J.K. Rowling Told Jude Law Why Dumbledore Loves Newt Scamander

Albus Dumbledore is one of my favorite characters in the Harry Potter series because he turns out to be so complicated. I love that he goes from a cuddly grandpa type to someone who can be more than a little bit terrifying. I love that most of book seven is about Harry losing faith in Dumbledore, and I love that Dumbledore essentially did not trust himself. Finding out what he saw in the Mirror of Erised was wonderfully heartbreaking. Anyway, Jude Law played a younger Dumbledore in The Crimes Of Grindelwald, and I think he was an inspired casting choice for a generally insipid movie.

He said that in preparing for the role he listened to everything Rowling said about Dumbledore, and he recently told Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films), what Rowling told him about why Dumbledore loved Newt Scamander:

“This is something Jo Rowling said to me. The reason he loves Newt is that Newt loves beasts and I think he thinks he's a beast. I think he thinks he's dark, that he's seen and done things that he wishes he hadn't and he's constantly pulling himself back on the right moral side.”

I think this aspect of Dumbledore is maybe the best part of Rowling’s creation. I mean, there is the whole Wizarding World and its depth and color, but I really really love Dumbledore’s dark side, his tendency to use and manipulate the people around him, his brief, youthful flirtation with world domination, and his deep shame about that side of himself. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the Fantastic Beasts series, but I love that Jude Law had that knowledge in his pocket while playing the role.