dumbledore?” and he might reply, “Keeping secrets.”
The 45-year-old two-time Oscar nominee joins J.K. Rowling ’s wizarding world as an early version of the character — the future headmaster of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books — in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and he already knows what’s in store over the course of three planned sequels.
“I know where he’s going. So I’ve got this aim in my mind and I get to take you closer and closer to the Dumbledore we know and love from the Potter world and show how he ended up being that man,” Law says.
“First of all, I think it’s a stroke of genius to take the story back to a time before the Harry Potter books.
Another thing I think is very clever is Jo Rowling weaves into Fantastic Beasts little threads that link it to Harry Potter and that generation.”
Q Were you always a fan of the Potter books and movies?
A Oh yeah. I discovered them with my children. I was reading the Potter books to my kids, and we listened to the audio books on holidays, and I took them to the movies. Like for so many families, Potter and that world was a big part of our family. I knew all about it.
Q Do you have a favourite Potter film? A
I think the last two — the Deathly Hallows — really blew me away. To look back at where we’ve come from and how far these characters — Harry, Hermione and Ron — went and the darkness and stakes that they encountered, I just felt so impressed by that journey. It was incredible.
Q You’re playing the young Dumbledore. How much did you and Rowling talk about
where Dumbledore had been and what he had experienced in his life before we meet him in this film?
A When you have the opportunity to work with the creator of a character, and a novelist at that, it’s like having a well of inspiration and detail. She was very generous with her time and she gave me a very clear picture of who he was from childhood; his motivations and the pivotal moments from his life and the scars that were left. So (she) and David Yates gave me a real sense early on so we could redefine that period before Dumbledore became the man we know and love from the Potter movies. I was able to dig into the demons and the turmoil and the drama of a younger man and the stuff that he has yet to resolve.
Q Rowling famously stated that Dumbledore is gay. Was there something in particular you wanted to know about?
A Oh yeah. There was stuff about his relationship with Gellert Grindelwald. There’s that relationship and what happens between them that causes this rift. But prior to that, what happened in the Dumbledore family. As we all know, Dumbledore’s childhood was quite idillic and then something happens, and what happened in the family really changed his life and emotional fabric. That will come into more detail in the next (instalments). But understanding his relationship with Grindelwald was key.
Q It’s a lot darker than anything we’ve seen in any of the other Potter films. It’s certainly a lot darker than the first Fantastic Beasts. What did you think of that decision?
A I think what we’ve done is serve the story and the themes of the story and the situations the characters find themselves in. I still think that there’s a light touch and wonderful escapism that J.K. Rowling brings to it. But I also think we live in dark times, and the films reflect the period we’re all living in.
Q How did you think your Dumbledore is different from the one we meet later on in the Potter films? To me there’s a mischievous charm to the younger man.
A I guess one of the things that makes him different is he’s 45 and not 112. The calm and sense of self that the old Dumbledore
has is yet to be achieved. He’s a man still going through and figuring out his path. Also, he’s still living with demons that are unresolved.
There are still issues that he carries that he needs to confront and work through.
Q In the trailer Dumbledore says to Newt, ‘I can’t move against Grindelwald.’ What’s the relationship Dumbledore has with Newt versus the one he has later on with Harry? A They are slightly more on equal footing. Even though Newt
was Dumbledore’s student, he’s an adult. With Harry and Dumbledore, it’s always child and master. I think there’s slightly more neutrality to the Dumbledore Newt relationship. Having said that, Dumbledore has a way of leading and manoeuvring his friends in a way that keeps them guessing. I always think how he was a master in the Potter series of making people think that they were coming to their own decisions when really they had been encouraged by him.
Q In Potter-lore, Dumbledore is the one who defeats Grindelwald. Has Rowling revealed how that’s all going to play out?
A Not in too much detail, but I do know certain emotional situations — I’m being very careful with what I tell you here. Q You’re going to be back shooting the third one next year. How is the Fantastic Beasts series going to progress? Is it going to get darker?
A I think J.K. Rowling has always been a brilliant reader for what her audiences’ desires are. There will be areas that I’m sure will get darker and more intense. But equally, she always approaches the story with such humour and delicacy, and I think that will always remain.
When Eddie Redmayne met with J.K. Rowling about portraying magizoologist Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts — a spinoff of her Harry Potter films — he knew that despite all its magic, he was entering a universe filled with plenty of darkness.
“When I first spoke to Jo, she didn’t tell me what the story was going to be over the entire narrative arc, but it became clear it was going to be about the rise of (evil wizard leader) Gellert Grindelwald (played by Johnny Depp) leading up to the duel between Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Grindelwald,” he says.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the second part of a five-film series that started with 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The new film, written by Rowling and directed by David Yates, sees Hogwarts professor Dumbledore linking up with his former student Scamander to halt the rise of the divisive Grindelwald.
Q One of the things that caught me right off the bat is the film is a lot darker — in a good way. Were you surprised by the direction that J.K. went in for this sequel?
A I wasn’t, actually. The first film was a kind of romp in which we established the characters and the creatures. There was a joyous quality to it. Now that that groundwork has been set, this film sees those people being tested and the stakes being ratcheted up. The new picture still has the whimsy and wonder, but what’s at stake for the characters has really heightened.
Q Newt is different in this film. He’s lost some of his innocence and at one point in the film he tells his brother, “I don’t do sides.” How has he changed?
A What I think is interesting for me is how Jo has written a protagonist who is not usual. He doesn’t have machismo, he doesn’t have sensational wit, but to his core he’s a good person and a moral person. As Dumbledore says, he tends to do the right thing. The question he faces, though, is by being an outsider his whole life, he’s created this type of exoskeleton in which he can exist. But is it good enough to be morally upstanding, or does there come a point where you have to lead by example and make choices and engage? For me, that’s kind of what the stakes are for him in this film. When the world around you is deteriorating in such a way, at what point do you engage?
Q What sets Gellert Grindelwald apart from Lord Voldemort?
A I think the key to Johnny Depp’s brilliance in the film is he charms. Grindelwald is charming and he is seductive, and at moments he speaks extraordinary logic as he pits people against one another and creates this sense of the other. He’s wonderfully charismatic doing this. At the same time, you see why people are being seduced by him. Johnny played that exceptionally. Voldemort had a more overt sense of cruelty or evil to him; there’s a charm to Johnny’s Grindelwald and that makes him even more disconcerting.
Q How was it to work with Jude Law?
A Jude probably felt the weight of fans’ expectations, but he wore it very lightly on set. I just felt that the role fit him like a glove, and it was such fun to get to play with him.
Q What’s it been like for you to be part of this new magical world J.K. Rowling has created in the Fantastic Beasts films?
A I think the thing with Jo is, she has one of the greatest imaginative minds of the 21st century. What the great artists have are these antennas that are super sensitive to things that are going on in society long before we can feel them. She wrote this script three years ago, and it seems to be holding a mirror as to where we are right now in some ways. At the same time, she’s reminding us of our history and that notion of repeating history.
Q We’re in the second film of a planned five-movie story arc. Where is the series headed?
A I had a long discussion before we made the first film and another before this one, and whenever there’s something I want to know more about, Jo has a fully-realized world in her mind. So she’s absolutely thorough in explaining anything you need to know. But she surprises the cast along with everyone else with where it’s going. I love that. Q Are you looking forward to the third instalment in the series? A What’s exciting is you don’t know what you’re going to have to confront until the script arrives.
I was with some of the cast the other day when we heard (Rowling) had said that the next film will be set in Rio de Janeiro. We heard that when the rest of the world did.