‘Fantastic Beasts’: Alison Sudol Shares the Personal Inspiration Drawn From Queenie Goldstein
Fantastic Beasts: Alison Sudol Shares the Personal Inspiration Drawn From Queenie Goldstein
During LeakyCon 2018 in Dallas, Texas, guest of honor Alison Sudol talked about her portrayal of Queenie Goldestein in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, including the unexpected personal inspiration she drew from the character.
Sudol shared that Queenie was originally different than how she appeared in the final cut of the film. Queenie was supposed to be more of a bombshell, which Sudol said made her believe that she didn’t have a shot at winning the role because that’s not the way she views herself. The way Queenie was described to her by the casting director, however, highlighted the warmth and complexity of the role.
“The casting director…described her to me as…a woman who can read into people and who is incredibly loving and…she loves to bake and she’s maybe considered by some to be a beauty, or something of that sort, but that’s not the way she sees herself. So that’s the way that I saw the role. But apparently that’s not the way other people did. But [the creators] saw something in me and the bombshell lessened and her warmth was able to come out more, which I love was able to happen.”
Sudol admitted that she is a terrible multi-tasker, so it was a bit difficult at times to focus in on what she needed to in a scene. It took a lot of practice, but the role helped her hone her acting skills. “There’s not a lot of room for sub-consciousness,” she added. “I learned that that’s the thing that sort of derails everything. I can’t focus on if my arms look fat and reading Newt’s mind and there’s a strudel floating there. Certain things just have to get out of the way. And that’s actually been a little gift because…I can get stuck in my own head.”
Later in the panel, Sudol revealed that she has always been uncomfortable in her femininity and it’s something she had shied away from.
“With Queenie, she’s so unapologetic being feminine. Like it doesn’t even occur to her to not be. And there’s so much strength in that. She enjoy scents and she enjoys her body and living in it in a really un-self-conscious way. And in order to play her, I really had to loosen up in my own body. And I found that to be such a cool gift. Really cool.”
The Fantastic Beasts franchise returns this November in the second installment in the series, The Crimes of Grindelwald.
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