Eddie Redmayne went full method actor to select his wand in Fantastic Beasts

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The wand chooses the wizard, or so the people say. But what if those people are dirty rotten liars? Clearly they are, because there are no such things as magical wands or wizards. That’s baby stuff for babies, and you’re a baby if you believe in them. Sorry, I was channeling my father there for a second. But the wand bit has a basis, I promise you.

That basis comes in the form of an interview Eddie Redmayne gave to EW, where he described how he actually chose his wand for his role in FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM, and it did not in fact choose him (right again, dad). What Redmayne solidified in the process was that he is fully capable of going full Daniel Day-Lewis, completely immersing himself into the role of Newt Scamander, and everything that comes with it:

I sort of assumed that I would have a wand sort of plopped in my hand. But the reality is that these amazing props designers come, and then you have really a quite intricate discussion with [director] David Yates about what qualities Newt has. He’s not a showy guy, Newt, so I wanted it be to quite simple. So we decided to have the wand be made out of ashwood, and it has quite a few scratches and sort of burn marks — so that you could get the sense that he’s been traveling the world with it, and it’s got quite a history to it.”

But for the handle, they were sort of talking about whether it should be horn or leather, and I didn’t like the idea of like animal products being used, given that he’s a zoologist. So in the end, they came up with this idea of sand shell… and it has a slightly mother-of-pearly feel. So we had all these discussions and went back and forth with designs, and when the thing arrived I was pretty excited. My inner 9-year-old was having a disco, and then I was actually presented with it!”

That, my friends, is serious dedication. He didn’t just say “that one” when selecting his wand. He took time to think about what his character would look for in his wand, and how it would look given how Scamander would’ve used it up to this point. That’s such immense detail over something almost no one is going to be able to notice without having a close-up image of it. But as I said, that’s true dedication from a dedicated actor. If the rest of the movie was made with an equal level of detail and love, FANTASTIC BEASTS will surely live up to the HARRY POTTER standards.

FANTASTIC BEASTS magically graces the screen on November 18 starring Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell, Dan Fogler, Katherine Waterston, Samantha Morton and Ezra Miller.