The secret to Jude Law’s ‘fantastic’ portrayal of Dumbledore
Jude Law is embodying one of the most iconic figures in the Wizarding World mythology — Dumbledore.
In Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the two-time Oscar nominee (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain) explores the enigmatic past of the beloved wizard from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books and movies.
The third and latest installment of Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts franchise sees a younger Albus Dumbledore in a “formative period” that, as director David Yates puts it, will “ultimately define the human being he will become.”
Ahead of the film’s Black Saturday premiere in Philippine cinemas, the main cast led by Law had fun discussing their characters in a nearly hour-long virtual presscon.
If you ask the 49-year-old father of six, he has been prepared to play Dumbledore since he began reading the books to his children.
But if there was any secret to the British star’s portrayal of Dumbledore, it would be that Law was a certified team player on set, according to Yates.
The director disclosed in an interview, “Jude is an incredibly generous actor. He is, you know, a team player. He comes to the set and takes the work seriously but never takes himself too seriously. He loves to engage in dialogue about the moment we’re trying to find and he’s trying to find.”
Yates further said that the actor “really stretches for those moments in, I think, a profound way when we’re digging into the underneath of who Dumbledore is. The thing about this story, which is quite fun, is we’re exploring Albus that we haven’t seen before.”
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore shows the title character’s trademark qualities from previous stories. But there’s also a “melancholy to this man that’s quite haunting and interesting to see as he deals with his past and tries to heal,” said Yates, who also pointed out that Jude was very excited about embarking on that journey and bringing to fans an aspect of the character that they haven’t seen before.
One such aspect is his relationship with the dark wizard Grindelwald (played by Mads Mikkelsen). They’ve become bitter foes in Fantastic Beasts 3 as Grindelwald has risen through the ranks of politics and has become an even bigger threat to the wizarding community with his cult-like following.
Dumbledore wants to stop his old friend from claiming full power by assembling an unlikely team of wizards, witches and a Muggle and appointing an unlikely leader in magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne). He sends them on a mission that takes them to Berlin, China, Bhutan, London and of course, Hogwarts.
Working on this part of the story with Mikkelsen meant “sharing our perspectives, our imagined take on how they met and what that meant to them. And to me, it was always really important to think of who Albus was before he met Gellert,” said Law.
“I always imagined that being Dumbledore was actually quite a lonely place, being that he was brilliant and outstanding at a very young age to the point where he probably felt slightly isolated or someone who was maybe diminishing his own sense of power, self, scope and ambition. And then suddenly, he meets someone who is as brilliant, and matches him and inspires him. And that kind of connection is very, very, very powerful,” Law said during the presscon.
“More so, when you’re in… a young age, I think it’s important to also remember what their time together would have been like — incredibly dynamic, cherished and special. And then, this awful kind of moment where you realize you’re on a different path, you’re actually moving away from each other, but that doesn’t necessarily take away the explosive kernel, that firework that went off initially. In fact, it makes it harder,” he added.
For Law, it also felt “very fortuitous” being able to play Dumbledore at his age because it allowed him to think about his own life, going 25 years back, and the journey to becoming the person he is now. This included reflecting about “mistakes I’ve made and being able to still sit easy with that, and nonetheless still feel how alive it is in you.”
Law shared more of his thoughts about his newest onscreen role during the global presscon. Below are excerpts:
On how his take on Dumbledore differs from the original version:
“It’s not a process of change. It’s more of a process of regression. One of the joys that David really allowed me to investigate, rather than feeling the weight of the brilliant performances by Michael Gambon and Richard Harris, was to really go back and understand that he’s not the fully-formed Dumbledore of the Harry Potter books and films.
“He’s a man still finding his way, confronting and resolving his demons. That’s what I mean by regression. I suppose that in this film in particular, he’s facing the past, himself and his own guilt. But if there were a quality that links him, I would say it’s his mischievousness, his humor and his belief in people. He sees the positive. Think how Dumbledore believed in Draco, even in Tom Riddle, you know. He sees the good or the potential good. I think that’s something he’s always had.”
On the appeal of diving into Dumbledore’s history:
“It was kind of a no-brainer, you know. Would you like to play Albus Dumbledore? Yes, I would. I felt like I’d been in preparation subconsciously from the minute I started reading the books to my children. And gosh, when there’s just so much in the character to mine and investigate as an actor, and that’s before you even get into this extraordinary world of magic, that’s just him as a human. But the magic is really fun, too.
“I remember Eddie telling me that on the second film (Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018), the first film for me, where he talks about if there’s a situation or problem with a scene, you remember you’ve got magic at your disposal. And the scene in Berlin where I had to basically pass on information to the team, went from being a scene where I was basically passing over maps to a scene with a magic hat and all sorts of things flying out. That again was the excuse of well, yeah, it’s magic. So, I can do that.”
On honoring actors who first played Dumbledore:
“So, the major lure was just the opportunity to fill in gaps, go back and explore themes and sides of his character that were hinted at in the books and suggested in the films and what have you. Yeah, any excuse to go back and watch (Harry Potter)? I mean, I was probably caught rewatching them over and over, you know, ‘I’m doing research, I’m studying.’ But like I said, honestly, it was kind of important we free ourselves from the Dumbledore we knew because he wasn’t quite that man yet. But at the same time, there were definite qualities that both Richard Harris and Michael Gambon gave the character that I wanted to steal, I suppose. The sort of humor and the relish of life and impish behavior. But both of them have a sort of gravitas or sort of soulless soulfulness that I thought was really beautiful and complicated.”
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