Eddie Redmayne has some big shoes to fill as the face of the next installment in the Harry Potter franchise. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, if it does well, could launch another series of movies (and let’s be real, with fans as ravenous as Potterheads, there’s no way this movie is going to flop).

Today Collider published an in-depth interview with the star himself in which he opened up about what it was like to be part of such a huge story, his character Newt Scamander, how Fantastic Beasts differs from the rest of the Potter universe, and what it was like to work alongside completely computer-generated characters. The whole interview is worth a read, but here are some highlights:

On being a Brit on American soil:

here are Americanisms and Newt is an Englishman in New York in the 1920s. He’s been in the field for a year. And so suddenly, he arrives in New York and everything is so huge. I remember the first time I went to New York when I was about eight or nine and staying at this hotel and just opening the window and just seeing Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in front of you and then just these buildings flying up and being kind of totally overwhelmed by it. There were things I related to, certainly, in this sort of American-British thing.

On working opposite computer-generated co-stars:

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. [Source]

Eddie Redmayne knows how to please a crowd.

Thousands of “Harry Potter” fans gathered in Hall H during San Diego Comic-Con to catch a glimpse of the actor, who plays Newt Scamander in the upcoming “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” and boy, did he deliver the goods.

After he was introduced by Conan O’Brien, the Oscar winner ran into the crowd and handed out wands to everyone there. According to BuzzFeed, Hall H holds about 6,500 people. That’s a lot of wands. The actor did have a little help, though.

Naturally, the crowd was loving it. I mean, who wouldn’t love getting a free wand from the one and only Newt Scamander? We bet they were really magic, too.

As if that weren’t enough, Redmayne led the crowd in casting a “Lumos Maxima!” spell to turn all the lights on, and premiered a new trailer for the “Harry Potter” spinoff movie. The one thing he didn’t do was provide any info about potential Easter eggs in the film. We can’t have everything. [Source]

Eddie Redmayne is Prada’s latest campaign face. The Italian brand rolled out its ad campaign for the fall men’s wear collection, shot by Craig McDean and featuring the Oscar-winning actor, via Instagram on Monday morning.

Redmayne won the Academy Award in 2015 for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.” He was nominated this year for his leading role in “The Danish Girl.”

Prada has a preference for featuring a mix of both up-and-coming talent and established, of-the-moment actors. Last summer the company’s men’s wear ads included Tye Sheridan and Michael Shannon; this spring saw Matthew Beard, Billy Howle and Logan Lerman in its campaigns. Prada has previously cast Ethan Hawke, Ansel Elgort, Gary Oldman, Willem Dafoe, Jack O’Connell and Miles Teller. [Source]

Eddie Redmayne will reveal new footage from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards on Sunday, April 10.

Fantastic Beasts follows Redmayne’s Newt Scamander, a magizoologist with a suitcase full of magical creatures, as he visits New York City in 1928. When some of those creatures get loose and begin terrorizing the No-Majes (American Muggles), Scamander finds himself at odds with the governing body of America’s wizarding community, the Magical Congress of the United States.

Eddie Redmayne was born to play magizoologist Newt Scamander in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” according to producer David Heyman.

”Eddie was our first choice,” Heyman told tv3. “He’s very good at playing characters that are out of step, as it were, and bringing to them a real heart and compassion. He has a desire to bring truth to every moment. He’s very charming and appealing to men and women alike. And he’s a timeless actor, so he fits perfectly into 1920s New York.”

The film, written by J.K. Rowling, follows Scamander, a Ministry of Magistry employee who accidently unleashes a briefcase full of magical creatures upon NYC in the roaring twenties. Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell and Ezra Miller also star.

”Newt is someone who can communicate better with his creatures than he does with people,” Heyman said of Redmayne’s character. “He’s a Brit who finds himself in the US and the American magical universe is different to the British one.”

Redmayne said shooting the film, which wrapped last month, was “a wonder.”

“It’s just unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of,” Redmayne said. “It’s like imagination taken to the extreme.”

Rowling was intimately involved with the production process. According to Heyman, ”We’d run concepts by her, she’d give her thoughts and we’d adjust accordingly. She certainly was aware of all the lead casting choices before we finalized them.”

Redmayne said he asked Rowling “800 questions” to prepare for the role.

“I met J.K. Rowling and what’s so amazing is that her imagination is so full and thorough — it’s so encyclopedic of her world,” he told ComingSoon.net.

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” directed by David Yates, opens Nov. 18, 2016. [Source]

Guests transitioned from near-blinding camera flashes on the red carpet into a dimly lit room for cocktails at Mack Sennett Studios, where Omega’s Globemaster timepieces were in full display.

The new, anti-magnetic movement was one star of the evening. The other reason for the dinner in Los Angeles Tuesday evening was for the Swiss watchmaker to officially reveal Eddie Redmayne, who inked a deal with the company last year, as its latest brand ambassador. Though despite the title, Redmayne appeared to be more off duty that evening with a spokeswoman for the watch brand saying the actor would not be doing any press interviews.

Still, Omega’s choice for its latest face was strategic in a bid to keep the brand relevant amid a younger base of potential watch wearers.

“We felt for this product and this new message we want to get across, he would be a good spokesperson for us so I think it’s a good match,” Omega president Stephen Urquhart told WWD.

Redmayne joins other celebrity ambassadors for the brand, including George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Cindy Crawford and Nicole Kidman, along with a large roster of athletes.

“I think Eddie is sort of a new generation…but very serious,” Urquhart continued. “He does some very, you know, risky films like ‘The Danish Girl.’ So I think it’s a good addition coming to our image for Omega.”

Elsewhere in the Omega business, Urquhart said additional stores are in the works but was cagey about the specifics when prodded for more details other than to say “We have one or two planned but I can’t say [where] at the moment yet.” [Source]

Eddie Redmayne is watching this year’s Best Actor race at the Oscars very closely — but he’s not rooting for exactly whom you’d think he would be.

Redmayne, who won the Oscar last year for “The Theory of Everything” and is nominated again this year for his work in “The Danish Girl,” is expecting to go home empty-handed this year — and he’s fine with that, as he found himself decidedly on Team Leo.

The British actor reportedly told the Telegraph magazine that his money is on fellow nominee Leonardo DiCaprio taking home the trophy for his work in “The Revenant.”

“[DiCaprio is] definitely going to win and should. I feel excited just to be invited to the party, frankly,” Redmayne said. “For me to be considered in the group of nominees, with [Matt] Damon, DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender and Bryan Cranston — it feels amazing.”

But don’t worry, even if he loses to DiCaprio, he’ll still have a great time: “Going to the Oscars is always the most sensory overload and a huge amount of fun,” he said. [Source]

Eddie Redmayne’s acclaimed performance as a transgender pioneer has put him in the running for a second consecutive Oscar… and with a starring role in the new Harry Potter spin-off, and a baby on the way, the actor is having a golden moment

Eddie Redmayne has a reputation for being one of the nicest actors in the business. Alicia Vikander, his co-star in The Danish Girl, has said he is ‘the most sweet, gentle human being ever’; Tom Hooper, the film’s director, thinks Redmayne is ‘Hugh Jackman-level nice’.

I have interviewed him once before and, charmingly, he remembers this, but he doesn’t recall quite when it was. I tell him it was in 2009, he was on stage at the Donmar Warehouse opposite Alfred Molina in the sensational two-hander about Mark Rothko’s Seagram murals, and he jumps out of his seat. ‘Red. Awww, I loved Red,’ he says. ‘2009! It feels like only yesterday. Doesn’t it feel like yesterday?’

This is probably because he has been rather busy in the intervening years. He won an Olivier for his performance in Red. It transferred to Broadway and he won a Tony. In 2011 he starred with Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn, based on the true story of Colin Clark, a young production assistant on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl who struck up an unlikely friendship with Marilyn Monroe. The same year Redmayne was back on stage at the Donmar as Richard II, for which he won Best Shake­spearean Performance at the Critics’ Circle Awards.