-You look sharp, buddy. Welcome back to our show.
Thank you for being here. -It's so nice to be here
and not in my office at home via Zoom.
-Yeah, Zooming, yeah. -Yeah.
-We have a live audience. -Actual live audience.
[ Cheers and applause ] -It's the best.
You have a big weekend coming up.
'Cause you just finished a run of "Cabaret."
-That's right, yeah. -In London.
I have a photo of you in "Cabaret."
Look at you. -Oh, yeah.
-Congrats on this.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-That is me under there somewhere.
-You were nominated for an Olivier Award on Sunday.
-Yeah. -That's fantastic.
-You know what, it's -- this is --
I played -- this looks
like a sort of bejeweled haute couture Skellington.
But actually this is --
I play the Emcee in "Cabaret,"
and I played it as a kid when I was at school.
So it's always been one of those lifelong dreams,
and the whole show was a dream.
So I'm thrilled.
Yeah, it's the sort of cherry on top of the --
Christmas cake? -Yeah, cherry on top.
Yeah. Cherry on top, yeah.
"Cabaret" is, you know --
It's a little -- It's a little dark.
-It's pretty dark.
-Your kids probably didn't -- didn't see it, did they?
-Well, my kids are like 5 and 4.
And I took them to the theater recently to see "Frozen,"
which they loved.
-"Frozen" is fantastic. -It's fantastic.
And they're sort of beginning to understand that I'm an actor.
And I say, "Daddy's doing a play
and doing a musical tune.
Do you want to come and see the theater?"
And they came.
They saw that scary costume, and that terrified them.
And so I showed them the stage.
And I kind of, you know, sang a little song for them.
And they're like, "That's great, Dad, but it's not 'Let It Go.'"
-No, it's not "Let It Go." It will never be "Let It Go."
-And more depressing is that, like, the songs from "Cabaret"
are like --
the song that I was listening on repeat learning it was like,
♪ Money makes the world go around ♪
But it's like a really dark sort of take on that.
And so my kids are like,
♪ Money makes the world go round ♪
No, No, No -- -Let's put on "Frozen."
Let's put on "Frozen." That's much better.
"Frozen 2," whatever you want. -Exactly.
-Your first acting role -- is this correct?
Was it "Oliver"? -Yeah.
Yes, gosh, you did your research.
-I did a little research. -Yeah, yeah.
-Who did you play in "Oliver"? Were you Oliver?
-It's still actually quite painful.
-Everyone has to start somewhere.
-And the other thing in "Oliver" is like,
you're either Oliver or you're Dodger
or you're one of the gang.
There are hundreds of children's parts.
But I had the famous part of the book boy,
who is not in the gang, isn't Oliver.
Has one line.
[ Cheers and applause ] -The book boy!
Oh, my God, we love the book boy.
Oh, my God, yeah.
That's our favorite character.
-The favorite character. I had one line.
And it went like this,
"Books you wanted from the bookseller, sir."
I had to come on. -Wow.
Nailed it.
[ Cheers and applause ] That's how you do it.
-But it was a big deal for me
and it was at the London Palladium,
which was like a huge theater in London.
And the first night that I went on, I delivered my line,
and I just walked very, very slowly off,
took about three minutes.
Sort of royal wave -- the director was like,
"Mate, this isn't -- You're not Oliver.
You're not Dodger."
-No, you're gonna break -- -"Get the hell off the stage."
-People are gonna remember the bookseller kid.
-Exactly. -"Here's your book, sir."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Slowly walk out.
But when you were first starting out,
you had some pretty famous roommates.
-True. -In L.A.
-It's been interesting.
So, about -- what was it -- 15 years ago when --
there's this thing in England in the winter.
It rains a lot. And in L.A.,
it's really sunny, and there's this thing called pilot season.
And so, all these kind of out-of-work
English actors go over to L.A. to try and get work,
which we tend not to get.
But what we would do is just, like, be in the sunshine
and then sort of call home and tell our families
that we were working incredibly hard.
-[ Laughs ] I get it. It's sunny out in L.A.
-It's sunny out in L.A.
But there was this group of us,
and some of us lived together, some of us didn't.
And -- But we would always go and hang out and play.
And none of us got jobs.
And then someone would get a job and sort of go stratospheric
and then the rest of us would sit back and --
-"What are we doing with our life?"
-Yeah.
-Play Ping-Pong. -There was a lot of Ping-Pong.
-These are people like Andrew Garfield?
-Andrew, very good at Ping-Pong.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Fierce, fierce Ping-Pong player, Garfield.
-Is he really? -Yeah, and I just remember
that he did once come -- you know when you play tennis
and someone comes with, like, a bag
and maybe with two rackets? -Yeah.
-I just remember once playing with Andrew and he turned up
with a Ping-Pong bat in a, like, case.
I was like, "He is not messing around."
But he's a very good Ping-Pong player.
-How is Robert Pattinson?
-Rob, I didn't play Ping-Pong with.
Jamie Dornan I played Ping-Pong with.
-Jamie Dornan too?
I mean, this is a house of studs.
I mean, what is going on? -Well, it's funny because --
[ Cheers and applause ]
There was this thing I read the other day
because Jamie and Rob have been promoting things recently,
they were being asked about this.
And I read something about like how Jamie was sort of
bemoaning the fact of how stressful
it was going to a club with Rob because everyone
would look at Rob and no one would look at him.
I was like, "Dude."
-You're Jamie -- -Try being me, man.
[ Laughter ]
Jamie, face of Calvin Klein,
billboards in New York, sort of six-pack.
I was like, "Dude, let's not." -Please, yeah.
Give me a break. -Cry me a river.
-A river, yeah. Also --
I read something that Robert Pattinson was saying
because he was promoting "The Batman."
And he was saying he would go to auditions
and sometimes you're in the audition
and there's someone in the room ahead of you auditioning
and either get applause or get a big reaction
and it makes you nervous
because you're like, "I got to follow that?"
And the door would open, and you would come out.
And he'd be like, "Oh, wow, you killed it again, buddy.
Congrats."
-He's not doing too badly, is he?
-No, he's not. He's doing okay.
-The thing about Rob and it was interesting,
'cause this whole bunch of us and there was Charlie Cox,
Tommy Sturridge --
A load of us who all have remained really good buddies.
But each of us had our own kind of audition technique.
And Rob and Tom's was always like whatever the scene
appears to be on the page, you do the complete opposite.
And so, I would be sitting outside,
and I thought it was a quiet, intimate scene
and I just hear sort of shrieks inside the room.
I was always -- We're basically all desperately
trying to find our way to like...
-Of course. -...stand out from the crowd.
-He would just open the door like,
"I'm not going to get that one."
[ Laughter ] -But good shrieks.
-Yeah, good shrieks, he tried.
I want to talk about the new film "Fantastic Beasts:
The Secrets of Dumbledore." [ Cheers and applause ]
-Can I quickly just tell one more story?
Because when we made "Fantastic Beasts,"
it was at the same studio that Rob was making "Batman."
-Oh, yeah. -And we shared a gym
because my character and my body is so buff.
[ Laughter ]
Anyway, one day I went to the gym,
and I walked in and there was this guy
with, like, a high ponytail.
Massive, doing the most extraordinary stunts
I've ever seen with his stunt director.
And it was that slightly embarrassing thing
when you're a skinny runt
and you go into a gym and there's someone --
and this is, like, the same gym that Jason Momoa goes to.
You're quite used to -- -I would walk the opposite way.
-And I walk in and this guy goes, "hi" and I go "hi"
and then I just sort of sit there watching him
do these incredible things
while I sort of weakly do a sit-up in the corner.
-You're like waving a wand in the corner.
[ Laughter ] -Gotta get my wand on.
-[ Grunting ] You're like, "I'm good."
-It was that. It was that.
Anyway, after 40 minutes of doing this,
I sort of -- not 40 minutes. 10 minutes.
I sort of scuttle off,
and as I'm going, this guy goes, "Bye, Eddie."
And I look back, and it was Rob.
And he was so physically changed and he had a man bun.
And what I had seen him do was so dumbfounding.
It was -- He completely transformed himself.
I felt very lucky to see him because "Batman"
is so brilliant and his work in it.
I felt really lucky to see his commitment.
-Isn't that fun to see?
I like seeing my friends at work.
-This was at 5:00 in the morning.
He's like sort of -- I was doing my wand lifting
and he was doing ferocious, hard-core fights.
-He went for it. Yeah. He did look different.
-It was very impressive.
-Speaking of impressive,
this is another "Fantastic Beasts:
The Secrets of Dumbledore."
I love watching you in any role that you play.
You always dive right in.
For this third installment, it's a giant film.
It's a giant deal.
Is there anything you could say about it or --
'cause I don't want to give away secrets.
-What I love about this one is it feels like
it's a sort of wizarding heist movie.
It's kind of like "Oceans 11."
-But for young family.
-In a wizarding, like, world. -Yes, I love that.
I love that. Yes.
-Is that a way to try and --
-Yeah, it's a perfect way to sell it.
-And Jude Law, who plays Dumbledore,
is basically George Clooney and I'm Brad Pitt.
[ Laughter ] -And that's -- So he's George,
you're Brad and that's -- -Can't you see the similarity?
-Yes, exactly right. -Aspirational.
-You know what?
I was going to ask you -- every time you're here --
I don't mean to bother you. You don't have to do this.
But you always either bring me something
from the set that you've learned
or a magic trick you showed me once
or something you had to physically do in the movie.
Do you have any embarrassing things?
-It's worse than that.
Because I feel that on the first movie,
they made me do a mating dance with basically a rhino.
[ Laughter ] And then I came
and taught it to you. -Oh, please.
-Which was wonderful to be able
to throw the humiliation on to you.
And I feel like now in each of these movies,
they literally write something to humiliate me
and when I read it, I go,
"That's horrendous but great
because I get to teach it to Jimmy."
[ Laughter ] [ Cheers and applause ]
-What did you do this movie? -So, in this movie,
there are these little critters called manticores
and they kind of look like --
they look like sweet little lobsters.
But they're actually terrifying.
And in order to kind of calm these little manticores,
I have to sort of adopt their movement.
[ Laughter ]
So would you -- Can I teach it to you?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have to.
It's a tradition.
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's a tradition now at this point, yeah.
-I feel like last time we did this,
you split your pants.
[ Laughter ] Or I did.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, I did. Yeah, I did.
-So, we might need to prep. -Okay.
-Prep your trousers. -Yep, okay.
My trousers are pretty prepped.
-Okay. -Okay.
-Alright. -So you start with a...lunge.
[ Laughter ] [ Cheers and applause ]
-Do it again, do it again. -Do it again?
Start tall, start tall.
They're not suspecting it and then a...lunge.
[ Cheers and applause ] This is good.
And now -- Now, once you're down here,
and this is why I was in the gym
because you need those -- -It's all core right now.
-Those glutes and core.
So you then gently...move out. [ Cheers and applause ]
Can you do that? -Don't look.
Do it again.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Yeah. -And now --
now you have to start moving this way.
-I'm going to give you an obscure fact about
your character or the wizarding world -- universe in general.
And you have to tell me if you think
that statement is true or false.
It might get a little tricky,
'cause your character has a pretty wild backstory.
Are you ready for this? -I am. Go for it.
-Okay. -Hit me.
-American wiz-- And you guys can help.
Or maybe not. Up to you, up to you.
American wizards use -- American wizards use currency
known as dragots and sprinks.
[ Audience shouting "False!" ]
-Oh, guys, you are so helpful.
Thank you. False.
-That is true, actually. [ Buzzer ]
I sold that. I sold sprinks funny on purpose.
-But it was such confidence from the audience.
-I know, I know. I was like, "Sprinks."
Yeah, I hit that, but that was --
Yeah, that actually is true.
Dragots and sprinks -- American wizards.
There you go. -Perfect.
-Your character, Newt Scamander,
once had a relationship with a hippogriff named Buckbeak.
-A relationship? That's all kinds of dodgy.
-Yeah, a relationship.
It could be platonic.
-Well, I remember Newt's mom bred and raised hippogriffs.
So I'm going to go with true.
-False. We know... [ Buzzer ]
So far, you're doing great.
-That's, like, a really cruel audience.
-No, they're doing -- They're playing with us.
It's really good. I love this. Thank you, guys.
I love this.
Alright, a new word was created for
the "Fantastic Beasts" movie, shriekelnoir,
which is a magical ability to
change size to fit into small spaces.
-No, and I love that I know this,
because there was a word called choranaptyxic.
-That's correct. [ Buzzer ]
That is correct. That's not a buzzer.
That's a correct. [ Ding ]
Yeah, that's -- That is exactly right.
-Thank you.
-How do you pronounce it?
-Choranaptyxic. But I love that you just told me
that it was invented, because I thought it was a real word.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was invented.
Yeah, just for you.
Alright, here we go.
Newt was expelled from Hogwarts for using a spell
that turned his professor's hands into crab claws.
-Newt was expelled from Hogwarts,
but as far as I'm aware, not for my sort of "Karate Kid" dance.
-That is correct. It's false. Yeah, that is correct.
Yes, you're right.
He was not expelled for that reason, no.
Newt Scamander's middle name is Fido.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-Yeah, it is true. Yeah. [ Ding ]
-Fido Artemis. -Fido Artemis.
I like that.
Newt is actually able to temporarily transform himself
into a fantastic beast known as snardvark.
-I'm desperate for it to be yes.
But -- Can we suggest that for "Fantastic Beasts 4?"
-Yeah, yeah. You're correct.
-But the great thing about these movie is that they're magic.
You can do anything. -It's all magic. It's all magic.
Alright, this is good. You're doing great.
You're back. You're back. -Thanks, man. Back in the room.
-Here we go.
Which of the following beasts is not featured in Newt's book?
Glumbumble, nogtail, niffler,
gugengoggle...
chizpurfle.
-You know, I think the cameraman is laughing.
-I don't know which one he's laughing at, but yeah.
-The gugengoggle. -That is correct.
Gugengoggle is not true.
This guy know his stuff!
You know your role. Eddie Redmayne, everybody!