Eddie Redmayne practised talking to his Fantastic Beasts on the tube

He won an Oscar for ‘The Theory of Everything’ and now he’s the face of JK Rowling’s five-movie wizarding franchise set in 1920s New York, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’. But Eddie Redmayne is still your regular Londoner getting the tube to work.

Talking to Time Out ahead of the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ release in cinemas next Friday, the 34-year-old confessed to rehearsing his role as eccentric magician Newt Scamander on his morning commute, in particular his lines with the stick-insect-like Bowtruckle beastie: ‘I’d be on the tube, imagining talking to this thing, and suddenly realise I’m being stared at.’ Potterheads will know his character Newt as the author of the Hogwarts textbook 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'. Although the film is set in New York, it was mostly filmed at the Leavesden Studios just outside London. 

People thinking he’s a little bit odd isn’t Redmayne’s only hassle on the tube. There’s also the occasional problem of a fellow commuter trying to take a sneaky photo of him with their phone. ‘There’s the odd surreptitious one, which is funny because you have this incredibly embarrassing thing: the flash goes off, you look up and they look, and then you have this awkward 40 seconds to the next stop.’ 

In other ‘Fantastic Beasts’ news, the film’s producer David Heyman has confirmed that Johnny Depp will be playing dark wizard and Dumbledore’s nemesis Gellert Grindelwald in the second film. 

Read our 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' interview with Eddie Redmayne

Andy Parsons for Time Out