Eddie Redmayne Shares His Biggest Fear About Filming Fantastic Beasts

Anticipation continues to mount for the November premiere of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne’s turn as the legendary magizoologist Newt Scamander. It’s a lot of pressure on one actor, with a rabid global fandom chomping at the bit — and, perfectionist that he is, Redmayne revealed he did have a main concern going into filming.

“My fear was doing a lot of green screen, because I have quite a dodgy imagination,” Redmayne told the New York Times. (For non-Anglophiles: “dodgy” translates as “unreliable.”)

To get around this small personal flaw, Redmayne even asked an animator to get into character as one of the creatures and act out the beast’s mannerisms on set, all so that Redmayne could really get a feel for the CGI character and perform at his best in the face of a blank green screen.

Redmayne also shared some inside information on a few of the creatures we’ll find in the movie, including what they look like (bowtruckles appear as a kind of cousin to the classic stick insect) and have distinctive mannerisms. (Hint: for Harry Potter know-it-alls: nifflers can be subdued with some tummy tickling.)

Clearly, the Beasts team knows its audience won’t stand for anything other than absolute attention to detail.

Read more at the New York Times.