Weekly Roundup: Moving on From Ginny, Campaigning for Mental Health & More

Apr 28, 2017

Posted by: Emma Pocock

Actor Interviews, Bradley, Fantastic Beasts Movie, Felton, Film Awards, Honors/Awards, HP Cast, Interviews, Lynch, Margoyles, News, Pattinson, Pattinson Interviews, Spall Interviews, Tennant, Thewlis, Waterston, Wright

This week has seen the potential casting of Newt’s brother (Theseus Scamander) in Fantastic Beasts, Evanna Lynch returning to the stage in a Disco Pigs revival this summer, Jude Law speaking on his excitement to play Dumbledore and other projects, announcements of an 85th birthday tribute concert for John Williams, Tom Felton with The Flash at Silicon Valley Comic Con, awards for Fantastic Beasts composer James Newton Howard, and advice from Cursed Child playwright Jack Thorne. What’s more, J.K. Rowling has started teasing information from the next Fantastic Beasts film again, saying that Newt Scamander’s patronus is ‘a big spoiler’!

In this week’s actor roundup we bring news from Bonnie Wright’s latest project Phone Calls, David Tennant supporting mental health campaigns, an interview with Robert Pattinson, Johnny Depp surprising guests at Disneyland and much more:

Bonnie Wright Talks Moving on From Harry Potter

Bonnie Wright is currently in the throes of promoting Phone Calls – a short series which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this month. Bustle recently caught up with Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) to talk about acting, charity work, producing and directing since working on Potter, and what the series gave to her: 

“It’s given me the foundation of so much, and inspired me to work within this industry — it just opened up a world to me that I didn’t even know existed […] But at the same time, it’s not totally defining me, because I know there’s other stories I want to tell, and characters I want to inhabit.”

“The beauty of Harry Potter is that it has such a positive impact on so many people’s loves. People aren’t trying to find a negative within it — they’re pretty much, like 99.9 percent of the time, super excited and positive towards it and therefore are [also positive] as to what we’ve all gotten done in our next stages,” the actor says. “I just feel really lucky that most people are genuinely really excited about what I’m doing and they want to be involved in any way.”

She also spoke about her admiration for Ginny, saying she wished there had been more scenes of her playing Quidditch to show her warrior side and give her more depth in the films. Read the full interview here!

David Tennant Joins Mental Health Campaign

David Tennant (Barty Crouch Jr) is supporting the #1in4 campaign, for the BBC’s Minds Matter season to encourage people to talk about mental illness. Tennant, Broadchurch costar Olivia Coleman and actor Tom Hardy amongst others have all posted selfies with four fingers held up with the hashtag to spread the word.

Alison Kirkham, helping to guide the program, said:

“I’m delighted that so many high profile people have come together to raise awareness of this important cause. One in four of us experience mental health problems in any given year and both this campaign and our season of programming across the BBC are aimed at exploring what we can all do to look after ourselves, support each other and ultimately, inspire us all to think differently about mental health.”

Read more about the campaign here, and more on the celebrities supporting it here.

Interview with Robert Pattinson on Lost City of Z

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Collider sat down with Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory) for an exclusive interview to talk about his character in Lost City of Z (which sounded like a pretty intense filming process), upcoming film High Life, superhero movies and more.

On being an actor and finding roles that resonate with him instead of being ‘pigeonholed’:

“The majority of time the producers or directors want to see you play a similar role already, whereas the only thing I really want to do is swing wildly from one end to the other [laughs]. But then I think after it’s just starting to kind settle into the kind of area that I want to be in. I knew it would take a long time, but like this year working with Claire Denis and I’m probably going to work—I don’t know if I can say it yet [laughs] […]  I think I’m going to do something with Antonio Campos as well.”

On how he got involved with James Gray’s Lost City of Z:

“I met James like a billion times over the years. He was in my top five of people I wanted to work with. I loved We Own the Night, Two Lovers and everything he’s done, really. Even when I just started acting that was the guy I wanted to work with. I’ve been attached to a bunch of different things with him.”

On superhero movies and earning trust as an actor in franchises:

“If I just did it now, I think producers on any superhero movie, I think they wouldn’t trust me to do it the way I’d want to do it, because I’d want to do something basically really strange. I think you have to earn that freedom to do stuff like that. So I think, if I keep kind of chipping away, trying to do good movies and interesting, strange movies then people will eventually trust you to do that on a bigger scale.

“I’d love to do a kind of superhero-y, graphic novel-y thing if it was an original piece. It’s a very different experience when there’s already an audience for it. I’m always interested in Guardians of the Galaxy. I loved Guardians of the Galaxy.”

See him in Lost City of Z in cinemas now, and read the full interview here!

Q&A with Timothy Spall at Oxford International Film Festival

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From May 5th-7th, the Oxford International Film Festival 2017 will take place at the Phoenix Picturehouse in Oxford (UK) to celebrate the film industry.

Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew) stars in the opening title at the festival, Stanley A Man of Variety, winning big at UK Film Festival 2016 and Manchester Film Festival 2017, winning the Edgewater Outstanding Achievement Award and Jury Special Mention for Outstanding UK Film. Spall will take place in a Q&A after the screening.

Read more about the event here, and the screening – taking place at 7pm on May 5th – here.

Johnny Depp Surprises Guests as Jack Sparrow at Disneyland

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Fantastic Beasts‘s Johnny Depp is perhaps best known for his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, and to celebrate the upcoming release of the fifth instalment,  Dead Men Tell No Tales, Depp surprised guests on the ride dedicated to the series at Disneyland California.

The film opens on May 26th, watch a clip of Depp on the ride below, and read the story here!

*EDIT* Watch the official video from the park below:

Miriam Margolyes Takes Part in Great British Walks After Knee Replacement

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We’re happy to report that Miriam Margoyles (Professor Sprout) has been able to enjoy countryside walks for the first time in years after her knee replacement operation last summer was a success, taking part in Sky Arts channel’s Tate Britain’s Great British Walks:

‘Since having my knee op, it means that I can do things I haven’t been able to for a few years. In a sense it has changed my life because I have only recently been able to go out walking and I could never have done it before.’

The show will air on Sky Arts on May 2nd. Read more here.

 

David Bradley Helps Open Charity Shop

PotterGame of Thrones and Doctor Who‘s David Bradley (Argus Filch) helped open a new Where Next charity shop in Studley this week, with more than 100 people turning up for the event.

Business support manager Jo Wood commented on his attendance:

“David spent a considerable time signing photos Harry Potter books, DVDs etc, which everyone was very excited about.

“We are very much hoping that this event has helped to put Where Next Spernal well and truly on the map, not only for the opportunities we offer to adults with learning difficulties, but also as a place to buy all your quality garden and gift requirements.”

Read more here.





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.