Eddie Redmayne has mastered the ability to hold his breath underwater for long periods of time after receiving a free diving crash course for the new Fantastic Beasts sequel.
The Oscar winner, who portrays Newt Scamander in the Harry Potter prequel franchise, admits one of the perks of starring in big blockbusters is learning new skills he wouldn't have normally picked up, and this time around, he had to train his lungs to take in as big a breath as possible to shoot scenes underwater.
"I'd never dived before but the amazing thing about these films is you literally get the best experts in the world," he smiled.
"So I was sent to a free diver to learn how to kind of take incredibly long (breaths) (and) hold my breath for hours, in preparation for the film, and those are the kind of random extra skills you get to learn being an actor on these (movies)."
Just like the 2016 release Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the follow-up, The Crimes of Grindelwald, was shot at the Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden, England, where fans of the J.K. Rowling stories can also take a tour behind the scenes and view authentic sets, costumes and props used in the franchise.
But Eddie admits he often forgets just how "passionate" devotees of the boy wizard stories are until it comes to promoting the films.
"Where we make the films in Britain is right next to the Wizarding World, the Potter World, and it (filming) is so shrouded in secrecy - they don't allow you to print scripts, even when you pull up the script onscreen, it kind of disappears if you look at it too long - that we make it in this kinda vacuum, really," he shared, "and when we begin to take it out into the world and kinda see people dressed as Newt, people dressed as Grindlewald, you begin to get a sniff of how passionate the fans are."
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald hits theatres later this week (ends16Nov18).
