‘Now You See Me’ movie sent new cast members to magic school

LOS ANGELES: For Ariana Greenblatt, learning magic tricks at The Magic Castle clubhouse in Los Angeles was the best part of starring in the third installment of the American heist film, “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.”

“Before opening hours, we would spend a couple hours in there and just learn as much as we possibly could in the time given, and it was so much fun,” the former Disney Channel star said of the month the actors spent at the home of the Academy of Magical Arts learning illusions seen in the film.

“It’s so weird. I feel like we have newfound skills, which is my favorite part of this job,” said Greenblatt, who received several film award nominations for her role in “Barbie.”

The new movie, directed by Ruben Fleischer, features returning actors Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher and Morgan Freeman, along with newcomers Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa, Rosamund Pike and Greenblatt.

The film, distributed by Lionsgate and opening in U.S. theaters on Friday, continues the story of “The Four Horsemen” as they reunite to recruit three skilled illusionists for a high-stakes robbery of the world’s largest “queen diamond” from a crime syndicate.

“We learned so much, … a lot of card tricks,” said Sessa, whose debut in “The Holdovers”earned him the Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer. “Ariana did a lot of pickpocketing (in her role), and she was constantly trying to use me as her prop to practice on.”

For franchise veteran Franco, the magic tricks he learned over years of working on the films paid off.

“We’re playing the greatest magicians in the world. So, as an audience, when you’re watching us, you want to believe that we’re actually doing some of these tricks,” he said.

“Our director, Ruben, encouraged us to learn as much as we could to make it look as real as possible,” he added, noting that his card-throwing skills have become especially advanced.

It was important to Fleischer and the cast that the illusions looked convincing.

“The director really wanted to make sure that the magic was real, that it wasn’t just computer-generated effects, which meant for us as actors, practicing every day, the tiniest little hand moves,” fellow franchise veteran Eisenberg said.