Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne has revealed he had a passion for magic as a child.
The British actor is reprising his role as wizard Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald and appeared on US talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday.
Redmayne, 36, told Fallon that as a child growing up in London, he was “embarrassingly” into tricks and even invited a magician to his 18th birthday party.
.@FantasticBeasts' Eddie Redmayne shows off some real-life magic for Studio 6B! #FallonTonight https://t.co/AFyG0YBhDE pic.twitter.com/7yeYxgQvj1
— Fallon Tonight (@FallonTonight) November 8, 2018
He said: “I was properly, embarrassingly into magic as a kid. You know how kids have magicians for their birthday, but normally until about the age of eight, nine, maybe pushing it 10, 11?
“Age 15, 18, no-one came to the parties but I was still inviting magicians. I had a little brother who was about six years younger than me, it was the perfect audience so I could do magic tricks on him.”
The actor then performed an illusion for Fallon, having him pick a card at random before having it appear again in a sealed envelope.
Redmayne will star alongside Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore and Johnny Depp as the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in the latest Fantastic Beasts film, a sequel to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald will be released in the UK on November 16.