The Making of the Potterverse (16 page)

QUESTION:
You’re all at an age where changes are happening rapidly. When you’re acting, does Chris want you to play younger or do you just play your age?

EMMA:
[We] play our age, I think. It’s great. It’s like we’re growing up with the books. We’re the same age as [the characters], so we’re kind of growing up with them.

QUESTION:
How did the experience of filming the first
Harry Potter
affect you this time around? Did it give you more confidence?

DANIEL:
I felt I was certainly a lot more confident with Chris. If I had an idea I was more comfortable talking to him about it, whereas on the first one I wouldn’t have been able to do that.

RUPERT:
I was a bit more comfortable because we knew from the first one what everything was [going to be like]. We knew about the scheduling and everything.

EMMA:
I think everyone was a lot more confident and a lot more
comfortable because we all knew the crew and we knew the director and we knew what we were doing for starters, which was good. I just think everybody came back feeling a lot more confident.

QUESTION:
Would you all like to continue on with the series, doing all seven? Or do you want to go off and have a normal life?

EMMA:
I don’t even know if they’re going to make a fourth or a fifth film or whatever. But it’s been a really, really good experience and I’ve really enjoyed them. So, yeah, I suppose.

DANIEL:
I’m definitely doing the third film. We’re all doing the third film. After that, who knows? It takes more or less a year to film (each movie), so we’ve got quite a long way before we have to encounter that decision.

RUPERT:
I’ve really enjoyed doing them all.

QUESTION:
A special effects question for each of you. Emma, can you talk about being petrified? Daniel, can you tell us about the climactic battle with the snake? And Rupert, can you talk about coughing up slugs?

EMMA:
There was this amazing wax model of me [looking petrified]. I had to have a whole [body cast] made of me. I didn’t have to actually lie down like this [looks stiff] for a half hour.

DANIEL:
In the books, the basilisk is supposed to be 80 feet long, I think. They built 25 feet of it, including the head, which was actually quite hard to fight. I kept knocking the teeth out of the mouth, so they had to spend endless hours repairing it.

RUPERT:
The slugs scene was probably my favorite, because I had to try out all these different flavored slimes. There was orange, lemon, pep -permint, chocolate and it made it taste really nice. I really enjoyed it!

QUESTION:
How are your families dealing with your fame?

DANIEL:
My parents are really amazing because they’ve helped me with absolutely everything that I’ve done. I couldn’t have done anything like this without them.

RUPERT:
My parents have helped me keep my feet on the ground.

EMMA:
My parents, I think, have been really, really supportive.

QUESTION:
Which scenes for
Azkaban
are you three most excited to shoot and which scene — dramatic scene as opposed to effects scene — in
Chamber of Secrets
were you most excited to shoot?

EMMA:
I’m really looking forward to flying on the hippogriff. My favorite scene from this movie was probably the Gilderoy Lockhart scene. I thought that was pretty good.

DANIEL:
In the third film I think I’m really looking forward to doing all the stuff with Lupin and Sirius Black, with those characters. In this film, I loved filming the dueling scene because there was a huge crowd in there and I love all the scenes with loads of people, and plus, having Ken Branagh and Alan Rickman together was fantastic to watch.

RUPERT:
My favorite scene in this film was the flying car, because that was just wicked. And in the third film I’m looking forward to meeting one of the dementors.

QUESTION:
If you could really do magic, what’s the one spell you’d most like to cast?

RUPERT:
I’d like to have the flying car. I think that would be really cool.

DANIEL:
I’d like to have the invisibility cloak because if you get into trouble, then you can just run off very, very fast in the opposite direction.

EMMA:
I would like to have an invisibility cloak, too.

QUESTION:
You had two new actors working on this film, Jason Isaacs and Kenneth Branagh. Can you talk a little bit about working with them and did you do anything to initiate them into the group?

DANIEL:
It was amazing working with Jason Isaacs and Kenneth Branagh. Not only are they two of the most fantastic actors, but they’re two of the nicest people. So far as initiation, there was nothing that I know of.

EMMA:
They are two of the most fantastic actors on the set, and off the set they’re two of the nicest guys ever. They’re the funniest guys I’ve met as well.

RUPERT:
I was a bit nervous about meeting them at first. But they’re just really nice people, really down to earth and funny.

QUESTION:
You guys have given three years of your lives to this film series so far. What’s been the most satisfying aspect of it all? Is it the attention? Is it acting? Is it meeting the people?

RUPERT:
It’s meeting the people. It’s going to places like New York. It’s coughing up slugs. And it’s seeing the final [version of the film]. That’s really good.

DANIEL:
I think one of the best things is actually seeing the finished product, like Rupert said. You work on it for 10 months and then you finally see it, and it’s a really great moment when you actually see it all completed.

EMMA:
You guys nicked my answer. You spend 10 months doing it, but you haven’t seen the special effects. You haven’t seen the editing. You haven’t seen anything. So it’s this massive surprise when you see it. That’s really, really rewarding.

QUESTION:
What do you each identify with most in the characters you’re playing? And has that carried over into your real life at all?

EMMA:
In my real life I don’t go around saying “Holy cricket” too much. Sometimes I find myself saying some of the lines from the film, but not very often.

DANIEL:
I think I’m going to have to go and have therapy one day because when I keep reading the books I just find out more about myself that Harry has in his personality, too, like curiosity, loyalty, not being afraid to stand up for yourself, getting in trouble.

RUPERT:
When I was reading the books I was starting to relate to Ron because we’re kind of similar. We both have ginger hair. We both are scared of spiders. We both have quite a big family and we both like sweets.

QUESTION:
You guys will be 75 years old, in your rockers and still known as the Harry Potter children. Is there a downside to that?

DANIEL:
If I do go on to act or whatever I do do, I think I’ll try to separate myself from the character. At the same time, it’s not something I’ll ever be ashamed of. This is a huge achievement and something to be proud of.

EMMA:
I think I could be 100 years old and be in my rocker, but I’ll always be very, very proud to say that I was in the Harry Potter films.
RUPERT:
Yeah, me too.

QUESTION:
Daniel, this character has a dark side to him in this film. What did you learn from that?

DANIEL:
I think everybody has a dark side, really. However much you show it or whether you’re afraid to show it, I think everybody has it. So it was great to be able to show Harry’s dark side. It was just great to be able to show that he’s not flawless, he’s not the perfect person.

QUESTION:
Daniel, how did you work with Dobby, especially since the character wasn’t really there to act with?

DANIEL:
It wasn’t quite not there. There was an orange ball on a stick, which helps. Because the actual creature is so animated and jumping all over the place it’s quite hard to actually get a fix on where it is at one time. But it was made so easy by everybody around us that we got used to it.

(Director)

QUESTION:
You’ve got four children. The word is that you’ve chosen not to direct
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
in order to spend more time with your family. True?

COLUMBUS:
They’re the people who got me into it and, ironically, the people who are getting me out. My daughter Eleanor was the person who forced me to read the books and told me it would make a great movie. And then I realized after two and a half years of not seeing them for dinner during the week that I wanted to take them to school in the morning and see them for dinner. So that’s why I’m not doing the third movie.

QUESTION:
How tough is it for you, on the professional side, to walk away from this franchise?

COLUMBUS:
It’s tough, but honestly, about halfway through
Chamber of Secrets
I was putting everything — blood, sweat and tears — into the thing. I was performing with the kids. It was insane. I thought, physically, that I don’t think I could do a third. It’s not like sitting on a set with Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts or even Robin Williams and Ed Harris [saying], “Okay, can you bring it down a little?” as I sit back in the director’s chair. This is not like that. This is completely interactive directing. I thought, “I’ll die of a heart attack if I do the third film.” It’s just too intense. Directing Dan sword fighting one day I thought, “This is not a way for a 43-year-old man to make a living,” but I had such fun and it kept me energetic and exciting and going. But I do need about a year to just sort of recharge. I couldn’t give back to the kids in a third movie what I gave them in the first two movies.

A visitor looks at a wax figure of Dobby during a traveling exhibition from St. Petersburg’s wax figure museum. (Petar Petrov/AP Photo)

QUESTION:
How did the kids react when you told them you’d not direct the third film?

COLUMBUS:
I told them all separately. And they each took it differently. Dan was probably the most disappointed. Emma is tough and she knew, “Okay, I’m going to go on.” But they were all concerned that I wasn’t going to just pack up and leave. I promised them; I reassured them that I would be on the set as a producer, making the transition work with the new director. We have a very comfortable set. It’s like a family. It’s a loving set. The kids can do what they want and feel secure, and I feel that part of it is just because we’ve created this atmosphere of no adults screaming at each other. It’s not tension-filled at all. If there’s any concern or conflict it goes off the set. And I want to make sure that continues. If I see any of that stuff, whoever does it will be out the door in a second.