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magicalhideoutengineer · 8 months

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Queenie & Grindelwald

Crimes of Grindelwald:

Alison Sudol: It's not so lovely for Queenie in this film. She has trouble because she doesn't speak French. She's not good at languages period. She has trouble with Newt's accent, so forget about Paris. So she's kind of getting a lot of information that she can't filter through in the way that she does. She's like clogged up by all of these information that she can't process, which is also part of the reason why it's easy for Grindelwald to manipulate her, because her instincts are not functioning properly.

- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Makers, Mysteries and Magic: Chapter 6

Dan Fogler: I feel like she also reads heart shockers. If your intention is pure, then it confuses her. Even if you're an evil bastard, if you're intention is pure, she's like, "Oh, this person means well."

Alison Sudol: It's true, there's a purity … because her gift hasn't been something that she has been taught to use. She hasn't been mentored. It is literally, "Queenie, stop reading my mind." She could be one of the great witches of her all time with this gift, but it's seen as a nuisance. So, if you don't have mentorship, and you're taught that something about you is wrong – and you aren't developing it, it's only just happening to you – then the discernment between a pure intention and a pure intention of harm, you know, is quite confusing if it muddles the senses. That's what we encounter in this with her.

- Snitchseeker

I was wondering, wouldn't Queenie have noticed the change in Graves [Grindelwald]' thinking even though he looked the same?

JK Rowling: Occlumency.

- Twitter

Mads Mikkelsen: If I offer a character that is under distress and frustrated, alone, a misfit, if I offer some comfort and an ear that would listen, it's a smart way to get you followers.

Alison Sudol: Absolutely. You sense vulnerability and you use it, and it was painful actually. I know that might sound strange, but any time you are put in a position where you need to look more deeply into yourself or into humanity to learn about someone, I think it's really positive, because it just brings more understanding into the human condition really.

- Secrets of Dumbledore Interview

Alison Sudol: She made the mistake of believing Grindelwald could offer a better alternative. He used her vulnerability to his advantage, telling her what she wanted to hear, meanwhile separating her from everyone and everything she loved. He understands people's base desires and he plays into them. That's why he's so dangerous. It's something that happens in the real world all the time, a trap that so many young people fall into. We are not taught how to converse with our desires, we're taught to suppress them to fit in. It takes the considerable power of owning our feelings away from us and leaves it up for grabs, makes us a target for manipulation.

- Secrets of Dumbledore Production Notes

Alison Sudol: At the end of the second film, we see Queenie make a pretty shocking decision, something that no one really expected. But if you follow through the film, if you really think about it, she was sort of in one unfortunate circumstance after another because of the way that the wizarding world operates and the prejudice. Really all she wants to do is just be with the person she loves. The narrow-mindedness of the world she lives in puts her into a really vulnerable position where somebody that's really manipulative can tell her what she wants to hear, and that's gonna have an impact.

- Secrets of Dumbledore Press Conference

Alison Sudol: Well, Grindelwald told her what she wanted to hear, didn’t he? I mean, anyone with a little power of observation could see that she was desperate to be with Jacob legitimately, which was a much bigger deal at that time than it is today. She would do anything to be able to be with him. And because of the restrictions by the wizarding world, the narrow mindedness, the prejudice towards non-magical people, she was vulnerable to anyone who would say it could be different. Grindelwald pretended to be sympathetic to non-magical people to get her on his side. If the wizarding world had been more open-minded, she never would’ve been in this situation.

- Bearpost

Alison Sudol: In the last film, a lot of people were shocked by what she did, but then, as I thought about more and more about what happens in that film, she's abandoned by the people that she loves, and her sister's not there, and she and Jacob are fighting, and Newt humiliates her, and she's also up against a huge amount of prejudice, and Grindelwald offers what seems like an alternative to a world that is broken and is not allowing her to be with the person she loves.

- Secrets of Dumbledore Interview

“Grindelwald actually sounds like he’s all for love — if you love a Muggle, you should be allowed to be with them, and you should be allowed to marry,” Fogler reveals. “But wizards, he feels, should be on a pedestal. This is very tantalizing to some.

- Entertainment Weekly

Dan Fogler: Dumbledore can say the same thing and so can Grindelwald in his heart. That's why it's so easy for her. She's like, "Wow, he really believes this, that this can happen." This utopia that he's promising with his silver tongue. But there's a part of him that it's for love. So it's very confusing, which makes for really complex, dramatic, great scenes to play. Really interesting subject matter.

- Sensacine

JK Rowling: We watch him corrupt an innocent, and we see his immense seductive duplicities, gift for speech in the final scene where we really see the danger of the man.

If we look at what he is saying and analyse it, it does fall apart. However, if you're not paying a lot of attention to the substance and the inherent contractions in what he's saying, it sounds very seductive, very plausible, and it can persuade people that you or I might consider good people.

- ChicagoSciFi

'He's also a bit flirty,' says Sudol. 'It's the age-old thing of the good girl getting swayed by the bad boy.'

- Lights, Camera, Magic!: The Making of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Alison Sudol: Grindelwald is very skilled at reading people, at understanding when someone is vulnerable and what they need to hear, and he also sees a part of her that she hasn't accepted in herself, which is this extraordinary gift that she has. There's a power there and there's a pull. There's no doubt about it.

- Secrets of Dumbledore Interview

Alison Sudol: So she is scooped up by Grindelwald in easily the most vulnerable moment that she's had in her adult life. She has very little at this point left to go to, so she's not protected by anything in that moment and he comes in, and it's very interesting the way that Jo's done this. Basically, you think of a predator or an evil person, a bad person's gonna come in and they are gonna be like an ogre and horrible and being like killing kittens in front of you and you are gonna be able to see that they are evil, but the thing about Grindelwald is that he's a master manipulator. He's all things to everyone that they need, and that is why he is so dangerous, and to Queenie, he very quickly understands that the way to get to her is through her giant heart, which is very open and very sore, and he comes in, he's vulnerable to her and sort of appeals to her and also reacts to her gift, which is a gift of being able to read minds, but Queenie's never been told that it's a gift. She's always been shushed, and It's always been a frustration and an annoyance to the people around her, and here you have this very intriguing, mysterious man who sees her as this powerful woman, and also he's saying, "I want what you want. I want you be able to love freely." She's been rejected by Jacob; it's no wonder she gets swayed by Grindelwald.

- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Makers, Mysteries and Magic: Chapter 6 & The Archive of Magic : The Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Poppy Corby-Tuech: I think this is the power of Grindelwald, that he doesn't... He could've poisoned her, he could've drugged her, he could've used a spell, but actually I think he trusted that she would come to him in a really natural way and it would come from hers as opposed to her being forced. That is really the way that he's persuading a lot of people to do his very dark things around and it's not through mind games or through torture. It's through the sheer power of the words. Obviously, there's manipulation at the intent of it, but it's like, "If we lay the breadcrumbs, they will come."

- Speakbeasty

David Heyman: I think the fact that even Queenie can go over is really significant. The fact is that for me, Grindelwald is a much scarier villain than Voldemort. Because Voldemort was pure evil. People follow Voldemort as much because of brute, his power and brute force than his power of persuasion. The thing about Grindelwald is he makes sense or he makes sense to people. He speaks to the needs that people have. He understands his audience and he gives them what they want to serve his own needs. So I understand Queenie who wants to be with Jacob but where the magical laws deny her that possibility. You can see why someone who tells her in his world, in the world that he will rule, that she will be able to have what she wants. You understand why she goes over. And that makes it to me, Grindelwald is relevant. He speaks to today. But he's also, because history repeats itself, a timeless villain and I think he's incredibly scary.

- Empire Podcast

David Heyman: Grindelwald is to me a much scarier villain than Voldemort, because Grindelwald makes sense to certain people. Voldemort's power is fear and intimidation. As Callum said, Grindelwald seduces. As much as we may hate certain politicians because they do not speak our language, we have to understand that they are answering the needs and vulnerabilities and insecurities of others. Grindelwald is doing that. That's why Queenie goes over. He makes perfect sense. I understand why Queenie does what she does. I may hate it. I may not like it, it may make me sad, but yeah [it makes sense].

- Coup De Main

His eyes meet QUEENIE'S in the front row.

GRINDELWALD —and for love.

We pan across QUEENIE, now heart and soul his .. .

- Crimes of Grindelwald: The Original Screenplay

Secrets of Dumbledore:

Alison Sudol: Queenie made a choice to take marrying Jacob into her own hands in the second film, which set off a chain reaction of unfortunate events that ultimately left her vulnerable and alone. Ultimately, she made a choice to cross over to Grindelwald’s side. It was shocking for a lot of people, but she was wounded and reckless. There was a lot of chaos around that decision, and it happened in a split second. Now in this new film, things have calmed down and the sobering reality of the world that she now lives in has descended. It’s not a world that she fits into, but she’s had to assimilate. Grindelwald sees her as a valuable asset for her power to read minds, which puts her in an important position among Grindelwald’s minions. That doesn’t mean she’s safe. She’s navigating this as best as she can, and it’s intense!

- Bearpost

Alison Sudol: So at the start of this film, we find her in a world that is very different than any world she's ever been in before. She's also being utilised for this tremendous power that she has, that she's either had to hide in the past or she's been made feel guilty about, and there is something interesting about that, about a person who hasn't actually been able to live fully as who they are, and I think a lot of young woman can relate to that as well, of what happens when somebody sees that thing, that burning part of you that nobody else sees. It's a tricky, interesting position. We don't really know where she's really to go and who she is and how she's going to move forward, because she's at a point in her life where she has sort of two ways to go, but she's made a decision that you can't really just say to Gellert Grindelwald, "Sorry, I actually..." It's pretty creeping, so maybe she won't be able to get away or mabye she will. That's what her journey is now.

- Secrets of Dumbledore Press Conference

Alison Sudol: Grindelwald's on a mission to become the leader of the wizarding world by hooker, by crook. He's not the kind of guy that's gonna do it the right way. He's gonna do it the way that makes it happen, and earlier on, she observes him do something completely unthinkable and cruel, disgustingly cruel to an innocent creature for his own benefit, and it's shocking, and it's unclear what she's seen up until then, but I don't think it takes her very long to realise that she's dealing with seriously villainous people.

- ChicagoSciFi

Mads Mikkelsen: He's an odd man, because he picks some allies that he knows are not fully on his side. So there's a little game for him. He seems to take pleasure in manipulating people that he knows are not a believer of him. But obviously if you can turn them over completely, it's a win-win situation. If you can't, he will have a very fun and good time with them. But also it's an old saying, right? Keep your enemies very very tight, very close. But she's a fantastic tool as well. She has the ability to read people's minds, and that can come in very handy.

- ChicagoSciFi

Mads Mikkelsen: Oh, Grindelwald doesn’t trust her at all. But there’s something about Queenie—she can read other people’s minds, but she’s also a very bad liar at the same time. So, Grindelwald has a hunch he can trust her to the degree that she can’t lie straight to his face. And then, as was said before, both Dumbledore and Grindelwald have this tendency to manipulate people around them. The difference is that Grindelwald doesn’t mind people around him that could be dangerous for him. He finds it interesting. It’s a little game. Life becomes more interesting when you have people around you that might turn on you. It keeps him on his toes.

- Bearpost