Eddie Redmayne and 'Fantastic Beasts' Costars Charm Beijing Fans at Red Carpet Event

On Saturday, November 19, nearly 200 lucky wand-toting, preppily-dressed fantasy film fans attended an exclusive Q&A with the stars of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a new spinoff from, and prequel to, the blockbuster Harry Potter Franchise (opening in China on November 25).

Freckly, fair-haired leading man Eddie Redmayne (famed for his Oscar-winning turn Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything) was on hand, looking debonairly trim in a blue pinstriped suit. He was accompanied by costars Katherine Waterston (who plays Porpentina Goldstein, an overqualified witch stuck on a dead end assignment), Alison Sudol (who plays Queenie, Porpentina's younger sister), Dan Fogler (who plays Redmayne's muggle sidekick Jacob Kowalski), along with producer David Heyman and director David Yates. We were invited by the event coordinator Weying Technology Co., a marketing and distribution platform for movies and sports that put on similar events in Beijing for the stars of Jason Bourne, The Martian, Captain America: Civil War, and other recent hit films.

When asked by the Beijinger about the demands of starring in such a big budget flick – for which he plays the lead role of soft-spoken wizard Newt Scamander – Redmayne joked that using one of the key props was both a dream come true and a waking nightmare. "The weird thing about having a magic wand is, as an actor, you feel like you've been waiting all your life for that moment, but the second I actually held the wand it felt awkward and stiff. So we went to wizarding school and became proficient on the first day of rehearsals, but eventually we got weird injuries like wizard's elbow, and wand wrist."

Redmayne went on to say that, all kidding aside, using a wand "was a huge amount of fun, one of the most enjoyable parts of the film."

His co-star Waterston was all the more charming, sporting an Anne Hathaway-esque cropped hairdo and an elegant scarlet gown for the occasion. She asked the crowd about Redmayne's Chinese nickname, 小雀斑 (Xiǎo quèbān, Little Freckles), before imploring the fans to give her and the other castmates equally adorable monikers when they return to promote the next film in the series.

Both Waterston and Redmayne spent much of their time signing autographs for the throngs of screaming fans and complimenting many of those attendees on their keen eye for cosplay. Producer David Heyman was also visibly moved by a pair of those fans, one wearing a black Hogwarts-style cape and another sporting the same trench coat worn by Waterston in Fantastic Beasts. They handed the veteran showbiz insider – who secured the film rights to the Harry Potter book series before producing each of those theatrical installments – a bag labelled "a gift from the Beijing Quidditch Club," containing some homemade gifts like postcards, a bracelet with the club's logo on it, and a stuffed panda. Quidditch is of course the famed magic-infused rugby-style game featured prominently in the series, which the pair's recreate on the football field at their school with their classmates. One of those fans was named Yan Yidi, and she told TBJ that she wanted to tell the producer about the her Quidditch Club so that he'd know "there are a lot of people that love the magic world they created."

Later Heyman praised Harry Potter creator and author JK Rowling, who made her screenwriting debut with Fantastic Beasts, telling the crowd that "she writes characters that we can all relate to, and this is a film with many characters who are outsiders, and from that I think the theme of tolerance is one of the big takeaways from this movie."

Meanwhile director David Yates (a longtime contributor to series, having directed four of its installments) made a statement that delighted the hardcore Potter contingent, recalling the pivotal scene he shot for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the last installment of the franchise, in which the lead characters stand on bridge and say goodbye. "When they tell each other 'nothing will ever quite be the same,' and [actress] Emma [Watson] bows her head as she remembers everything ... it's a very beautiful bit of acting from Emma, and we shot that scene toward the end of our schedule, when we were saying goodbye to working on these movies. So they weren't just acting in that moment, but as people they were saying goodbye to being the experience in Harry Potter. That scene will always stay with me."

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And it looks like many more such enthralling moments are still to come, judging by the lively banter and genuine enthusiasm exuded by Yates and the cast at the Beijing event, and the footage from the film's spellbinding trailer that was shown to the enchanted gathered fans.

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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
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Images: Kyle Mullin, Weying Technology Co., Yan Yidi