Harry Potter's Page :: Feed Your Harry Potter Addiction ::

Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) was interviewed by Total Film Indonesia.  In the article, she talks about how, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,  her character Ginny,  Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch), and Neville Longbottom (Matt Lewis) fight in the resistance, the Epilogue, the film’s split, and more.  You can see the scans in our gallery starting here.

Here are some excerpts:

So Ginny, Luna and Neville are leading a resistance against the Death Eaters’ tyranny at Hogwarts. What was that like to play?
It clearly takes courage. This is the thing those three characters step up to, beginning in the fifth film, with the Ministry of Magic and Dumbledore’s Army, and they really take on the responsibility. They’re the only ones left continuing this resistance. Obviously Hogwarts becomes a completely different place, it becomes incredibly threatening and stands for everything it didn’t stand for before, such safety, and everything we had there is completely gone. Because we have new headmasters and all these new rules.

Are they going to succeed?
There’s an amazing scene in the second part, where obviously Harry, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts, and the other three have made this kind of hideout and haven, continuing Dumbledore’s Army in their own little way. I think that their dedication is pretty amazing, to keep that going, and I think that’s why people kind of love the three of those characters, really.

You’ve shot the Epilogue. Have you gone through an aging process?
Yes, it was a very bizarre thing to go through, really, to be able to have that chance to be suddenly made up to look mid-thirties. It’s was an exciting day but bizarre. Obviously, for me, it almost felt like a real cycle, because I started on that same platform, at the same age that Lily Potter, the youngest daughter of Ginny and Harry was, so it’s almost literally like looking back at myself.

How does it feel to have three kids?
The three kids who played the children were just… they just epitomised all of us, when we were that age, so it was lovely to look back. They were so excited on the day, it was a massive dream come true, and they’d been through such a massive process of auditioning. I think it was probably the most auditions any person has been through to get a part in a film. In the auditioning process Dan and I sat down with different children and talked to them, because obviously the dynamic is incredibly important… to try and portray the idea that they are this family unit, that they’ve spent every living moment together, since they were babies in their hands to how they are now. It was challenging to get that warmth with someone you’ve barely met and some children don’t want to get close to someone they don’t know. But they understood it was incredibly important to make the scene work, so they were very giving to the situation.

The structure of the last two films are different. What was the biggest difference for you in filming it?
It was weird when we first were given this idea that there would be two parts. I was very interested to see how that would be done, but obviously, because it’s still one book, it’s not like we’re filming two books, all at once. It was still one book, in my mind, so the actual story all connects, so we’ve always been used to filming everything all over the place, like any film is filmed. In that perspective it wasn’t too difficult to differentiate the first part and the second part.

Read the entire article here.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 has continued to keep it’s number 1 spot in the box office for it’s second weekend.  World-wide the film brought in over $113 million.  The film opened in France this weekend and is the top earner for 2010 in that country.  Since it’s opening on November 19th, the overseas drawings are dominating at $389 million, more than $168.8 million than the U.S. and Canada have brought in.

I do believe it’s time to go see it again!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Helena Bonham Carter, who portrays Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter films, had her turn with the LA Times’ Hero Complex.  In her interview, she talked about her role as the evil Bellatrix Lestrange,  portraying the Queen Mother in The King’s Speech, and being a mother.

She has another role as a queen.  Of course, her most famous role to date as a queen is as the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland. She had a bit to say on portraying the Queen Mother.

“She was quite strong and dynamic and born to be in public, and her husband was not born with that innate confidence needed to be a king,” Bonham Carter said. “He drew on her strength, and I tried to show that strength.”

She also enjoys the fact that her acting schedule allows her to spend more time with her children, something she finds very important. She and Tim  Burton, the father of her children, have signed onto a parenting class to learn more about being a parent.

“The parenting bit is much harder than the acting bit,” Bonham Carter said. “You just never know what to do. So me and Tim were sort of fed up with getting hurt. ‘What do we now?’ But the parenting class has been really useful. It’s a bit like Parenting Anonymous. There’s a group of parents just spewing out their latest trauma of the week. ’I’m Helena, and I’m a mother.’ But there are some basics that are so helpful. Every child knows what they want; it’s your job to tell them what they need. There’s a liberalism that we’ve sort of just plodded with; it’s not a good idea to ask them what do they want to do or begin sentence with ‘if’; you want to start it with ’when.’ A lot of times they don’t want the choices, they can be overwhelming. It’s not your job to know everything, it’s your job to get them to answer questions for themselves. You don’t need to be omniscient. Your job is to be a teacher and a trainer; you teach them and the training they get automatically.”

“You learn these skills and there are three main ones: Descriptive praise, preparing for success and reflective listening. Descriptive praise really works. It’s not evaluative — ‘you’re doing great, well done’ –  instead it’s praising, with real precision, the absence of negative behavior. I’ve got a real problem with whining, for instance, so when Billy isn’t whining I say, ‘You’re not whining, that’s really helpful.’ You give them positive attention and then they start to crave it. The key to this is you get out of the parenting habit of rewarding bad behavior with attention. When they are naughty, you actually turn away and they realize very quickly that to get your time and engagement they need to do something different. It absolutely works. Billy is lapping it up. And as a parent, you become happier because you’re observing all these good things about your child, if you’re being specific about what they’ve done — ‘You folded that so well and that’s really helpful.”

She also talked about her role as Bellatrix and Bellatrix’s fascination with Voldemort.

“There’s nothing like it, it’s been a nice tribe,” Bonham Carter said. “I love going back year after year. It’s refreshing. A lot of times in this business, it’s so transitory — it’s just 10 weeks here or there on a movie and then it’s over – but to see the same people over all that time, a decade, makes you feel really safe and secure. It was fantastically well-organized, the [assistant directors] are simply unbelievable, the best. The communication has always been seamless. It’s been a way for me to have work I can count on;  I knew I was going to be working but the [screen time for the] role was limited and that was perfect, anything more than part-time takes away such a chunk of time and space and focus. It has been perfect for me, and I will miss it.”

“Bellatrix has really good fun, and she’s been a bit of surprise to me, in fact,” Bohnam Carter said. “It wasn’t really there on the page. When I took it on, I found there wasn’t a huge amount to go by in the script, and I read the book and she wasn’t necessarily on the page there either, so I did ask [four-time "Potter" film director] David Yates if I could bring a bit of other things or are these the Bibles? And he said yes, certainly, and apparently J.K. Rowling was very pleased with it when she saw it, and the childish dimension and the fact that she’s totally savage, that was a bit of departure.”

”I just felt she had to make an impression because there wasn’t much time in which to do so. And she had to be terrifying. She needed to be somebody you didn’t know what to feel towards. One moment she’s horribly revolting but then also weirdly sexy, maybe, or just disturbing to the mind when you watch her. There’s a lot of decaying, too, with the bad teeth. She’s been in prison for so long. The mad hair. She’s someone who has seen better times but still carries herself with the memory of what she was. She’s almost like someone who’s had too many surgeries and thinks they’re beautiful but in fact has gone way wrong. There’s a lot of people like that now. For some reason, I can’t live with the joke that now you can either be old or you can be creepy. That’s the choice. Sad, isn’t it?”

“She is so obsessed with Voldemort. He’s not the most obvious obsession for a love affair, you might say, but he was beautiful in his youth and that’s what she wants and thinks about. He has yet to grow a nose. For some reason, I find the no-nose actually sexy. Everyone to their own. No, but, if you think about it some people get off on power. There are many, many powerful men who were not blessed with the most attractive envelopes.”

Read the entire article here.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter) are featured in this month’s edition of Spanish magazine Tú.  In the article, Dan (who they interviewed after he completed the kissing scene with Bonnie Wright) talks about kissing Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, meeting JK Rowling for the first time, and what he first notices in a girl.  Emma talks about her special memories from being part of the Harry Potter film series, the dancing scene added to Deathly Hallows, what it was like working with Dan, Rupert Grint, and Tom Felton, what she would like to steal from the set, and what she’ll spend her money on.  You can see scans of the article in our gallery (thanks to HarryPotterLa) starting here.

Here are a few excerpts:

You looked a little nervous while filming the kissing scene. Why? Every teenager in the world wants to kiss you!
Really? Well, Harry was nervous. He’s shy and quiet. In this scene he’s supposed to be sad because he knows he has to leave, and he has to leave Ginny, it’s probably the last time he sees her. He’s feeling melancholic.

If you don’t mind kissing your co-star, is there something that makes you nervous during filming?
I try to relax myself on set, but I’m always a little worried and at the same time excited because I have to film these important scenes, but I think it’s normal. There must be a level of concern, always, because you feel excited and that makes you want to do your best. So I don’t think it’s a bad thing that I feel nervous before filming certain scenes.

Do you remember when you first got involved on this projects? When you met JK Rowling, for example? Did she immediately like you?
She still likes me (laughs). I can’t remember the first day I met her. Oh, yes! I remember! All the actors from the first movie were gathered to be fitted for costumes. All of us kids were playing with her daughter because she was so little, we were sitting in the dining room. That’s the day we met her.

Has your relationship changed with her through the years? Did she come to the set often?
The relationship hasn’t changes one bit, but she’s been involved less in the production of the last movies. She visited the set once or twice maybe, and she’s consulted when the scripts are written. But generally speaking, she’s been very happy with the 6 films she’s seen so far. There’s a level of confidence. She went to see Equus, in which I had a nude scene and she came backstage and told me “That’s it. You’ll be nude in the rest of the movies” (laughs). She’s great. Admirable.

She started everything.
Yes. I guess that when you achieve that level of success, you must have so much confidence because of everything you’ve done. She’s the one who started this adventure. I think she’s very happy with where this whole franchise has gone. She doesn’t like that term, “franchise”. But this is also a business.

What’s the first thing you notice when you see a girl for the first time?
Her eyes, I think. I don’t know. I really don’t pay attention to what I notice first. Whatever is her best attribute (laughs).

Emma Watson

You’ve been so involved with Harry Potter for most of your life. Is there a special memory you keep from this experience?
Oh gosh, I wouldn’t know what to tell you. There’s so much to share.

Maybe the first time you had to travel somewhere far for the movies…
Well getting the role for one was special enough. Once the movie opened and it did great, that was awesome too. Getting to travel was amazing. Working with the directors, the trips, going to NYC, having premieres in Paris. Having a theme park now. Everything is exciting.

What has changed now that you study in the United States? Did you think you’d be chased by fans there?
No. I assumed there would be some reactions, obviously I knew it would take people some time to understand I was a normal girl and do the same things other people my age do.

There’s a scene in the movie that is not in the book where Harry and Hermione dance together. Tell us a bit about it. How would you describe it?
There’s a lot of tension in that scene. It’s nice because it’s sweet, but at the same time it’s strange. Hermione alwats tries to stop the boys from fighting and she knows how to react. She’s positive, but after Ron leaves she’s devastated. So Harry tries to make her snap out of it and cheer her up.

You worked with a lot of boys. Dan, Tom, Rupert. Looks like they’re a funny bunch, but they seem so different. What’s it like working with guys that have such different personalities?
Outside the set they’re hilarious, they keep everyone happy. They’re the best.

Were they good to you?
Yes. I got used to the way each of them is. I have so many guy friends, I’m not a very girly girl, but I think that’s ok. I do admit that when we were younger I did feel a bit left out at times, but then we got along better and loved hanging out with them. It’s like having protective brothers, and that makes me feel very lucky. I’m the oldest in my family, so it’s nice to feel like the baby.

In confidence, if you could steal something from the set what would it be?
Fleur’s wedding dress. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve seen.

Would you wear it for a premiere?
No, it would look like I’m getting married (laughs). But I would wear it for a different occassion.

How will you spend the money earned in this film?
(answers between laughs) I don’t know, race cars? Expensive mansions, a yacht…

You can read the entire translation here.

Popularity: 9% [?]

 Although we mentioned here about the kiss between Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe as their characters “Hermione Granger” and “Harry Potter”, there is still a media buzz about the scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 which was released in movie theaters on November 19.  The Associated Press printed an article (with a cute picture of Watson) on the subject which contained quotes from the two Harry Potter stars and the director David Yates.

 There is a quote from Radcliffe about the scene:

 “I thought it was going to be like a soft, sensual sort of moment, and it was this very vigorous kissing scene…”

 “She really went for it, I have to say.  It caught me slightly off guard, but yeah, I’m not complaining.  Many men would lose a limb to be in that position, so I was absolutely fine with it,” Radcliffe said in an interview.

SPOILER:  The specifics of that scene is Ron (Rupert Grint) is under the spell of an artifact containing a part of Voldemort’s soul and reacts in a jealous rage over a vision of Hermione, whom he loves, and Harry, his best friend, taunting him about being “a third wheel” in their “relationship”.  Then, they turn to each other to kiss in a “positively bestial” way.

 “That was mainly Emma, I have to say,” said director David Yates.  The first take was too tame, and Yates said he told the actors it needed to be more “pagan and mad”.  That’s when Watson really delivered.

 “I guess I just realized that I would have fewer takes to do if I just got on with it and just gave David what he wanted, which was a passionate kiss.  Which was something that would really rock Ron’s boat and really be quite painful and nasty for him to watch,” Watson said.

 Grint shot Ron’s raging reactions alone, without Watson and Radcliffe on set.

 That makes sense since Emma had banned him from the set while she filmed the scene because he was laughing too much.  Lolol.

 Click here to read the complete scan of the article in our photo gallery.

  We would certainly like to know your comments about the kiss.

 Thanks to Lyn for sending us the article.

Popularity: 11% [?]

The official Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Thailand Facebook page has uploaded some new videos.  The include interviews with Emma Watson, where she discusses all of her memorabilia that she’s gathered during her time on the set and the kissing scene with Ron, which she’s looking forward to seeing.  There is also a video about some of the evil characters from the film – mainly the Malfoys and Bellatrix – that includes interviews with Tom Felton (Draco), Jason Isaacs (Lucius), Helen McCrory (Narcissa), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix), producers David Heyman and David Barron, and director David Yates.  The last video shows interviews with many of the actors where they talk about the films and their characters.

Popularity: 1% [?]

In a new video interview with Funny or Die, Dan Radcliffe admits that he truly is the wizard Harry Potter.  He says that when he makes the films, he is Harry Potter pretending to be Dan Radcliffe.

Of course, this is just a spoof. Check out the video here and have a little fun!

Popularity: 3% [?]

To promote the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 which is currently in movie theaters, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) appeared on Lopez Tonight yesterday evening.  He mentioned his previous trip to the Mexico premiere of the seventh Harry Potter film which we reported here.  He spoke about his audition for the Harry Potter films and the flirtatious jokes he received in reference to his role as Harry Potter’s nemesis. 

There were a few other topics he and George Lopez discussed before Lopez invited him to break things in a round of golf.

In the second video, Lopez took a minute to joke with Felton backstage.

Source: Harry Potter Official Facebook Page

Popularity: 1% [?]

MTV had the chance to speak with director David Yates about any cut scenes from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. He said there was one of Ron and Hermione where Ron is trying to show Hermione how to skip a rock on the water. Well, she doesn’t do too well with it so Ron has to physically show her how to do it, so there’s a bit of touching involved. He said they had to cut the scene, but that we’d get it on the DVD. Here’s a video of the interview.

Popularity: 2% [?]

A few weeks ago, Harry Potter fans on Facebook were asked to submit questions for David Heyman, one of the producers of the Harry Potter films.  Some of those questions and Mr. Heyman’s answers were posted on the Harry Potter Official Facebook Page.  Mr. Heyman answered what it was like to work with the different actors, which Deathly Hallows would he like to possess, and what was it like to watch the three Harry Potter stars (Daniel Radcliffe – Harry, Rupert Grint-Ron, and Emma Watson-Hermione) grow up as well as a few other questions.  Here is an excerpt:

From Facebook fan Sam Wilkes Garcia: You are one of the few people to stick with the films from beginning to end. You started the first movie, and are still here. What has it been like working with the various directors? Do you find the different visions each director has brought has helped the series’ success?

 I think each director has brought something different to the series, and it has been great.  

 Chris started off our world, and without Chris, I wouldn’t be here.  He helped cast our actors, our three leads.  Stuart Craig designed our world, but Chris kept on saying, “Bigger, bigger, bigger!”  Not only did he create what was onscreen, but he created what was behind the screen as well, which was an environment – a family – and he made it feel very safe.  By the time we were making the film, [the books] were becoming a big hit.  The first three were on the New York Times bestseller list and the fourth was coming out, so by that point, we knew that it was a big deal, but he really encouraged us to be isolated and removed from that.  He was great.  

 Alfonso, I think, changed everything, but while respecting everything Chris had done.  He made the world more mature, as was appropriate for the book.  In the third book, they were becoming teenagers, so he led us into that world.  He brought a magic and maturity to it.  He was a real auteur filmmaker, and I think that really helped the series. 

 The fourth, Mike Newell, was the first British filmmaker, and I think you really felt its Britishness.  He made what he called a Bollywood film, funnily enough, a big entertainment, and the school felt more British than it had any time before with him, and I loved that about it.  And, also, he obviously handled the romance very sensitively. 

 In the fifth, we brought in David Yates, and he’s seen us through till the end, and he brought a real truthfulness.  By this point, the young children were now growing into the second part of their teenage lives, becoming more mature, more experienced as actors, and he really got them to explore the truthfulness and reality and humanity.  He has brought a real energy to the process, and especially for these past last 2 films, I think having his shorthand and his knowledge has allowed us to delve deeper into the characters and allowed us to delve into the stories.  So for me personally, it’s been really exciting, and I think we’ve struck a balance of changing director and keeping director, but I’ve learnt from each of them, and it’s been fantastic.

From Facebook fan Jorge Camacho: If you could possess one of the Deathly Hallows, which would you choose, and how would you use it? 

 Gosh, all of the Deathly Hallows seem to have a consequence to them.  I’m not sure I want the ultimate power that the Elder Wand gives you, and to bring people back from the dead doesn’t seem like the right thing to do.  I believe in the cycles of life and that when someone moves on, they move on. Though there are some people who have passed away who I’d love to see again.  I’d probably choose the invisibility cloak, not that people recognize me or that I’m really hiding from anybody, but there are sometimes I’d love to know what people are saying behind my back, or when I’m not there I could sneak into a room and overhear those conversations.  I think that’s probably what I would choose.

From Twitter user @didigates: How does it feel to see the actors growing up on the movie set?

 It is with great pride that I look at them.  They have blossomed as people and as actors.  In some ways, they’re very much the same people as they were when I first met them.  It’s incredible given the circus that whirls around them.  You look at [the world premiere], it was a mob scene, and yet they retain their humility.  There’s a real decency and a real appreciation for what they’re a part of and a real appreciation for the fans.  They are amazing.  As actors, they’ve grown.  I think that they’ve learnt from each director, and they’ve learnt from the great actors we’ve had on set, who’ve been incredibly generous with them.  They’ve also learnt from their experiences elsewhere, on other films, on stage, and just by going from being eleven to now being in their twenties.  They’ve got more to bring. 

 On the first film, Chris Columbus would literally act out the scenes before them.  We had to do a lot of post-recording because Chris’s voice was going over it going “Come on, chin up!  Act!  You’re scared, you’re scared!” and then for the third film, Alfonso had each of them write an essay about their characters.  Dan wrote a page because he was asked to, Emma wrote ten, I think it was, and Rupert didn’t write anything – just like their characters.  And as they’ve gone on, I think they’ve become more active participants in deciding some of the choices that are made.  They are true collaborators.  They know their characters so well, and I think one of the things again that I love about this new film is that we spend quite a bit of time with them alone, and you really believe that friendship, and the reason why you do is because they’ve worked together for so long, and they know each other so well, and it all seems very truthful and real.

Click here to read the complete Q&A.

Popularity: 1% [?]