Author J.K. Rowling is nervous for everyone’s reaction about her new film “Fantastic Beasts,” in which she’s challenged herself by diving into the screenplay writing process for the first time.
Rowling is hoping the Potter fandom loves the new Eddie Redmayne film, as much as the Potter verse, and admits that there’s four more installments of the Fantastic Beasts series to look forward to.
The Knockturnal attended the film’s Global Press Conference in New York. Read what J.K. told attendees about the film!
Q: Tell us when you started to think that you wanted to revisit this the world of Harry Potter on the big screen and why did you decide to do the screenplay yourself?
J.K. Rowling: I knew that Warner Brothers wanted to do something with Fantastic Beasts, they’d optioned it a long time ago. And when I wrote the little book that I wrote for charity, the character of Newt appealed to me and has often happened with the Potter-verse and I had had some thoughts about what had happened to Newt and who Newt was, and I don’t think at that stage I ever imagined writing a screenplay. Then when [they] came to me saying that they did now want to do something with Fantastic Beasts I thought “wait a minute,” I better tell them what I’ve got because I wouldn’t want them to get Newt wrong, because I knew I liked him and then before I knew it I’d actually written it. I sat down to write some notes, and then I wrote a story and then that story became a screenplay. So it was never really a calculated “I think I want to revisit the world,” it came the way these things always do, through a story.
Q: Obviously doing a screenplay is very different then a novel, did you read books on screenplay writing, did people help you?
J.K. Rowling: I did buy a book that I never read. It just sat on my desk. I don’t really know, I think I felt like that was my homework, but I hadn’t actually done my homework. Maybe I just thought I would absorb it somehow … I was very involved with Potter scripts, as much as I had certain approval and I spoke a lot to Steve Kloves about what he was doing, so I’d say Steve was my teacher … and the reason I was so keen to have him attached to this project, because I knew he could be the guy I could phone at 4 am, if I needed. I never phoned him at 4 am but suppose I could, I think he would be okay with that.
Q: You could if you wanted to.
J.K. Rowling: Just to wake him up?
Q: He’d have to talk your call.
J.K. Rowling: No, I wouldn’t do it just because I could. I would have to be pretty desperate to phone him at 4 am.
Q: You’ve managed once again to switch up a story so full of emotions and I wonder how you do it every time and if you actually have a secret potion yourself that you drink before.
J.K. Rowling: That’s a really kind thing to say and you never know you’re doing it until it’s done. I don’t yet know what the reaction to this movie will be. I am proud it. That’s the most you can say as a creator … And if you can say that, you can say everything. I would love for everyone else to love it as much as we do, but the sad truth is, the boring answer is, it’s partly inspiration, it’s partly a lot of hard work. That’s it. Always.
Q: What would be a harder decision: to jump on and create a brand new universe or to not give give all those Harry Potter fans much more of this [Harry Potter]. What would be harder?
J.K. Rowling: Well, I feel since the end of Harry Potter that there was still a huge hunger for more. And I think it would be easy to say, then I’ll just keep producing but I never was that person. I planned seven books, I knew exactly what I wanted to write, and that story was finished. But as I said at the start of this conference I always had some ideas about Newt and I was intrigued by Newt, and the truth is when I was asked, will you write more, at the back of my mind was Newt. I thought maybe that, one day, so here we are. And I think that’s the best way. This is what I really, really wanted to write. This hadn’t been created in response to a need or an awareness that I could write more, this has been created because this is something that I really wanted to write. And I hope that when people see the movie, they will understand that it grew out of certain things that were very important to me anywhere in the world at the moment.
Q: The starts with Newt coming from London to New York, and I think that what we’re most curious about is that when New York audiences are going to get to see Cursed Child and when that will come and if you have anything else up your sleeve for the stage. Well we see Fantastic Beasts [on the stage] one day or any other property.
J.K. Rowling: There are no plans to put Fantastic Beasts on stage. Let us do the movies! Cursed Child we do very much hope that it will come to Broadway but I have no dates to tell you yet, but certainly we hope so.
Q: It’s been confirmed Dumbledore is in the sequel and I’m curious in that movie will he be portrayed as openly gay and will you explore his romantic relationship with Grindelwald.
J.K. Rowling: Well, I’m very comfortable with the question. I can’t tell you everything I would like to say, because this is obviously a five part story, so there’s lots to unpack in that relationship. I will say that you will see Dumbledore as a younger man and quite a troubled man because he wasn’t always his age, and he was always very clever and he was, we’ll see him in what I think is the formative period of his life. As far as his sexuality is concerned, watch this space.
Q: Of course after the Potter books you started to experiment with other mediums the play the screenplay, was it a conscious decision for you to stay away from the book route when you started experimenting these other mediums? And what do you see when you see the impact your books have had on other people of all ages and around the world?
J.K. Rowling: To take your second question first, if I’m very honest with you it is an enormous honor to have anyone, one individual say to you your work has been a place of refuge or it has been my escape or it helped me make sense of something, I’m often told it that makes sense of bereavement, which is unsurprising … the Potter books were largely about death. Having said that, I try not to focus too much on what other people think about the work. It’s healthy to be interested in what other people think because you learn … But ultimately you have to be true to what you want to do, the work you wanted to do, so I think it’s a mistake to almost be focus group driven as is were. The first part of your question, novels remain my first love. I’m still writing novels. I am. This is why I look so tired. I’m writing a novel and a screenplay … so novels are my first love. But if I hadn’t enjoyed ultimately for all the tricky bits writing a first screenplay so much, I wouldn’t have said I’d keep writing.
Q: How did you decide which beasts you wanted to include in the movie and how involved were you with the design of the creatures.
J.K. Rowling: The beasts were interesting because I think a couple of beasts were always in the movie and then we swapped a couple as we went, just because we thought it would make it more interesting. There were some escapades that we wanted to put in so we swapped a couple of beasts. It just felt better, I won’t say too much, but I think everyone is going to want a Niffler after this. I want a Niffler. We all want Niffler’s. As far as the design is concerned, I was involved and I saw everything, we had the most extraordinary creative team. They’ve done such beautiful work on this movie. It’s been amazing.
Q: You were very vocal yesterday about the election of Donald Trump, and I wanted to talk a little about how your feeling on that election relate to some of the themes in Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter.
J.K. Rowling: I think I don’t want to say anymore specifically about yesterday right now because we’re here for the movie that we’ve all worked so hard on and I would like to talk about that and I think today might be a day to focus on some good things and putting some good things out into the world. As far as themes are concerned, this story was conceived a few years ago so I can’t make any direct relationship to anything that happened yesterday. But I will say that this first movie shows how the five actors on stage, are playing five characters, who were drawn into a situation that none of them expected. And as often happened in the potter books, they often had to make some choices about how to deal with something that you glimpse, for the first time in this movie and it will obviously become a significant factor going forward. And if you have read the Potter books you’ll know this period in history was threatened to become very distopic, so you’re looking at the rise of a very dark force. But as I say, I conceived the story as few years ago and it was partly formed by what I see as a rise of populism around the world. But I can’t say anything specifically about yesterday because I’ve been planning this story for a long time.
Q: I heard that you went through several drafts for the screenplay, and some of them being very dark…
J.K. Rowling: One of them was really dark. There was also of stuff in the sewers, I don’t know what was going on in my life at that moment, but I just remember David saying “this is very dark,” he’s never—everything everyone’s saying about David is so true, he’s so kind … but he goes “this is a very dark draft” … you need to lighten up a little. But yes, that’s always my process for screen writing, I tend to generate a lot of material and some of the ideas from some of those drafts I’m sure will be in following movies but that just seems to be how I work generating a lot of material.
Q: Can you talk about the pressures of the fan expectation about going back into the Potter verse?
J.K. Rowling: No one has seen the movie yet, so the fan reaction that I’ve seen has seen has spanned lot of different responses I suppose. I can’t wait the people to see it, I really can’t we’re very proud of what we’ve made and you know this is just the beginning. It’s a five part movie. I know which characters are coming next and I know what’s coming. This is chapter one and I think people will like what’s coming. I hope so. And I’m not going down the sewers though. I read between the lines, there’s not a lot of market for spending a lot of time in sewers apparently.
Q: Not to make any more nervous than you were before but it’s been nine years since the last Potter and five years since the last movie, do you have any words of encouragement for the hardcore fans that are still skeptical. I know half of you are Harry Potter fans and I know half of you created it…do you have any words of encouragement for those who are hesitant that this world they all all so feel protective of is coming back and off-shoot with nothing to do with Harry.
J.K. Rowling: It’s true that Harry is not in the movie, because he’s not born yet. But this is very much of the world and there are characters, you will learn more about through Fantastic Beasts. I’m being so careful … you know this is Potter… There’s a certain glory in writing a standalone novel where you can say anything you want. Now I’m back in top secret territory again. But as far as reassurance goes, I think we’ve done the very best job we can and I’ve certainly told a story I really wanted to tell and I can’t think of any better reason to tell a story and I hope the people love it. I think we’ve got a cast with more chemistry than I could’ve dreamt of. People up here and other members of our cast to have produced such extraordinary work on this movie and it touches me to hear what Alison just said about the kindness because I think everyone—I’m still in touch with so many people from the Potter movies— and they all have such happy memories of that time. We all do. It was a family. And what Dan just said as well about his reception at Comic Con. This has been a very generous fandom in many, many, many ways and I hope they take these guys to their hearts as much because I think they really deserve it.
Q: Can you talk a bit about the importance of friendship in your stories. How we’ve gone from this unforgettable trio of Harry Potter movies to the quartet that we have now and also how your characters seem to be outsider and unlikely heroes?
J.K. Rowling: We definitely do have an unlikely hero who goes to New York and in some senses he’s every man. He gets drawn to something as we all do in life, that he wasn’t planning to become a part of. But he is very much an outsider of sorts, as Eddie said so truly. Newt really isn’t a guy who has a lot of friends. He’s very British. He needed to go to America to be taught that people were likable. He’s not really a people a guy. He’s much more comfortable with things that are spiky … and he meets his antithesis in Jacob who is the most likable, naturally likeable guy. But who doesn’t really realize what he’s got. Jacob doesn’t really think he’s a big deal, so that was a very interesting idea to me and that’s the basis for our friendships in this. So it’s quartet rather than a trio in this movie, which was fun to write. I was fun to write two big female roles as well. I really enjoyed that, and I enjoyed writing sisters. You know I’m one of a pair of sisters so I won’t say too much more because I want to be able to go home unscathed.
Q: Your story is just as magical to people as what you write. Just say a few words to people who are trying to get into writing and/or are facing hard times and can you give us a glimpse into your writing process. Is it mornings or late nights, how do you do it?
J.K. Rowling: As far as writing is concerned, I need to do it. I feel strange if I don’t write. Clearly, I don’t need to write anymore and I love it so much, it would feel like almost some sort of psychic amputation if I didn’t so basically I have to write. As far as hard times are concerned, I never forget how incredibly fortunate I am. I genuinely, I get up every day and I think I do that thing I love and I have a wonderful family. I’m the luckiest person I know. And I would wish the same for everyone who’s out there working hard and trying to deal with life which is tricky for all of us, no matter who we are. And my writing process … I will say that we flew out here yesterday evening. I can write any where, at any time. And I think I served quite a hard apprenticeship as this lone parent, when I really decided I was going to finish that first book and try. I can write with the TV on in the background. I can write half answering my kids’ questions, I have written a surprising amount of one chapter actually on the lavatory—which is the only place I can get temporary peace, and last night I was in kind of a bleak mood, boarding the plane, and I thought I need to work so I got out the second screenplay and did some work on that and that made me feel a lot better, so I can write all the time, any time.
The film hits theaters on November 18.
