Eddie Redmayne did some live-action magic on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ on Wednesday night.
The 36-year-old actor admitted that he was still inviting magicians to his birthday parties into his late teens while attending Eton: “I was embarrassingly into magic as a kid.
“No one came to the parties, but I was still inviting magicians.”
Flexing his sleight of hand for Jimmy and the audience, Eddie performed a complex card trick with a pack of Jimmy Fallon own-brand cards.
Eddie started out by handing Jimmy a white envelope in a style that every millennial knows and recognises – a mockup Hogwarts acceptance letter.
Putting the envelope aside, Jimmy then secretly chose his card, the seven of diamonds. Then, on request from Eddie, and a bit too much excitement from the audience, Jimmy licked the pack for a touch of magic.
Rifling through the deck, teasing that he was going to reveal Jimmy’s card, Eddie gradually discarded the deck by throwing cards over the stage for “a little flourish”.
“This has nothing to do with the trick, I just love doing it,” he added.
Eddie then revealed a “magic potion” from his suit jacket, and after pouring the powder over his hand, blew it away, to reveal the number seven and a diamond symbol written on to his hand in the remaining powder. Pretty magical.
But then, grabbing Jimmy’s hand, Eddie exclaimed “there’s more!”, turning our attention back to the envelope from the start of the trick. Jimmy slowly tore open the envelope, and sure enough, the seven of diamonds was tucked inside.
The last time Eddie did magic under the spotlight was on the Graham Norton show in 2016, in which he recruited Bryan Cranston and Benedict Cumberbatch to blow on a blank colouring book to make pictures and colours suddenly appear.
Eddie’s magical prowess is perhaps particularly on point right now as he’s doing the promo for the tenth and most recent instalment of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World franchise: ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’.
The film, which has attracted some controversy surrounding the Harry Potter author’s casting choice for Nagini, stars Eddie as Newt Scamander, a Ministry Of Magic employee.
‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ will be released in cinemas on Friday November 16.