Behind the Scenes of Fantastic Beasts: An Interview With Dan Fogler

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them star Dan Fogler talks set design, his character in the upcoming film, and meeting J.K. Rowling.

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With another San Diego Comic-Con come and gone, fandoms across the pop culture board have gotten a new taste of their favorite shows, movies, characters, and actors. While blockbuster entertainment like Game of Thrones and The 100 have yet to come to their conclusions and are thus keeping their audiences guessing, Harry Potter fans haven’t known this kind of excitement since the epilogue and the final credits rolled on Deathly Hallows. Although Cursed Child begins where Harry’s story left off, the Potterhead spotlight at SDCC was on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them guests David Yates, Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell, and Ezra Miller.

During the convention, Vanity Fair caught up with Dan Fogler for a little one-on-one about the film and his role in it. Fans know that Fogler plays Jacob Kowalski, who comes to be titular character Newt Scamander’s (Redmayne) No-Maj consultant and right-hand man, not unlike Ron Weasley to Harry Potter.

In fact, Fogler said that author-come-screenwriter J.K. Rowling told him that not only was Jacob one of her personal favorite characters, he’s also reminiscent of Ron Weasley. Fogler extrapolated to give more of a feel for how Jacob fits into this particular tale from the Potterverse, and from here Potter fans can really see how Ron and Jacob are, as Fogler says, “cut from the same cloth.”

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

L to R: DAN FOGLER, KATHERINE WATERSTON, EDDIE REDMAYNE, COLIN FARRELL, ALISON SUDOL and EZRA MILLER

Comic-Con 2016

Day 3 – July 23, 2016 – San Diego, CA

Photograph by Matthias Clamer

"“I’m Newt’s sherpa in New York, and I’m also the audience’s sherpa throughout the movie. Because I’m not familiar with magic, my reactions are very much how the audience would react to these things.”"

This is a common narrative tool—to either classify the hero or one of their cohorts as some sort of newbie, and then use that person as a vessel to convey necessary information to the audience. It’s not always the most popular way to go, but when it comes to the likes of the supernatural, science fiction, and fantasy, it does the trick in a personal way by making the audience feel connected to the story through a character who, while they’re experiencing this world, is still just as ignorant of it as we are, and they’re taking us along on the journey to figuring it out.

These characters were commonplace especially in Shakespeare’s plays, and usually cited as the fool, the servant, or the chorus. Fogler makes this comparison himself when he describes Jacob’s purpose within the film:

"“I equate the character to Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. [Fantastic Beasts] is embedded in the classic fairytale themes. Just like Bottom, I’m a regular fun-loving guy who is very human, who gets pulled into this crazy adventure and who gets to play with the fairies and wizards and witches and creatures. It’s very much like a dream.”"

Judging by Fogler’s description of his character, it sounds like the Newt/Jacob dynamic will be very much like Harry and Ron’s, but with a twist: While pureblood Ron played Muggle-raised Harry’s guide to the inner workings of the Wizarding world, No-Maj Jacob will teach wizard Newt a thing or two about navigating No-Maj society (and, in turn, Jacob will be privy to the underground Wizarding world). So while Newt may find his love interest in future wife Tina Goldstein (Waterston), it looks like the audience will be treated to some major bromance, too.

Regarding other aspects of filming Fantastic Beasts, Fogler says that the magic isn’t just in the story, but the set as well. Surrounded by the fancifulness of the narrative, the set itself is a mirror image of New York in the richness of its details, as Fogler says:

"“[T]he detail is immaculate. It’s not like you open a door to a store and it’s just a storefront. You can sit down and it’s like a restaurant inside. Someday that set is going to be part of the museum tour because of how intricate it is.”"

That will certainly bring an air of realism to an otherwise whimsical tale, which can only be to the film’s advantage. If this on-screen New York looks tangible enough, it won’t be hard to imagine that magical creatures did indeed take over the city some ninety-odd years ago.

Next: New Fantastic Beasts Trailer Is Here!

Harry Potter always made magic seem possible—after all, how many of us are still waiting on our Hogwarts letter?—and to keep up that tradition, no detail should be spared in other areas of the Potterverse. From set to costumes to characterization, it would seem that the filmmakers didn’t scrimp on anything; considering the look of things as they stand now, fans will be treated to some real magic when Fantastic Beasts hits theaters in November.