Love can make one do crazy things, just ask Queenie Goldstein. Fans of the Fantastic Beasts films watched Alison Sudol's character align herself with the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald at the end of the second movie believing he was the answer to what she wants. Now, in the latest installment in the film series, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, we find Queenie on the dark side and separated from her muggle love, Jacob Kowalski.
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"I think what I found really compelling and interesting as an actor was looking at a person not as a good person or as a bad person, but as a multilayered person who has good and bad in them, and how to tap into her deepest essence that could remain despite externally having to change quite a bit because she was in a really different environment, and one that she certainly couldn't be light and bubbly in whatsoever," Alison said of her character in an exclusive interview with HELLO!.
WATCH: Check out the trailer for The Secrets of Dumbledore
"She couldn't be joyous, fun-loving Queenie there. So, I had to sort of really dig into her and look at who she is at her deepest self, and I found that really great because she could have just stayed the same for three films. It could have been really fun—but she wouldn't necessarily have grown."
Queenie is back for the third installment
"The journey that I got to go on with her really took turns that I certainly didn't expect. I don't think the audience expected it either. And you don't really know what she's going to choose, where she's gonna go until the very end, and I think that that's more interesting and it's more human and it makes her more of a layered person and that's always more fun," Alison added.
The Moon singer along with her co-stars, including Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Dan Fogler, William Nadylam, Callum Turner, and Jessica Williams, returned to the Wizarding World amid COVID-19 for the third film, directed by David Yates.
Alison at the premiere of The Secrets of Dumbledore
Recalling being in production "very much in the thick of" the pandemic, Alison said: "It was such a heavy time and there was such a reduction of socialization as for being able to like see other people, and I was pregnant all throughout the film, and Victoria Yeates was also pregnant on the film and because we weren't able to do any classes or any kind of in-person stuff throughout our pregnancy.
"Going into this world and being able to share that journey in the midst of also being able to work, being with people that we cared about, it was really special, really important for [our] mental health."
Alison has since experienced magic offscreen becoming a mother. Continue reading to find out what the Fantastic Beasts star told HELLO! about motherhood, plus working with Mads Mikkelsen and whether she knows how the films are going to end...
Are you ready for the return of Queenie?
I particularly love Queenie because she is this hopeless romantic and just wants to find love with Jacob Kowalski. Are you able to relate to this character in any way?
Oh yeah, of course. I think we've all had those times in our life where we are just, you know, crazy in love with someone to the point of making, sometimes decisions that aren't the most well thought out I'd say. She just wants to be with the person she loves and she wants the world to get out of the way really, and just let them be and it's such a messed up thing that they're not allowed to be together you know, and because of this narrow-mindedness from the Wizarding World community, she's sort of plunges into a world she never would have touched had it been more open, really.
How was it being able to work with Mads Mikkelsen [who plays Grindelwald] on this film? Was it fun on set with him?
Yeah, I mean, he's an extraordinary actor and a really easy person to be around. Very natural and generous, a spirit and light. He had a lightness to him that made it very comfortable to act with him even though I was really intimidated at first because he's just so good [laughs]. He made me feel much more comfortable. And I mean, he's super scary, you know, onscreen, he's terrifying. But offscreen, he was lovely.
Mads plays Grindelwald in the latest film
This is the third Fantastic Beasts film and there're supposed to be five. Have you all been told how the movies are going to end?
No! We don't know what happens from film to film. So when we finished the second film, I had no idea what choices Queenie would make or what was going to happen in the third film. We just kind of learn as we go really so we'll see. [I'm] as intrigued as everybody else is.
The franchise was originally intended to be five films
What would you like to see happen to Queenie down the road?
I think that throughout these three films, she's gone on such a journey to integrate her whole self, because she's got this enormous gift that in the beginning was sort of a nuisance or something that she was trying to hide about herself and then she was heavily manipulated and used for that gift and was alone and got herself out of that situation.
Will you be watching film number three?
I'm really interested to see her as this woman. She sort of goes from girl to woman in these films, and I think she's got a lot more power than, she's always had that power, but I think she's owning that power now, so I would like to see Queenie use her magic for herself and for her team, you know, and I'd like to see her in battle. I think she'd be a bad*ss.
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I think what is so fun about these films is that we're seeing some characters from the original Harry Potter movies like Dumbledore. Is there a character that you'd love to see pop up?
Well, I am a big fan of Hagrid, but I don't think that timeline-wise he's gonna be born yet. I'm not sure. I'm not quite sure how old Hagrid is. I'd really like to meet him though. Maybe Hagrid's parents. Just because he's just such a lovely character. But I don't know. I think that the fun thing about these films is that you meet both familiar characters like Dumbledore and you also meet characters that you haven't ever seen before, or they've got ties to later characters and it's all fun to me.
Jude Law stars as a young Dumbledore
Since the last movie, you've become a mother. Can you tell us what is the most magical part about motherhood for you?
Oh, I mean, motherhood is magical, full stop. It is the most extraordinary experience I've ever gone through. Watching this little being grow up is just astonishing every day like she just learned how to point, or she's figured out how to point. Suddenly there's this communication. Like you can see that she's interested in something now and that to me is incredible. It's small, but it's the first time she's ever done that. That to me is absolutely extraordinary.
Are you looking forward to the day that you can share these movies, this Wizarding World with her?
Absolutely, and say: 'You're in every single scene of this film that I'm in.'
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is now playing in theaters