THE YOUNG DUMBLEDORE
Law joins Potter’s wizarding world
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 So is this your kids’ favourite role you’ve done?
A They haven’t seen the film yet, but they’re pretty excited that I’m suddenly in 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 DumbledoreNewt 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 already 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.
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.
In 2014, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Aretha Franklin was asked what she thought of Adele and Alicia Keys, both of whom she labelled great, young singers. But when it came to Taylor Swift, the best she could muster was “great gowns, beautiful gowns.” It was a scathing four-word critique, and while The Crimes of Grindelwald, the second in the planned five-part Fantastic Beasts series, isn’t deserving of quite the same writeoff, it’s hard to say what exactly it does better than its $200-million visuals.
There’s no mistaking that if there’s one thing the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises do best it’s a structured
jacket. After all, it’s cold in the magical world, and one cannot trail-blaze without a sturdy peacoat or trench.
The pair donning the best are a heavily ginger-banged Eddie Redmayne ( back as Newt Scamander, the eccentric and aloof magizoologist) and Jude Law (delightfully debuting as young Albus Dumbledore, with all the charm and wisdom of the headmaster we’ve long come to know).
The two devise a plan to fight dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, who was arrested at the end of the first film by the Magical Congress of the United States of America. The film opens with Grindelwald’s masterful escape from a flying prison carriage, as he ventures off to create a master race of pure-blood wizards and witches to rule over the muggles (non-magical people) of the world.
In a controversial casting choice, Grindelwald is played by Johnny Depp, an actor deeply mired in his own troubles (ranging from debt to disastrous divorce) and who seems to have forgotten how to do the one thing he was always good at: act. Outfitted with spiky platinum hair (and equally icy brows and a moustache), a wonky eye and, yes, a fabulous coat and scarf to match, he’s a visual scare, lending real-life eccentricity to the wizard. But with his slurred drawl, the actor seems to be riffing off his recent iterations of Jack Sparrow, with flecks of Whitey Bulger tossed in. In fact, his portrayal and presence are so offbeat and comical, it’s distracting.
The same goes for Ezra Miller’s shrill performance as Credence Barebone, a melancholy young wizard who desperately wants to know his lineage. It doesn’t bode well that Grindelwald has his one good eye steadfastly focused on him, however.
While the beauty of the first Fantastic Beasts was found in watching Newt, auror Tina (Katherine Waterston, miserably underused here), her sister Queenie (Alison Sudol) and her muggle boyfriend Jacob (Dan Fogler) run around New York City together, The Crimes of Grindelwald is overstuffed with narrative and characters. Each time director David Yates and writer-turned-screenwriter J.K. Rowling run into a new character, the focus shifts and the plot gets lost.
It’s an unfortunate followup to the world-building original, which was, for all intents and purposes, magical.
Oddly enough, for all the saturated elements of the movie, one of the story’s most hyped reveals — that Dumbledore had been in love with Grindelwald when the two were teenagers — is only touched upon. Dumbledore simply explains his refusal to fight the dark wizard by saying, “We were closer than brothers.”
While there is likely a narrative that has been mapped out by Rowling, it’s clear this sequel is filler, offering minuscule progress in plot and character development. However, the motivation for the franchise has always been fan service for a legion of readers who just wanted more from the Potter universe. The sequel is certainly rickety, but for fans of this world, it won’t matter.
It will be impossible not to feel a chill run down your spine when the opening bars of Hedwig ’s Theme play, or when the film transports us back to Hogwarts. Let’s just hope the stakes are heightened with the next instalment as we come ever closer to Dumbledore and Grindelwald facing off, because, even as a fan, one more lazy effort will be tough to forgive.