Fantastic Beasts Star William Nadylam On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry
… Unfortunately, on the opening day of that play, I was involved in a pretty bad car accident. My face was completely broken and I lost the ability to speak. While I was in the hospital, a friend came to visit me and asked the doctors if I would ever speak again. The doctors simply stated they were unsure, and it would take at least two months before they would know anything. As time passed, instead of continuing with the production of Hamlet, Peter decided to postpone the show until I was out of the hospital. Having him waiting for me purely and simply, gave me the strength and will to heal and regain my speech and be able to act again.
Due to this experience, I’m a firm believer of being in people’s life to relentlessly lift THEM and help THEM grow like I have been helped. Once I got out of the hospital, I went on to play Hamlet for two and a half years.
As a part of our series about pop culture’s rising stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Fantastic Beasts star William Nadylam. William is an award-winning actor on screen and stage. Born in Montpellier, France, he grew up in multiple countries on different continents, including Cameroon, Belgium, and Reunion Island. He was in medical school in Paris, set to follow in the footsteps of his physician father, when he turned to acting.
Nadylam’s career spans film and television, theater and the lyric arts. A close collaborator of Peter Brook and Marie Hélène Estienne since 2001, Nadylam originated an unforgettable Hamlet for the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris before touring worldwide in the role. During “A Magic Flute” at the Bouffes du Nord and on an international tour, from 2010 to 2012, he first worked with composer Franck Krawczyk. In collaboration with these three artists, he toured with Can Themba’s “The Suit” (2012/2014), directed by Brook.
Prior to that, he played Rodrigue in “El Cid,” under the direction of Declan Donnellan at the Festival d’Avignon and on a worldwide tour for more than two years. He played the title role in Shakespeare’s “Othello” (Théâtre de Liège, 2018), and also starred in “Dîner en Ville” (2017), “Go Forth” (NYC 2015/2016), “Bellona Destroyer of Cities” (NYC 2010), and the title role in “Candide” (2009/2010), to name only a few.
On the big screen, Nadylam currently stars in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”, in which he returns as the role of ‘Yusuf Kama’. He will next be seen in Ira Sachs’ “Passages” with Ben Wishaw. Previously, Nadylam has appeared with Matt Damon in Tom McCarthy’s “Stillwater” (2021); with Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law in “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” (2018); opposite Nathalie Baye in “L’Affaire SK1” (2014); and with Isabelle Huppert in “White Material” (2009). His other credits include “Good Funk,” “Here and Now,” “L’Absence,” “Les Enfants du pays,” “Mille millièmes” and “Mauvais genres.”
Nadylams’s television credits include “Parliament,” seasons 1 and 2, “Trépalium,” “Les Oubliées,” “Murphy’s Law,” “Vital désir,” “Frères de sang,” “La Guerre des saintes,” “Une autre vie,” “Les Mariés de l’île Bourbon,” “Table rase” and “Le Dernier fils”.
His opera credits as narrator include Honneger’s “Jeanne Au Bucher” at the Salzburg Festival, Mendelsohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and Schönberg’s “A Survivor” at La Philarmonique de Paris and Théâtre des Champs Elysées.
As a director, he staged David Hare’s “Stuff Happens,” David Mamet’s “Edmond,” and “Vol Au-Dessus D’un Nid De Coucou” (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”).
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series, William. It is an honor. Can you share your origin story with our readers and how you grew up?
I was born in Montpellier, France to an African father and an Indian mother. When I was born, my father was studying medicine, and once he completed his studies, we moved to Cameroon, Africa. During my early years, we did quite a bit of moving and bounced between Cameroon and Belgium. When I was 13, I went to a boarding school in the south of France, and since then, I have been living on my own, in various areas of the world including England, Rèunion Island, and America.
Can you share with us the story about what brought you to this specific career path as an actor?
You know, it was quite random in a way, yet at the same time, not. My father was a pediatrician who specialized in pediatrics and medicine of war. Due to this, I’ve witnessed many things in my life as well as seen my father in several situations. I will never forget helping him at a scene of a car crash that we came upon, and I was acting as his assistant. I was just 9 years old at the time, but I had such an admiration for him for the way he held the power to be able to help those in pain. Naturally, because of this, I wanted to become a doctor. When I went back to France to go to high school, I attended 3 years of medical school.
One day, there was a dance contest and I thought it would be funny to enter it, as I had been told that I was a bad dancer. The contest felt like a way for me to finally learn dance and to show everyone that I could be good at it. During that same time, I was assisting a friend with her application for acting school and I had to apply as well to help her with the task. It was never my intention to get into this type of study, but once I got accepted, it made me realize there is more out there than one career field, and it was ok for me to become an actor instead of a doctor.
Looking back at it, I’ve come to realize that I enjoy the aspect of storytelling as a way of helping people, just like I wanted to help people as a physician.
Can you share an interesting story that has occurred to you in the course of your acting career?
While working in Venice on the play, El Cid, I was constantly wondering if what I was doing was the right path for me, if I should have completed medical school instead and if my work was useful.
One night, after the show in Venice, a young couple came up to me, both were in tears and asked if they could give me a hug, to which I obliged. They both exclaimed that the performance was so impressive to them, and when I hugged them, I could feel their raw emotion and enjoyment.
Strangely enough, I was performing the same play a few weeks later on the other side of the world in Novosibirsk Siberia, and the same thing happened again. A completely different young couple came up to me, asked for a hug, and had tears in their eyes. After speaking with them for a bit, I strongly felt that because their emotions were exactly the same they were emotionally related. Their hearts were wired the same.
This experience made me realize that no matter where you are in the world, we all share a brother and sisterhood of people like us. We share the same feelings and emotions, no matter our background or upbringing. While rare, it is an amazing feeling to find those who understand what you are trying to convey through your art.
I feel the same way about Fantastic Beasts. The film is appreciated by people in China, Iceland, Africa, and any place you look across the world. While it might affect them differently based on their region and background, at the end of the day, it still unites us, and I love the idea of my line of work being able to invoke that feeling across the spectrum of humanity.
Another experience that I think of when asked this question, is the time I was working with theater director Peter Brook. He selected me for the lead in the upcoming play, Hamlet. While I had theater experience, Peter suggested that I take on other roles in preparation for such a major part, to which I agreed. He introduced me to a director in London and we were set to work on a play together.
Unfortunately, on the opening day of that play, I was involved in a pretty bad car accident. My face was completely broken and I lost the ability to speak. While I was in the hospital, a friend came to visit me and asked the doctors if I would ever speak again. The doctors simply stated they were unsure, and it would take at least two months before they would know anything. As time passed, instead of continuing with the production of Hamlet, Peter decided to postpone the show until I was out of the hospital. Having him waiting for me purely and simply, gave me the strength and will to heal and regain my speech and be able to act again.
Due to this experience, I’m a firm believer of being in people’s life to relentlessly lift THEM and help THEM grow like I have been helped. Once I got out of the hospital, I went on to play Hamlet for two and a half years.
As you mentioned, your most recent film was Fantastic Beasts. Can you share with our readers some of the exciting projects you are working on now and what you’re looking forward to in the future?
I am going to be working on a film directed by Guetty Felin, and it is a story about a father and his daughters migrating from Haiti to New York. I would also like to start writing more.
I recently worked with Tom McCarthy on Stillwater, and while on set, I was able to sit down with both him and Matt Damon, and they made me realize that storytelling in reality doesn’t take much, so I think directing is the route I would like to explore next. I see it as, if you want to direct, then direct. If you want to tell a story, go out and tell your story. I would love to reverse my role in a sense and be behind the camera next time and see what I can bring out in other actors.
I’m also working on a small personal project called “Re.Spiro”. I have asked 86 prominent actors from around the world to donate 5 minutes of their time and tell me a story for kids, in their language. I intend to put all of these stories together and create a 24-hour, nonstop show of storytelling that will be broadcast on the internet, and accessible to kids everywhere.
Let’s talk about Fantastic Beasts for a minute. We have been speaking about how powerful storytelling can be and the ability it has to reach across countries and cultures. As you know, the Harry Potter series and the franchise are a cultural phenomenon. What would you say are lessons we can take from Fantastic Beasts or Harry Potter in general, and apply them to what is going on in 2022?
For me, the entire film and the series in general allow us to go back to the basics for things such as common sense and the ability to question themes like as trust, love, and the challenges we have to overcome in life. There’s a sentence that Dumbledore said in the Harry Potter series about bravery. I will probably get this wrong, but the general idea was that it takes a lot of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but it takes, even more, to stand up to your friends.
The Harry Potter series was first written for kids, and the Fantastic Beasts movie is for those kids, who have now turned into adults. Some refer to the film as being a bit dark, but I like to say it’s more realistic in the aspect of life. Some days are wonderful, light, and airy, while others contain dark themes and difficult topics.
The final element of talking about the Harry Potter series is magic. Magic is the escape from what we consider reality and the wand is a metaphor for what we can change in perception of our situation. In today’s society, these types of films are much needed due to the world that we are living in. We all have dreams and aspirations, and I think that movies like Harry Potter and those in the series can help us understand that by simply shifting our perception of things, we can see so many more possibilities of the magic in our situations.
You have been blessed with success and a career that can be challenging for many. Do you have any words of advice for somebody who would like to follow a similar career path, but who is daunted by the prospect of failure?
To me, family is a huge asset. They are the people that you trust, and at the end of the day, don’t care about how successful you are. Having these kinds of people in your life is essential, and can make or break your experience and your attitude towards continuing when things might not be going your way.
I also remember an actor telling me once that if they had stage fright or completely forgot their lines, they would bring focus to items around the room. Whether it be a microphone, someone’s jacket, or a stand holding a camera, just finding that object would help ground them and bring them back to what’s real. I’m a big believer that once we can find that point again, we can reconnect with reality and recognize we are safe.
You also need to be able to disconnect from the business from time to time, making sure that you have other hobbies outside of performing and are able to be successful in other areas. I had a teacher tell me once that acting is a bit like putting a lens on something. With one lens, you’re magnifying something, but if you have nothing to put under the magnifying lens you’re magnifying nothing. Acting is just the lens. It’s what’s under the story, that is real life.
Do you have 5 things you wish someone would have told you when began as an actor?
- The first one would be when I was on stage for a play, and we finished up and were doing curtain calls. One of the actors was walking around, in a very nonchalant manner and she got the biggest cheers, as the audience loved her. Her name was Flea Pot. Flea Pot the dog. And Flea Pot, see, she did not care about being a good or bad dog, she was simply being herself. She was confident in her abilities, and she taught me that authenticity is key. No one can be a better me, than me. I might not be the best actor for every role, but nothing will compare to me being true to myself.
- The second thing is something I learned when I was working on the set of Hamlet. I felt such immense pressure on opening night I asked that nobody speak to me for 30 minutes before the start of the show, so I would get into character. Right as I’m about to walk onto the stage, the director took my hand and looked me in the eyes, and stated “William, I chose you to go on that stage, which is your home, and tell those people in the audience, who are your friends, the story of Hamlet.” At that point, my stress immediately dropped and I realized he wanted me to be by myself while conveying my image of the story of Hamlet. To me, that was a huge lesson in not taking things too seriously.
- Third, never underestimate the good things that might come from any situation. For example, one time I was in Marseille visiting friends. I got in late, so I parked my car on the street and went inside. I woke up at 6 am to the sound of car horns and my friends telling me that I was double-parked and needed to go move my car. I go downstairs in my pajamas, and I’m looking around trying to figure out what is going on because my car isn’t blocking anything. My mood instantly changed, and I was getting annoyed that I was woken up early for nothing. I heard these people yelling from their car and it took me a minute to register that they weren’t yelling, they were calling my name because they had seen me on stage the week before and were wanting to congratulate me. It made me realize that even though sometimes a situation can feel overwhelming if you take a minute to take a step back, you might realize that there is goodness in that moment.
- Next, never doubt yourself when someone chooses you for something. We all have a tendency to think we are not good enough or that someone else would be a better fit, but you have to realize that at the end of the day, it’s not about you, it’s about what people see in you. There’s a saying that I love so much in English, but it doesn’t exist in French and that is “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Always trust that you were chosen for a reason, whether you see it or not.
- Finally, realize that you are capable of more than you think, and you do not need permission to be yourself. Whatever it is that you want to create, whether it is film, stories, art, food, etc., just create it. Share it with others, and be generous with your art. Tell your stories with authenticity, and do not wait for others to bring the materials you feel might be missing. Create that scene yourself and make it yours. There is so much unhealthy news out there. Negative stories, propaganda, ill intentioned narratives, poisonous language, poisonous storytelling. We need real stories, better narratives, and more poetry. Right now, the destructive people are claiming the narrative, but at the end of the day, kindness and authenticity are what will win.
William, you are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good, to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
It is funny that you asked this question because I’ve been thinking about that lately. The first idea I had was to create a club in which people would be open to re-examining the way that they are currently living. Go out and live the way someone the complete opposite of you lives. Spend a day in their shoes diving into their religion, beliefs, and what makes them unique. I believe if this was a possibility, we could learn to live together more respectfully. We are all humans who share the same genes, blood, and wants in life. If we could put our cards down for just a moment and look at things from a different perspective, maybe we could realize that we need to stop capitalizing on the wealth of the world being one-sided.
The way that our society is right now, it’s hard to look at. From war to injustice over something as simple as migration, or even being harassed over your gender, it is appalling to me to watch all of these things become normal in our society today. I believe the only way to move forward and inspire change would be to gather those who want to spread goodwill, get them to start by educating themselves and others, and get that momentum going to create more change for good. If we could start something like this, I would love to be a part of it, and would even dedicate my life’s work to that.
We are very blessed that many prominent leaders read this column. Is there anyone in the world that would you like to have a meal or meet with? It could be someone who might give you your next big break, or take you to the next level. We would be happy to tag them and see if we could make it happen.
I would love to meet Denzel Washington. He is such a charismatic artist, and I think he’s been a huge inspiration for several generations of actors. Meeting him would be such an honor and it would make me so incredibly happy.
Two other people that I would like to spend some time with would be Don Cheadle and Jeffrey Wright. I admire both of them so much for the work they are involved in and the positions they’ve created for themselves.
Thank you William for these truly uplifting stories and insights. We wish you continued success in your career.
Fantastic Beasts Star William Nadylam On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.