There were so many faces. “Thousands. It felt like every kid in England wanted to be in the first ‘Harry Potter’ film.”
That’s how producer David Heyman remembers the crush of casting options a decade ago when the spellbinding franchise began with the key decision of picking its young wizards.
They found their Hermione in the daughter of two lawyers who seemed as driven as the character. Ron was discovered in a video audition plucked from a mail room mountain. Harry was spotted by Heyman in the audience of a theatrical production and he encouraged him to try out.
“It was kismet,” Heyman said. The children are now young adults and, somehow, they have thrived amid the fame, fortune and relentless pressure. Interviewed more than a year ago on the Watford, England, set of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (in theaters midnight Tuesday), the three stars talked about the past, the future and, most of all, the magic.
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THE BOY WHO LIVED
Radcliffe is prepared for life after ‘Harry’
Most movie sets are flimsy facades — the walls usually move when you lean against them — but not the airplane factory in Watford, England, that a decade ago was transformed into the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and built to last. The floors and walls are real stone, and no one knows their cracks and echoes better than Daniel Radcliffe.
Well, maybe that’s not entirely true.
“I still get turned around in here,” Radcliffe said. “I couldn’t tell you the name of this set, but I know my way to all the sets. Well, pretty much.”
Radcliffe was wearing a black suit with a shirt and tie the color of a dark red wine, his costume for a holiday party scene in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” He seems smaller in person than on the screen; he’s a compact 5 foot 5, but it’s the sinewy physique of a horse jockey thanks to years of training as an action hero.
Radcliffe, who turns 20 this month, has been wearing the Hogwarts robes since summer 2000, when “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling signed off on his casting. It’s difficult to understate the impact on his life in England, where the mania for the books and films is even more intense than it is stateside.
Radcliffe has been called the world’s richest working teen — he made $25 million last year, according to Forbes, and also signed a $43 million deal for two more “Potter” films. At 16, he became the youngest non-royal to have an individual portrait put on display at Britain’s 153-year-old National Portrait Gallery.
“I started this when I was about 10 or 11; it’s quite mad if you think about it,” Radcliffe said. That eighth and final “Potter” film is scheduled to be released in 2011 and will close out one of the most massive undertakings in mainstream film history.
No one would begrudge Radcliffe a long break afterward, but no one who knows him expects that to happen. The actor performed to strong reviews in Peter Shaffer’s play “Equus,” and the harrowing spiritual and sexual themes (along with the nude scenes for the star) were an emphatic declaration that Radcliffe wants to be more than Rowling’s magical orphan.
“He’s an extremely focused young man and keen to learn as much as he can at all times,” “Half-Blood” director David Yates said. “He’s pursuing a career that will carry him far beyond this role and these films.”
Radcliffe said the “Potter” soundstage has been a second home and a one-of-a-kind acting academy. Several generations of the best from British and Irish stage and cinema have passed through the franchise, such as Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson and the late Richard Harris, and Radcliffe has tried to learn something from each of them.
But it’s Gary Oldman and Imelda Staunton who have left the biggest impressions. “All of them, everyone, has been brilliant, but those are the two that mean something special to me,” Radcliffe said.
Oldman (who once recorded a duet with David Bowie and portrayed Sid Vicious onscreen) tutored his young friend on bass guitar. Radcliffe is an intense music fan and jumped at the chance to discuss some of his favorite bands, which on the day of this interview included the Arctic Monkeys and The Libertines.
Radcliffe’s parents were with him when fate picked him for the role of Harry. The family was attending a play, “Stones in His Pockets,” when they bumped into David Heyman, the “Potter” producer who urged the youngster, who had starred in the BBC film “David Copperfield,” to audition.
Fame has not pulled Radcliffe, an only child, away from his family. His father, Alan Radcliffe, stood not 20 yards away during filming of the holiday party scene, and afterward they took a stroll; viewed from a distance, the pair have the same gait and profile. “It’s true, isn’t it? People say I look like my father; I don’t. I just have all the same mannerisms.”
His mother, Marcia Jeannine Gresham, told her son that as the “Potter” novels went along, she saw more of her son in the character and vice versa.
“She read ‘Half-Blood Prince’ and she did say, ‘Harry has started to argue like you argue,'” Radcliffe said. “Obviously, J.K. Rowling actually had cameras in my house and knows that is how I argue … “
Radcliffe laughed at this joke but then grew a bit serious.
“I would like to think I haven’t been influenced by him too much just by playing him for so long,” Radcliffe said. “I am thrilled to have this in my life, but it is separate from my life, you know?
“It’s nice to be called Dan. And actually I started correcting people now. You do feel like a bit of an idiot doing that but, at the same time, in the long run it is better for us. I know it’s better for me.”
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RUPERT GRINT
Like Ron, he’s along for the ride
Rupert Grint may walk on red carpets, but with his glum smile and complete lack of pretension, he seems as unaffected as the pub regulars enjoying afternoon beers back in his home village of Watton-at-Stone.
Grint will be just 21 next month, but he seems older around the eyes and, like his character Ron Weasley, he doesn’t seem as driven as the other two members of the famous trio. Daniel Radcliffe wants to be the Laurence Olivier of his generation, and Emma Watson is sorting through a handful of career options, but Grint, well, he seems to be meeting the future with a good-natured shrug.
“I was thinking about what it’s going to be like when we’re done, after the last movie,” Grint said. “It is going to be really weird, actually. At the moment, it seems quite far away. I don’t know what I’m going to do, really. I’m going to miss it, I think, because it’s been my whole life for a long time. I really enjoy it as well, every year we’ve come back and done it. All of this, this is what I know.”
Grint was sitting in his hushed dressing room at the cavernous “Harry Potter” set outside London, which has a ping-pong table, a miniature billiards table, a huge television, a dart board and a giant cardboard cutout of his character. It’s a dorm room for a fellow who never had any interest in college (unlike co-star Watson, who had her choice of universities) and only adds to the sense that Grint is a lucky and carefree passenger on the “Potter” express.
That impression doesn’t hold up to scrutiny for everyone. Alfonso Cuaron, director of the third “Potter” film, for instance, predicted that Grint was the most likely member of the “Potter” trio to go on to future stardom. Asked about that, Grint winced in embarrassment.
“Dan is the one who is very driven; he’s ambitious and he knows there’s quite a few things down the road. I am a little bit more laid back. And Emma, I mean, she’s really cool. We all get on really well; she’s just a really good mate.”
Grint said Watson is “like a sister,” which made for some awkward scenes in “Half-Blood Prince.”
A major part of the film is young romance, in particular the love triangle involving Grint’s Ron, Watson’s Hermione and newcomer Jessie Cave as the smitten Lavender Brown. That provides a lot of this installment’s humor, as does Ron’s bid to be a Quidditch player.
About an hour before this interview in his dressing room, Grint was poised atop a gyrating contraption that is used to film the flying-broomstick sport (think high-impact aerial lacrosse). On command, Grint stared into a wind machine, pumped his fist and bellowed in triumph. But between takes he looked pained.
“It leaves you sore in the, uh, bicycle-seat area,” he said after climbing down. “It’s not as fun as I thought it would be.”
Grint said he had caught a glimpse of the first “Potter” film on TV a week earlier and was struck by how young he and his friends looked as they ran through the castle. That got him thinking about endings, both of the novels and the films (which come to a close in 2011).
“I think it’s going to be sad when this, all of it, when it’s all over. Reading the last book, there was so much talk about who was going to die. So I was half-expecting, I mean, me, Dan and Emma to not survive. Or our characters, I mean. I was pleasantly surprised, though. I’m glad that it ended the way it did. We all make it.”
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EMMA WATSON
Conjuring a friendship with author J.K. Rowling
How many people get to meet their maker and live to tell the tale? Emma Watson, with a chuckle, said that’s how she has viewed the recent blossoming of her friendship with “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling.
During the filming of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” Watson contemplated the relationship she’s developed with Rowling as she sat one brisk afternoon in her dressing room (relentlessly pink in its decor). “We talk, we e-mail each other now,” she said, nodding toward her laptop and that morning’s missive from the woman who is arguably the world’s most famous living young-adult author.
“I must admit I still feel quite intimidated by her,” Watson said. “Not because she is actually intimidating, but because I admire her so much, and we have all been such mad fans of the books and her and everything.”
Rowling has said that Watson’s character, the sweet and brainy Hermione Granger, is based in part on her own persona as a child. That has led to a mutual fascination between the actress and the writer who, together, have shaped the character. In “Half-Blood Prince,” Hermione is the wounded heart of the film, dealing with her stirring feelings for childhood chum Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), as well as the dark threats gathering at Hogwarts.
“There are serious dangers brewing, but there is also a lot of romance and humor in this film,” Watson said, “which I enjoyed quite a lot.”
During the filming, Watson, who is now 19, had a certain famous pair of eyes looking over her shoulder far more often than in the past; Rowling was a rare visitor during the making of the first five “Potter” films — she was simply too busy with the ongoing series of novels — but with the final book published in summer 2007, the writer dropped by the Watford set outside London.
To hear cast members tell it, Rowling became like one of the wise old ghosts who populate the fictional wizard academy of Hogwarts — she was a fairly common presence but one who never failed to startle and amaze.
That meant more to Watson, perhaps, than anyone else in the cast and crew. The other lead actors spoke about Rowling in casual terms, but Watson could barely tamp down her awe.
“I just really want her to like me,” Watson said, sounding a bit like the insecure overachiever Hermione. “I’m always really keen to tell her how I feel, and maybe it’s a bit much. She is so down to earth and funny and witty. … I definitely see Hermione in her. She’s genuine and brilliant.”
Those are terms others use to describe Watson herself.
“Emma is astonishingly bright and just anxious to move forward with life,” said “Potter” producer David Heyman. “She’s been amazing to watch. She has these choices. She could be an actress or a model, but with her studies and success she could also be a lawyer. She could also be an artist. … It’s pretty amazing to see.”
The day she was interviewed on the set, though, Watson was most excited about the new possession she proudly showed a visitor: Her first driver’s license. “My makeup lady gave me a car freshener as a gift,” she chirped. “It’s all quite cool.”
The actress, like the other two members of the “Potter” trio, seems remarkably grounded despite the oddities that come her way, such as the roomful of Bibles that have been sent to her by fans. Why Bibles? “I have no idea. They just come in the mail. People think I need spiritual guidance. Everyone sends Rupert pajamas. He has no idea why.”
Aside from school plays and the “Potter” franchise, Watson’s only acting credits are her voice role in last year’s “The Tale of Despereaux” and the BBC’s 2007 movie “Ballet Shoes,” which was met with mixed reviews. Watson just made her debut as the new face of Burberry for its autumn line, and she is on the August cover of Elle UK looking nothing like the little girl from potions class.
A big topic of speculation in England is where the daughter of two attorneys will be attending college (the latest rumor: Columbia University) after she finishes the final two “Potter” movies. She spoke glowingly about life at Hogwarts but said it has been a lot of pressure on her through her teen years.
“I will look back on this part of my life and I know it will be special, but it used to be that if I ever had a bad review or someone said, ‘Oh, she is too this,’ or ‘She’s too that,’ I got upset about it,” Watson said. “Now what I have worked out is that it would actually be physically impossible to be perfect for everyone. Everyone has a distinct idea in their head of what each character is like. So I’ve kind of had to lower my standards. I can’t be perfect for everyone. J.K. thinks I’m perfect, and that’s good enough for me.”
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See also related story “Have Potter films shed books’ shadow?” Arts & Entertainment section, Page 4
