Eddie Redmayne was initiated into the Harry Potter universe as Newt Scamander: famed Magizoologist and the protagonist of spin-off fantasy movie series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
However, this wasn’t the first time he tried to get an on-screen role in a Harry Potter movie, as he revealed during an interview with Empire that he actually auditioned for a part in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: the second movie in the franchise. “I actually auditioned to play Tom Riddle when I was back at university,” he said. “I properly failed and didn’t get a call back. Over the years I always hoped I might be cast as a member of the Weasley family, but unfortunately not.”
Tom Riddle, who ended up being played by Christian Coulson in the adventure movie, is the true name of Lord Voldemort. Prior to becoming the Dark Lord, he was a Slytherin student at Hogwarts. In The Chamber of Secrets, he used the diary he kept when he was sixteen years old to corrupt Ginny Weasley and to attempt to lure Harry Potter to his death.
Although Redmayne missed out on playing the iconic villain, it looks like everything turned out for the best, as he praises his character Newt’s “empathy” in an interview with The AU Review. “I adore Newt,” he said. “I love that he’s an incredibly empathetic person. He looks for the good in people.”
“There are various epithets, things that he said which I now try and live by. One is that worrying means you suffer twice, which was in the first movie. And there’s something that he says to Dumbledore in this piece, which I adore. I’m butchering it here, but we all make mistakes in life, but you can try and make things better. And it’s the trying that counts. It’s the aspiring to make things better.”
Fantastic Beasts 3 is now available on digital release and to purchase as a DVD or Blu-Ray.