Katherine Waterston on ‘The Agency’ and what really happened with ‘Fantastic Beasts’

Katherine Waterston has spoken about the future of Harry Potter prequel series Fantastic Beasts, telling NME that it’s unlikely the last two films will ever get made: “I think that ship has sailed”.

In the Fantastic Beasts films, Waterston played Tina Goldstein, a heroic witch with a tender relationship with Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander. The series was originally set to span five films but after 2022’s The Secrets Of Dumbledore received mixed reviews and became the lowest grossing film across the Wizarding World franchise (£325million against a budget of over £160million), rumours began to circulate that Warner Bros. had scrapped the last two instalments.

Jude Law (Dumbledore) recently said he hopes a fourth Fantastic Beasts is made, telling GQ that “there’s lots more[story] to tell” while Redmayne has been less optimistic. “As far as I know, that’s it,” he told Comicbook.com.

“The last two films probably won’t get made, but that’s only based on a gut feeling,” Waterston told NME. “I know nothing and I’d probably be one of the last to know if something was happening because with films of that size, people aren’t calling up the performers to keep them updated.”

“Do contracts expire,” she then asked. “I’ve never thought about that before, but they probably do at some point, right? At the moment we are bound to them but I think that ship has sailed.”

In June 2020, Harry Potter author J.K Rowling made headlines for a number of “anti-trans” tweets and a blog explaining her reasons for “speaking out on Sex and Gender issues”.

“I’ve got five reasons for being worried about the new trans activism,” she wrote, with those views widely condemned by a number of people including Daniel Radcliffe. “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people,” he said the same month.

At the time, Waterston was getting ready to film Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore but shared a Guardian article entitled Trans women pose no threat to cis women, but we pose a threat to them if we make them outcasts on her social media, with sentences like “Sorry, you can’t be a feminist if you’re not for everyone’s human rights, notably other women’s human rights,” underlined in red.

She tells NME that publicly going against Fantastic Beasts writer and producer JK Rowling’s beliefs didn’t feel like a risk. “And if it had, I would have done it anyway”. However, some fans have speculated that it’s why her character Tina Goldstein had such a small role in the third film, despite being a central figure in the previous movies and a major plot point being the salvation of her sister Queenie (Alison Sudol). Waterston responded with a shrug. “With those huge films, you never know why anything happens.”

While she rules out a return to the Wizarding World by way of HBO’s Harry Potter remake (“I don’t think that would make any sense”) and with the future of Fantastic Beasts very much up in the air, Waterston still has a number of exciting projects lined up. These include Fackham Hall, Jimmy Carr’s parody of Downton Abbey, and a starring role in the fourth Fear Street film, Prom Queen.

Later this week, Waterston’s spy thriller The Agency premieres on Paramount+. She plays Naomi, a no-nonsense CIA handler who monitors undercover operatives including Michael Fassbender’s conflicted Martian. “The world of espionage is a really appealing genre but a lot has been done with it,” she explained. “Often, we exaggerate the glamorous side of spying or take a more cynical route but The Agency feels like a fairer balance of the truthful excitement and the real pressures that go into it.”

Check out the full interview with Katherine Waterston below where she talks about her hopes for more seasons of The Agency, how Naomi was inspired by real life CIA operatives and being “grateful but critical” of Harry Potter.

Hi Katherine! What made you want to get involved with The Agency?

Katherine Waterston: “I was really impressed by how the writers (Jez and John-Henry Butterworth) handled the espionage genre. Reading the scripts, it felt like I was seeing a fully realised and authentic representation of that world. There are high speed car chases and things blowing up but at the heart of the show is a celebration of how we understand and relate to one another.”

You’ve got the renegade spy, the by-the-books boss, the plucky newcomer. Then you’ve got your character Naomi – how does she fit into this world?

“She doesn’t fall into one of classic espionage storytelling characters and she’s totally fascinating to me. I’m attracted to characters that possess at least two characteristics that are in opposition to one another – and my job is to figure out how they can believably live inside one person.”

What is Naomi like?

“She’s hyper-intelligent and is truly thriving in her workplace. The chaos of espionage makes sense to her and the pressures really do not shake her.  But she doesn’t thrive more generally in the world because other people don’t really make sense to her. She’s a little underdeveloped when it comes to intimacy.”

Were you inspired by other spy blockbusters like Mission Impossible and James Bond?

“I wasn’t. Because I was so struck by how authentic the script felt, I went to the real thing to try and honour that.  I listened to a lot of podcasts by former operatives and read books that told the history of the CIA and how women existed in that fascinating world. There was this one really clipped remark from one female analyst that said ‘I don’t panic easily’ and I felt a sense of responsibility to portray women in the CIA in a certain way [after that]. We’re never going to cut to Naomi panicking because she can’t handle the situation.”

The Agency is based on Eric Rochant’s Le Bureau des Légendes which ran for five seasons between 2015 and 2020. Do you want a season two and beyond?

“Absolutely. I’ve had such a great time working with Michael Fassbender again (after Alien: Covenant and Steve Jobs). When you have that trust in place, you can just get deeper into the work. To work with this cast again, with that history, camaraderie and trust behind us, I’d be very excited to see where we could go.”

Alien Covenant, The Agency, Inherent Vice, Fantastic Beasts. Throughout your career, you’ve played characters who are fighting for control and respect in a world that doesn’t really want to give you that…

“Well, I’ve only played women. I’m always looking for roles that are complex enough that I can suspend my disbelief though. I need to be able to fall into the fantasy and it’s often those characters that are frustrated, fighting against something or experiencing tension that do it for me.”

It seems like everyone involved in the Fantastic Beasts films has a different take on whether the series will ever get finished – what’s yours?

“The last two films probably won’t get made, but that’s only based on a gut feeling. I know nothing and I’d probably be one of the last to know if something was happening because with films of that size, people aren’t calling up the performers to keep them updated. Do contracts expire? I’ve never thought about that before, but they probably do at some point, right? At the moment we are bound to them but I think that ship has sailed.”

Did it ever feel like a risk to share your views on feminism and trans rights at a time where people like J.K. Rowling were preaching the opposite?

“I didn’t think of it as a risk at all. And if it had, I would have done it anyway.”

Some people have suggested that’s why Tina’s role was cut down in the third Fantastic Beasts film…

“With these huge films, you never know why anything happens. We are just so divorced from the leadership. “

A lot of Harry Potter fans feel conflicted about watching the films or reading the books now. Where do you stand on that?

“Fantastic Beasts was such a big break for me. Those films changed my life and I learned a lot from working on something of that scale. There’s so much that I’m grateful for and I want to be really clear about that. I do think about the fans a lot though. Harry Potter is a beautiful trans allegory and what a pity for young people [not to feel comfortable] engaging with that.

“There are those questions around the tension of two different things – can you be grateful and critical? Yes, of course you can. Life is brief and rife with pain and suffering, so if something brings you joy… That’s the closest I’ve got to an answer but it’s never felt truly satisfying. I really do love those fans though and the actors I worked with are friends for life. That was the real gift of the experience.”

You only just wrapped The Agency but your next project is Jimmy Carr’s Fackham Hall. What can you tell us about that?

“It’s so funny. There are a lot of dramatic actors in the cast (Damian Lewis, Tom Felton, Thomasin McKenzie) and we’re all just so excited to do something silly for a change. I feel like we really need that and I hope the public feels the same way. There’s a place for silliness in entertainment and we don’t get enough of it. I’m looking forward to doing a lot of stupid stuff.”

And then there’s Netflix horror sequel Fear Street: Prom Queen. How did you get involved with that?

“Yes. It also stars India (Fowler), who plays Martian’s (Fassbender) daughter in The Agency and is a brilliant actor at the very start of her career. It’s not my genre but director Matt Palmer is a filmmaker I absolutely adore. A couple of years ago, I told him I’d do anything he asked me to do. So he said ‘how about a horror film where you play a deranged mother’. Sign me up.”

‘The Agency’ premieres November 30 on Paramount+

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