"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2" may be one of the most highly anticipated finales to a movie series, but that does not mean that the "Harry Potter" franchise will ever really end. The movie is set for release on July 15, 2011 — and as most "Harry Potter" fans already know, the story climaxes with the young wizard Harry Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe) battling his biggest enemy Lord Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes), who has spent years trying to kill Harry.
To promote the DVD/Blu-ray release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" (out on April 15, 2011) several of the movie’s stars gathered for press conferences at Discovery Times Square in New York City, the day before Discovery Times Square opened the "Harry Potter: The Exhibition." The exhibit is on display from April 5 to September 5, 2011.
At the press conference were Michael Gambon (who played the Albus Dumbledore character), and producer David Heyman, as well as actors who portray members of the Weasley clan (Harry Potter’s surrogate family): Mark Williams (patriarch Arthur Weasley); Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley, who is Arthur’s daughter/Harry Potter’s love interest); Domhnall Gleeson (eldest son Bill Weasley); Clemence Poésy (Fleur Delacour, Bill’s wife); and twins James Phelps (Fred Weasley) and Oliver Phelps (George Weasley). Here is what they said about their lives and legacies with the "Harry Potter" movies.
Michael, you have an extensive background in theater acting. What’s the biggest difference between your theater fans and your "Harry Potter" fans?
Gambon: I never met my theater fans. I’m out the stage door five minutes after the curtain goes up. So that’s it. I don’t even know who comes, but thank God they do come. I can’t tell. I keep my head down. I don’t meet them. The fans from "Harry Potter" are kids who stop me in the street. I love that. That’s terrific. I was amazed how many do.
Michael, is it true that on the "Harry Potter’ set, Daniel Radcliffe gave you a hard time?
Gambon: He gives me a terrible time! In the sixth ["Harry Potter"] film, we were together for a couple of months. I had such fun with him, a really great time.
Heyman: Both of them are really mischievous. They’re both very, very naughty.
For anyone who has seen the "Harry Potter: The Exhibition," if you could take home any mementos or props home from the exhibition, what would it be?
James Phelps: We’ve been fortunate enough to see it a few times. I think it’s cool, even interactive parts …
Williams: Everybody got really in touch with their wand …
Wright: Although it’s quite simple, many, many scenes are in our Hogwarts uniforms …
Heyman: These have pockets for the wands. That’s what’s really good about the exhibition: the detail. When you watch the films, what’s special is the detail, but actually you see it in the films, it’s a small portion[ of the screen]. One of the lovely things about the exhibition is you can see the detail that you may not in the films.
Gambon: As Dumbledore, I wear slippers. I don’t wear shoes. I’ve got size 14 feet. When I first got fitted, I wore the leather slippers, so I took them home.
Heyman: Really?
Gambon: I don’t know why I had them. They fit me, and they looked good.
Williams: I never got to go in my flying car. It bothered me for years. I think I’d probably indulge in that.
Wright: Like I said, it’s simple. [I’d want] my jumper, wand …
Gambon: Ask Alan Rickman. [He laughs.]
Heyman: Alan is the king of pinched half-props. Alan Rickman seems to make off with them.
Was the direction for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1" (directed by David Yates) any different from the other "Harry Potter" films that David Yates directed?
Poésy: He has an attention to actors that is very precious, I think, and you can feel it in the movies. You don’t really expect, in the background, in three weeks for someone to come to you and be like, "This is your Richard Curtis moment. Your wedding … destroyed." Most of my favorite scenes in the last episodes are when Harry and Hermione just dance. That has nothing to do with special effects, but I think he’s got a real tenderness for those characters.
Williams: It’s also amazing that David has done four ["Harry Potter" films]. In some people, filmmaking eats their [creativity], but it doesn’t [for David Yates]. It feeds him. It doesn’t diminish …
Heyman: By day 261, he’s still going.
Williams: He’s still got this amazing delight when it’s good, when he enjoys it. When you work a lot with a director, you really start to notice. When he’s really excited, he goes to the monitor, and he dances across to you.
Gambon: He jumps.
Williams: It’s great. He just makes you want to act.
Heyman: [David Yates is] one of the nicest, loveliest human beings you’d ever want to meet. He’s so incredibly gentle and warm, but beneath it, he’ll have you do 20 takes if you’re not giving him what he wants. He does it in the sweetest way.
For the newer "Harry Potter" cast members, what was it like it walking onto the "Harry Potter" set for the first time?
Gleeson: I didn’t do a read-through. I got cast. And then I took a trip to Wales to start filming … You walk on set, they’re all dressed [in costume], and Harry Potter is there. The set was just really beautiful. The amount of work and dedication that everybody had, it was nerve-racking. I was very nervous.
Heyman: He’s being much more polite than he was [in another interview where] he said when he walked on set, he pissed himself.
Gleeson: I only did it once. The costumes are very expensive.
Did you have any idea that what you were creating with "Harry Potter" on screen would stand the test of time?
Heyman: When I read the [first "Harry Potter"] book, it was something that I loved. It was as simple as that. It was an unpublished manuscript, and I just found a copy of it. I had no idea that 14 years later, we would be talking about the DVD of the seventh film part one and an exhibition that would be opening with props and costumes. It’s remarkable.
When we began the first film, we knew we were going to make a second. So we knew that props and costumes and set had to survive that long, but [we did] not have a clue that [the "Harry Potter" films would be such a phenomenon] It’s been an amazing journey — a journey filled with surprises and wonders. It’s fantastic that there’s an amusement park of a film world I’m involved in. I have to pinch myself. This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me and for all of us. I had no idea.
To the actors who play the Weasley clan, what were some of your favorite scenes to film? And for the rest of the panel, what were your favorite Weasley moments in the "Harry Potter" films?
Poésy: I loved every minute of it. They’re just nice guys. It was nice to be with the nice, friendly people, and not be the "French snob" for a change.
Williams: Julie [Walters, who plays Arthur Weasley’s wife, Molly Weasley] and I kept finding that we had children we didn’t know anything about! It’s been an absolute pleasure to be an imaginary father of an imaginary clan. It’s great, great fun. I couldn’t really pick any single thing out. I suppose the wedding [of George Weasley and Fleur Delacour] was one of the most joyful things.
What’s been a lot of fun over the course of the years is that we had to spend a lot of time on set. These are big films, so everything takes a long time to produce. I’ve been tired, but I don’t think I’ve ever been bored, because there’s always a huddle of us somewhere talking, laughing. There was a great deal of laughter on that set. We’d keep getting into trouble, really. "Shh!" I think I’d been shushed about a million times.
Oliver Phelps: I think it was great to be part of a big family. I mean, you’ve got the Malfoy family, but they’re totally opposite of the Weasleys.
Williams: Bigger house!’
Heyman: Bigger house, not a better house.
Oliver Phelps: Harry’s got no family, and they [the Weasleys] kind of take him in … It’s really nice to be a part of that.
Williams: I’m quite proud to be Mr. Weasley. Although they’re quirky and eccentric, the one thing about the Weasleys is they’ve got this incredible core of morality about them. There’s never any discussion between Arthur and Molly about the fact that they’re committing their entire family to a life-or-death struggle against evil. They’re not sure they’re ever going to win. There were periods of great doubt for both of them, but there’s something very uplifting about playing somebody like that — and the fact that they can still have a sense of humor, and they can still have a family life in the midst of all that.
Heyman: And of course, there’s no doubt that they’re doing the right thing.
Bonnie, did you feel that sense of family immediately?
Wright: Yeah, I think what really enabled me to really give anything on that first day of the scene was that I didn’t have that idea already of family and that idea of support. When I stepped on set, when you’re young, you have don’t know where anyone is except our mum. And she [Julie Walters] was just amazing from the start, really supportive and a fun person to be with. There was never a dull moment. You find humor in the scenes that you’re filming, even if it’s a very dark scene.
Gambon: In the first scene I did, I had to walk through the Great Hall in the middle of the night with 500 children asleep. So it was a great one. Danny [Radcliffe] said he wanted to be put next to a certain girl. He had a fart machine inside his sleeping bag — and I had the controller in my pocket. Dan thought the camera was running. It wasn’t running.
Besides J.K. Rowling’s writing, what do you think is the reason why the "Harry Potter" stories have such longevity?
Heyman: If I could bottle it up, I’d market it, beyond "Harry Potter." I think Jo [Rowling’s] books are really fundamental. And I think there are really a couple of other things. I think that the books are about a group of outsiders, and I think no matter who you are, in some way or another, I think we all feel a bit like an outsider. And that’s a universally relatable element.
We’ve all been to school and all had friends who we liked and people we didn’t and teachers we admired and teachers we didn’t. I also think that Jo’s books and the films don’t talk down to their audience … The films and books have not been patronizing … Jo wrote the books for herself … and in so doing, there’s never a sense of "writing down" to the audience.
And I also think there’s an attention to detail, so the world feels very real. What you read in the books is just a thin slice of her knowledge of this world … When we were doing the Black family tree for the fifth film, I emailed and said, "Jo, we need some more names." Fifteen minutes later, this piece of paper arrived, going back five generations with a hundred names on it, birthdays death days; who’s married to whom.
Her world is so carefully detailed and so well-conceived. It’s tied to the films, in the sense that … the detail is incredible. And one of the pleasures of this exhibition is you can see some of the detail that you don’t see in the film. The films are very rich … and part of what you can feel is what you don’t even see.
And that’s one of the pleasures of this exhibition. There’s something in [the exhibition] which I love: Lockhart’s test that Lockhart gave the students. All those questions he asks about himself, you see that here [in the exhibition]. And that detail we were talking about before, about the Quidditch program, it’s 20 pages of design and writing the schedule. You don’t see it [in the "Harry Potter" movies], but it makes the ["Harry Potter"] world feel truer and more real. Also, to give Warner Bros. credit, they never encouraged us to skimp. They always pushed us and allowed us to give us the resources and time to make the films the way we had to.
Clemence, what was it like coming back to the "Harry Potter" franchise?
Poésy: It was really nice to be able to there for the last bit. Also, I have to say that I started on "Harry Potter" without realizing at all the impact it would have. I thought I was coming in for a small part … The way people respect the franchise, which isn’t just a franchise … made my life very, very [interesting] after it. I was supposed to do so many low-budget films after it that all of a sudden got financed. So it was really nice to be able to come back and say, "Thank you."
Have you seen Daniel Radcliffe yet in the Broadway production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"?
Wright: I’ve heard many amazing things. I’m going to see it.
Heyman: I went to see it. He’s absolutely fantastic. This is an oft-used term but most certainly applies to him: He’s the hardest-working person in showbiz. While he was making ["Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"] Parts 1 and 2, it was a five-day week, and every weekend, he would do dancing lessons, singing lessons. He’s just amazing. The audience response, I’d never been to a theater where the response was [like that]. He’s in very, very good shape physically. He does eight shows a week dancing like that.
Gambon: It’s a great choice after "Harry Potter" for his career. It’s fantastic.
Heyman: He’s so great. That’s the other thing I admire about him: Dan never plays it safe. All of our young cast, you’ve seen them blossom as actors. He does things outside of "Potter." He’s forever challenging himself. You look at "Equus" as his first play … hardly a safe choice. He does that, and then he does singing and dancing. He’s absolutely incredible.
Gambo: He’s the man!
Heyman: He’s the man. He was the boy who lived. And now he’s a man.
Michael, you were in the last season of "Doctor Who." Can you compare that experience to your experience with the "Harry Potter" movies?
Gambon: I was in "Doctor Who." I went down to Cardiff to play this nutcase. It was really hard. I enjoyed it. I can’t speak much about it. It was made in pieces, all out of sync, so I didn’t really know what was going on.
I was just on one [episode]. It was the Christmas special. It was a quick in and out, whereas [my experience with the "Harry Potter"] was seven years, on and off. [He says jokingly] I was 19 when I started. I can’t really answer our question. "Doctor Who" was chaos.
Mr. Heyman, Entertainment Weekly has called you the ninth smartest people in Hollywood. Do your friends think you should be No. 1?
Heyman: It may seem like a smart decision in hindsight [to buy the movie rights to the "Harry Potter" books], but at the time, it was something that I loved. There was nothing calculated about it. As I said, I had no idea what it would become.
Williams: I’m going to say something. What’s been great from David Heyman and ["Harry Potter" movie producer] David Barron over the course of these films is a calmness about their attitude and their approach. I never felt stress. I never felt that they were worried. God knows how they gave that impression. But that’s been an important thing, because what you don’t want when you’re on something like this, with something this big is pressure. And you don’t want people flapping. That has been great for us.
Wright: I think also because we were so young when we started. What do they say? "Never work with children or animals." And we had both in our films. I think it’s a leap of faith for all of us.
I remember being cast in the first ["Harry Potter"] film and being quite amused, because I was imagining that someone who’d been acting since they’d been crawling would be cast. The faith and trust that they’d put into everyone actually enabled you to gain confidence back, in the sense of feeling that sense of achievement, which is incredibly hard when you’re young.
Are there any deleted scenes from the "Harry Potter" movies that are your favorites?
Wright: There’s an amazing scene in the second film when Ginny is completely taken over by Lord Voldemort, and she goes sort of kinky and crazy. And there’s loads of me throwing the book. It was a back story to why blood’s written on the wall and she’s lying in the chamber.
I had a scene when I walked out into snow … [Someone] was killing chickens and coming out with these dead chickens, and there’s blood on the wall. Obviously, that was a bit too much.
Heyman: We don’t talk down to our audience, but we do try to protect them every once in a while.
How do you usually react when you see one of your "Harry Potter" movies on TV?
James Phelps: You always know when one of the first ["Harry Potter" movies] are on TV, because you’ll get a text message from one of your friends saying, "How high was your voice?" It’s like watching a home movie, in some sense. But you just remember because the audience sees the scenes as they’re written, but we remember shooting [the scenes] and all the stories that came around it. Like the Quidditch World Cup in ["Harry Potter and the] Goblet of Fire," it’s like the Glastonbury Festival at Leavesden [Studios].
Williams: Only cold!
James Phelps: And I just remember all the fun times we had shooting. I guess I have a lot of pride that they’re still enchanting people … I still love watching them and the great times we had whilst we had making them.
Williams: I’m really looking forward to seeing all of them … with a sense of completion. I’m really looking forward to that, because often, with premieres, there’s a lot [going on]. And it would be nice to sit down and watch them in peace and tranquility. So I’m looking forward to that.
Heyman: I’ve watched these films probably 150 times. Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration. About 75 times. So I’m always aware [of the details]. But at the same time, I’m so proud of each of them. When one comes on television, I saw "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" for the first time on TV since it finished, and that was kind of amazing. I watch for a little bit, and then I move on.
Gambon: I’ve got a box set of [the first seven "Harry Potter" movies]. The last ["Harry Potter" film is not in there.
Heyman: I’ll try get you that box set when it comes out. You don’t have to buy it. That will be coming out shortly, in every which form you can imagine in the years to come.
Are you satisfied with your last scene in the "Harry Potter" movies?
James Phelps: I don’t know. I just hope it’s powerful as it is when it when you read the book … That scene and the whole series in general. [Some people] saw ["Deathly Hallows – Part 2"], and it went down amazingly.
Oliver Phelps: On a personal level, I hope it comes out really cool. On a professional level, I hope [for the same thing].
James Phelps: I think it’s cool to play characters who are very joke-y and yet you can show a total serious, very somber side to them. You don’t normally get that in a film — and in a [film] series especially. To be able to do that was really cool.
Gambon: You’re able to show your range.
James Phelps: We’re able to show another side to the character, like in [Deathly Hallows] Part 1 when George’s ear gets blown off. We were like a family. Like, Mark [Williams] and Julie [Walters], you would talk about how you would feel coming into that. And to be able to play that different character was really cool.
Poésy: I was pretty happy, yeah. I had two or three kids [as] my character.
Williams: Yeah, you did all right.
For more info: "Harry Potter" movie website
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