Actor Eddie Redmayne understands the impact his role in will have on Harry Potter fans

THE wizarding world of Harry Potter that author J.K. Rowling has concocted, is so extraordinary and mind-blowing that it even attracts adults, on top of its target market of teen readers. Academy Award-winner Eddie Redmayne wasn’t immune to its immense power as well, and couldn’t help acting like a giddy school lad when he met the novelist.

“What I love about J.K. Rowling is that her love for the characters she has created is so infectious,” he says.

Most people know that Rowling’s engaging tale of the titular boy wizard has been turned into a mega-successful film franchise.

A film spinoff from the series is the blockbuster,

in which Redmayne will play its lead character, magizoologist Newt Scamander.

Working as a screenwriter for the first time, Rowling was inspired by Harry’s school textbook

which was written by Newt Scamander in the universe.

“When you’re playing a fictional character that she has created, having the opportunity to speak with her at length is like meeting the person that you’re playing. You’re right at the source,” says Redmayne, 34.

“I was lucky enough to meet her about two weeks before we started filming and — the poor woman — I sort of dismissed with the niceties and went straight to ‘Tell me about Newt’s character’.”

The film is set in 1926. Newt has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures.

Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he could have come and gone without incident, were it not for a No-Maj (American term for Muggle, or non-magic folks) named Jacob (Dan Fogler), a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

VERSION OF THE CHARACTER

What amazes Redmayne is how Rowling knows every intricacy of the characters she has created, including their back stories.

“Whenever she came on set, we were super excited. We really wanted to impress her because with Harry

Potter, you had your own imagcharacters ined version of in your head from the books, and then the film version was a crystallisation or an interpretation of that,” he explains.

“But with there aren’t any books, so you have an even greater responsibility to make sure that it’s her version of the character that the world’s going to see. You’re creating this character for the first time.”

The British actor, who has also starred in the films and