Harry Potter Cast: Where Are They Now?

Harry Potter Cast: Where Are They Now?

Daniel Radcliffe : A.K.A Harry Potter

Before the Harry Potter franchise had even finished Daniel was already acting on the stage in the play Equus. From there Dan turned to Horror with filming the cinematic version of the play, “The Woman in Black”, which was a real break from Potter and was a commercial success.

Dan has gone on to play the title role in “Victor Frankenstein”, Manny in “Swiss Army Man” and many other successful roles.

Emma Watson : A.K.A Hermione Granger

Similarly as Dan, Emma worked on other projects while Potter was still being released. Emma was in a TV show called “Ballet Shoes” that was released on the BBC over Christmas 2007. It was popular at the time and showed that Emma could act in other roles.

Since leaving Potter she stared in the very popular “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” in (year). This film also starred Ezra Miller who would later enter the Wizarding World as the Obscurial Credence Barebone who ravaged New York City in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”.

Emma has also starred in “The Bling Ring” which was mildly successful, but the most successful film she’s been in since leaving her wand and frizzy hair behind is playing Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast which was beyond ridiculously popular. 

Rupert Grint : A.K.A Ron Weasley

For a long time Rupert dropped off the map and didn’t resurface until he turned up in Ed Sheeran’s music video for “Lego House”. Rupert played an Ed Sheeran staler and wannabe. Although Rupert hasn’t glimpsed my TV screen I do know that Rupert has been sticking more to the little screen rather than the big scene, appearing in TV shows like “Sick Note” and “Snatch”.

Tom Felton : A.K.A Draco Malfoy

Tom was one of the very few Hogwarts students from Philosophers Stone that had done any major acting before. He played ginger haired son of Jim Broadbent, A.KA. Horace Slughorn, Peagreen Clock. The film also starred Mark Williams, A.K.A Arthur Weasley.

Immediately after leaving Potter, Tom performed in the highly anticipated “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” but he sadly died in this film so couldn’t come back for the later films. Since then Tom has continued to act but not in anything noteworthy.

Robert Pattinson : A.K.A Cedric Diggory

We all know that after being murdered by Lord Voldemort, Robert turns into Edward Cullen, a sparkly vampire, who marries and has a child with Bella Swan. After the “Twilight” franchise ends Robert performed in several well known films including “Remember Me” and “Water for Elephants”

Evanna Lynch : A.K.A Luna Lovegood

Evanna hasn’t acted in anything noteworthy, but this year (2019) has taken part in the American show Dancing with the Stars. Evanna paid homage to her time on Potter by dancing to the Harry Potter theme tune  her  week Evanna danced a Harry Potter themed dance. Evanna even made it to 3rd place.

Bonnie Wright : A.K.A Ginny Weasley

Although she has continued acting since leaving the Potter franchise, her only noteworthy performance was in the film 2013 “After the Dark”. Bonnie has also started taking on the role as Producer and Director, she seems to be enjoying being behind the camera as much as in front of the camera.

Matthew Lewis : A.K.A Neville Longbottom

Mathew has kept pretty busy since leaving Potter, he’s appeared in a handful of films, some of them successful, like “Me Before You” but never as the  leading man. However he has had a lot more success in TV series like “The Syndicate”, “Ripper Street” and more.

Dame Maggie Smith : A.K.A 

Maggie was a very successful actress, both before and after Potter. He most notable role since the franchise ended was probably as Lady Grantham in the long running British TV series “Downton Abbey”, which is also very popular in America. Maggie has also had a lot of success as Muriel Donnelly in the “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” films.

I would now like to take some time to mention the poor souls who are no longer with us.

Rest in Peace:

Alan Rickman A.K.A Severus Snape passed away back in January 2016 and has been missed every day since.

Dave Legeno A.K.A Fenrir Greyback passed away in July 2014 due to heat related issues while hiking in California.

Roger Lloyd Pack A.K.A Barty Crouch passed away in 2014 due to pancreatic cancer. To many he will be Barty, to others he will be Trigger (Only Fools and Horses), but to me he will always be Owen Newitt (Vicar of Dibley).

John Hurt A.K.A Mr. Olivander passed away in early 2017 after battling pancreatic cancer.

Saying Goodbye to Harry Potter

Saying Goodbye to Harry Potter

 

On my Birthday (July 7th) 2011, the final Harry Potter film was released and I couldn’t believe that the series that I had grown up with was over. I had read all the books, watched all the previous films several times and was ready to find out how the series was ending, however it really felt like a part of my childhood was ending. It was a weird feeling to think that there would be no more Potter films, no more books, no more midnight releases. No more, Harry, Ron or Hermione and no more magic.

 

I wasn’t the only one effected by the end of the series, people around the world were counting down to the final movie, so excited to see how it would end, but also wishing the day would never come because that would mean we had reached the finale.

 

The first Harry Potter film was released on the 16th November 2001 and throughout the eight film series we have lost some incredible witches and wizards including, Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, Dobby, Lupin, Tonks, Hedwig, Severus Snape, Cedric Diggory, Lavender Brown, Fred Weasley, Mad-Eye Moody and more! I had mourned their deaths, even shed some tears, but now it was time to say goodbye to Harry Potter.

 

The Cast Say Goodbye

Over the last couple of days of filming, several members of the cast signed the makeup chair that they had to sit in so many times to get turned into the characters they were portraying.

 

As not everyone was involved in the filming of the last scene they filmed, each actors last day was called out on each of their respective last days so people could give thanks and say their goodbyes.

 

For many of the recurring cast members like Dan, Rupert and Emma, they had their own dressing room that they decorated with pictures and games like a ping pong table. As all of the films were filmed at Leavesden Studio, they didn’t have to move dressing rooms, so when it came to finally leaving and taking home all of the things they had collected over the years, Rupert (Ron) found Birthday cards for his 14th Birthday, he was 23 at the time.

 

The Last Day of Filming

June 12th 2010

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2 were filmed at the same time so the last scene that was filmed was from Part 1. It was the scene were Harry, Ron and Hermione are running out of the Ministry, trying not to get caught by Yaxley and reach the Floo Network in time. It was a simple shot they needed which required the three main cast running and jumping on a mattress.

After the necessary shots had been captured, the filming session was called a wrap and everyone present went over to a monitor which had been brought in and they were shown the trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. This was the first time the trailer had been shown. This was followed by a short film created by Jamie Christopher, an assistant director for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2. He came up with the idea for the film because this was the last film in the franchise so it would be the last time they would be doing these things. The film was made up of cast and crew members that held a golden coloured clapper board, everyone was included from electricians, runners, family and friends visiting the set and more. It wasn’t a long film, it was around 3 minutes, but it produced laughter and tears. At the end there was a big hug between the main trio, Emma, Rupert and Dan.

Next it was time for speeches. David Heyman stood up and said thank you to everyone for all their hard work over the years. He also pointed out that many were there from the first day, 29th September 2000 which puts in perspective just how long the franchise has been going on for.

David Barron and David Yates spoke to give thanks to everyone before Daniel Radcliffe stood up and gave a speech. You can see this on the DVD extras of Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Everyone then celebrated with a barbecue. A Mariachi band was invited for entertainment and Rupert Grint (Ron) brought his Mr. Whippy ice cream truck that he bought with his earnings from the films.

 

Mementos

Tom Felton revealed during the premiere that he took Draco’s ring as a memento, while Mathew Lewis took his fake teeth.

 

David Yates took the portrait that was painted of himself and put on the walls somewhere in Hogwarts.

 

Dan took two pairs of glasses, 1 pair from the first film and 1 pair from the most recent film and Hermione took her time turner, wand and cloak. Rupert has said that he was given Dumbledore’s deluminator.

 

Alan Rickman took Snape’s wand and at the end of Goblet of Fire he said that he took some wizard money.

Other actors were given random searches so weren’t able to take memorabilia.

 

Facts and Figures

Dan (Harry) reportedly went through between 60 and 70 wands throughout the entire franchise because he kept on using them as drum sticks. Dan also went through 160 pairs of glasses. There were some that didn’t have any glass in them, some that needed to look broken, some that needed to look perfect and so on.

Over 25,000 items of clothing and costuming have been used in the Harry Potter franchise.

The lightning scar was put on ever 2000 times, mainly on Daniel Radcliffe, but his stunt doubles also needed it applied regularly.

588 sets were created throughout all 8 films.

 

What was Next?

Back then we had no idea that a Harry Potter play would be coming in the form of The Cursed Child, or we would be getting the Fantastic Beasts series, or we would be able to visit the sets at the Warner Bros Studio Tour in London.

 

As JK Rowling said: “Whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”

 

 

 

(None of the photos in this blog post are mine)

The Making of Harry and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

The Making of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

 

Cast

The Trio

Harry Potter is played by Daniel Radcliffe.

Hermione Granger is played by Emma Watson.

Ron Weasley is played by Rupert Grint.

 

The Weasley’s

Arthur Weasley is played by Mark Williams and Molly Weasley is played by Julie Walters.

 

Ginny Weasley is played by Bonnie Wright, Fred and George are played by James and Oliver Phelps. If you want to tell them apart, Oliver has got a mole on the side of his neck. Percy is played by Chris Rankin, Bill is played by Domhnall Gleeson, the son of Mad-Eye Moody actor Brendan Gleeson, and his wife Fleur Weasley is played by Clemence Poesy.

 

Hogwarts Students

Neville Longbottom is played by Matthew Lewis, Seamus Finnigan is played by Devon Murray and Dean Thomas is played by Alfred Enoch. Romilda Vane is played by Anna Shafer, Katie Bell is played by Georgina Leonidas and Leanne is played by Isabella Laughland. Lavender Brown is played by Jessie Cave, Padma Patil is played by Afsha Azad and Cormac McLaggen is played by Freddie Stroma. Cho Chang is played by Katie Leung and Luna Lovegood is played by Evanna Lynch

 

Goyle is played by Josh Herdman, Blaise Zabini is played by Louis Cordice and Pansy Parkinson is played by Scarlett Byrne.

One actor who doesn’t appear is Jamie Waylett who since the first potter film has played Crabbe. Before filming took place in early April, Jamie and another man were found in possession of cannabis. It was also discovered that Jamie was growing cannabis at his mother home, Jamie has said they weren’t to sell, only for his own personal use. He was sentenced to 120 hours of community service. In 2012 Jamie went on to take a small part in the London riots in London. He drank stolen champagne and carried a bomb device.

 

Hogwarts Teachers

Professor Flitwick is played by Warwick Davis. Warwick also plays Griphook, the goblin. It took 4 hours every day to put all of the prosthetic make up on to turn from Warwick to Griphook.

 

Minerva McGonagall is played by Maggie Smith.

Professor Slughorn is played by Jim Broadbent.

 

Professor Sprout is played by Miriam Margolyes.

Madame Pomfrey was played by Gemma Jones.

 

Sybil Trelawney is played by Emma Thompson.

 

Order of the Phoenix Members

Kingsley Shaklebolt is played by George Harris.

 

Remus Lupin is played by David Thewlis and his wife Tonks is played by Natalie Tena.

 

Hagrid is played by Robbie Coltrane and Sirius Black is played by Gary Oldman.

 

Death Eaters

Severus Snape is played by Alan Rickman.

 

Draco Malfoy is played by Tom Felton, his father, Lucius Malfoy is played by Jason Isaacs and his mother, Narcissa Malfoy is played by Helen McCrory.

 

Bellatrix Lestrange is played by Helena Bonham Carter.

 

Scabior is played by Nick Moran and Fenrir Greyback is played by Dave Legeno. In Half Blood Prince, Fenrir has prosthetic make up on around 50% of his face, in this film, his entire face is covered apart from a portion of his lips and the whites of his eyes, although he is still wearing contact lenses. This decision was made to show how much more feral he is becoming.

Dave’s other job apart from being part human, part werewolf is a cage fighter. Dave has since passed away due to heat stroke while he was hiking in California.

 

Wormtail is played by Timothy Spall. Wormtail only appears for a second in a flashback scene.

 

Pius Thicknesse is played by Guy Henry, Alecto Carrow is played by Suzanne Toase and Amycus Carrow is played by Ralph Ineson.

 

Lord Voldermort is played by Ralph Fiennes.

With each destruction of the Horcruxes, Voldemort looks that little bit more broken and bruised, showing how the lack of Horcruxes is slowly making himself mortal.

Other

Lily and James Potter are played by Geraldine Somerville and Adrian Rawlins and baby Harry is played by Toby Papworth.

 

Bogrod is played by Jon Key.

 

Helena Ravenclaw is played by Kelly MacDonald. The role was reportedly offered to Kate Winslet, but her manager made the decision herself to turn down the role as she didn’t feel as though Kate would want to be in something as common as the Harry Potter franchise.

Aberforth Dumbledore is played by Ciarán Hinds, his sister, Ariana Dumbledore is played by Hebe Beadsall.

 

Dumbledore is played by Michael Gambon.

 

Olivander is played by John Hurt.

 

Development

It wasn’t always assumed that the final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows would be split into two films, but when the script was over 500 pages long, and the estimated run time was over 5 hours, they decided that they had no choice but to split the book into two films.

 

This was the only film in the franchise to be released in 3D. It was filmed in 2D because they didn’t get the go ahead on it being in 3D until Avatar was released in 3D half way through filming Deathly Hallows, and they realised how many people would be enticed to watch a film if it was in 3D. filming. The film was converted into 3D and released in both IMAX 3D and 2D.

 

Gringotts

210,000 coins were made for the scene inside of the Lestranges vault.

Hufflepuffs cup was made out of a soft pewter material and then painted gold.

The majority of the items that fill up the Lestranges vault are made of rubber because rubber is easier to mass producer and safer for the actors to work with.

Although the Goblins are on screen for under 10 minutes, each of the goblins looks were designed and planned out months in advance, the absolute best makeup artists were brought in and each hair on the goblins was put in by hand one by one to make sure they looked authentic.

 

The Room of Requirement

The Room of Requirement is made out of props from other the other films in the series, which is why you can find a lot of easter eggs from other films in the franchise. For example Gilderoy Lockhart dumped the Cornish Pixies in there after his disastrous Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson back in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts. There are in fact around 2000 chairs. You can find lamps from Slughorn’s Christmas party, chess pieces from the Philosophers stone and much more.

 

In the scene where Harry Ron and Hermione are all on brooms racing away from the Fiendfyre, to make the brooms more comfortable for Ron and Hermione (Rupert and Emma) casts were made of their bottoms so that bicycle seats could be attached to the brooms to make them easier to sit on.

 

In the Room of Requirement Draco turns up saying that he has been using his mothers wand, however it is clearly seen in the previous film that Dobby steals Draco’s mothers wand.

 

The Kiss

Emma and Rupert were told about that they would be filming the kiss the day before it happened. It was filming in what looks like the Chamber of Secrets, but the only part of that set that was built was the floor. The special effects were able to use enough footage filmed from Chamber of Secrets to make it look like Ron and Hermione were really there.

Bother Rupert and Emma said it was a bit of an awkward moment because they see each other more as like siblings.

The kiss between Ginny and Harry on the stairs was very spontaneous, it wasn’t written into the script, Dan just thought that it would be an appropriate place to put in a kiss, seeing as they may never see each other again.

 

The Pensieve

Young Lily Potter in the pensieve was played by Ellie Darcey Alden and young Snape is played by Benedict Clarke.

Young Petunia Dursley is played by Ariella Paradise

A lot of creative liberties were made with the scene in which Harry looks into the memories of Severus Snape. For example Snape would have never seen Lily saying goodbye to Harry moments before she’s killed.

The Battle at Hogwarts

The Battle at Hogwarts began with the fight between Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape. It was planned that Harry was going to take over from McGonagall, however JK Rowling put a stop to that because she wanted this to be McGonagall’s moment.

Also during this fight McGonagall fires the Avada Kadavra curse towards Snape, but he deflects it and aims it towards the Carrows, two death eaters watching over Hogwarts. Snape could have sent the curse towards the students of Hogwarts or one of the many other professors but he didn’t he aimed them at the death eaters as a nod to his true alliance.

 

In the scene where Voldemort gives Draco a hug, this was completely unscripted and showed Tom Felton’s/Draco’s real reaction. This scene was filmed several times and each time Voldemort acted differently because he wanted to shock the audience around him so it would look like they were all scared of him.

 

Molly was written in to the story to defeat Bellatrix Lestrange because a reader of the series once mentioned to JK Rowling that she didn’t think Molly would be much use in the battle because she is stay at home mum. This allowed Julie Walters (Molly Weasley) to deliver her most favourite line ever “Not my daughter you bitch!”

Both Helena and Julie (Bellatrix and Molly) had to go for physiotherapy after filming there fight scene because of all the movement and work they needed to do. Bella further injured herself during a take by falling off the end of the table she was walking on, luckily she had the smarts to ask for someone to stand at the end to catch her, which they did.

 

Sean Biggerstaff who played Oliver wood the first two films returns to lead an aerial assault on the death eaters. He is the one that shouts “Come on”.

Deleted Scenes

There is a deleted scene where Ron, Harry and Hermione are in Shell cottage contemplating breaking into Gringotts and Ron asks how they will know which item in the Lestrange vault is the Horcrux. The scene ends with Bill warning the trip not to trust Griphook.

 

Another deleted scene shows Luna comforting Harry at Dobby’s grave before she leaves to return to Hogwarts. In the same scene Harry tells Ron that he thinks he’s seeing Dumbledore in the mirror before Hermione enters dressed as Bellatrix.

 

The scene where Ron, Harry and Hermione converse with Aberforth was cut short. In the deleted scene Aberforth warns Harry about not continuing Dumbledore’s mission.

 

A deleted scene at Hogwarts showed the student marching down the stairs with a concealed Harry in the middle of them.

 

A further deleted scene showed Seamus and other Hogwarts students putting the explosive devices on the bridge.

 

A scene where Tonks runs into the loving arms of Remus at Hogwarts just before the battle was cut. In this scene we would have learnt that Tonks had given to birth to a boy named Teddy and was sleeping at home, safe and sound.

 

A scene of Argus Filch locking up the Slytherins in the dungeons was cut out rather sadly as it showed them escaping out by use of explosion. However the scene also shows Draco apparating into the school, which isn’t actually possible as Hermione points out to repeatedly in the books.

19 Years Later

Albus Severus Potter is played by Arthur Bowen. Surprisingly this isn’t his only role in a Harry Potter film. He can be seen in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. He is in the Diagon Alley scene collecting nuts into a paper bag that have just been warmed by a fire breathing dragon.

Lily Potter, Harry and Ginny’s daughter is played by Daphne de Beistegui.

James Potter, Harry and Ginny’s son is played by Will Dunn.

Both Bonnie (Ginny) and Rupert (Ron) had to wear padded suits to make it look like they had put on weight in their older years.

Astoria Malfoy is played by Jade Gordon, Tom Felton’s (Draco’s) real life girl friend.

Scorpius Malfoy is played by Bertie Gilbert.

Rose Weasley is played by Helena Barlow

Hugo Weasley is played by Ryan Turner.

London Premiere

This is the last film of the Harry Potter series and so for the London premiere which took place on 7th July in Trafalgar Square. It was the largest premiere that the UK has ever seen. Some people waited for 4 days for a chance to see some of the stars of the film arrive. They expected 18 thousand people to turn up.

For the people who didn’t camp out, Sky put out a TV release and a 3D release! When the premiere was being filmed live it was sent out to 18 cinemas for people to watch live at the cinema.

One mistake they did make during the premiere was that the narrator Craig Stevens called Luna Lovegood, Luna Lovejoy.

 

Lucius admitted that that he hit his son with his cane a little too hard in their first film together during an interview at the premiere. It was also revealed that secret escapes were built into the walls of the great hall for fire safety.

The End

Here end the end of my The Making of Harry Potter and the…. Series. I have covered all the films in the series and I just want to take a moment to say I’ve loved it. They are some of my most viewed blogs and they have been so worthwhile to create because I’ve learnt so much about a world I already love.

The Making of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released in the UK on 31st May 2004.

 

Development

It was agreed at the beginning of making Philosophers Stone that Chris Columbus would direct all the films in the Harry Potter series, however, just over half way through Chamber of Secrets Chris realised that this wouldn’t be possible. Just creating those two films had been exhausting and a lot of pressure so it was time to find a new director. The man for the job was Alfonso Cuaron. Not everyone was pleased with this decision as his most recent work, “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, had a lot of controversy about it. However, Chris had seen Alfonso’s film “A Little Princess” and Chris knew Alfonso could pull it off.

A clause in Alfonso’s contract forbade him from cursing from working in front of the children.

Alfonso arrived with a new outlook, different ideas and wanted to make the world more of the way he had envisioned it. One of the simple, yet highly effective changes Alfonso made was to allow the students to wear the Hogwarts uniform how they thought there character would wear it. So in contrast to the two previous films where all of the students looked very uniform, very neat and well put together, now in Azkaban the students are wearing their shirts untucked, with their ties on loosely and some students are wearing jewellery. This tied in nicely with the fact that the uniforms were given an update by costume designer Jany Temime, for example there were now two different styles of trousers and skirts and there were wool sweaters and silk ties.

Alfonso also decided that on the evenings after school and on the weekends the students should be dressed in casual clothes, once again to allow their personality to shine through their clothes. This was also the film that decided the colour theme the three main characters should stick to when wearing casual clothes and this continued throughout the rest of the Harry Potter films. Harry wore blue, Hermione wore pink and Ron wore burgundy.

Tom Felton’s (Draco’s) uniform, was given further alterations as he had to have his pockets sewn shut to stop him from sneaking food onto the set.

 

One exercise Alfonso had for Dan, Emma and Rupert, (Harry, Hermione and Ron) was for them to write an essay explaining their character. Emma wrote two pages worth, Dan wrote half a side of A4 and Rupert still hadn’t handed it in to this day. This is exactly the kind of thing there character would have done showing that they knew their characters better than Alfonso thought they would.

 

Filming was halted after the Hogwarts express had been vandalized. Graffiti was sprayed on with spray paint in 2003 while it was parked in North Yorkshire. To remove the damage was £3000.

 

Paul Kieve served as a consultant on the film. He taught magic to several members of the cast including Dan and Emma, and worked extensively to create physical magical effects, for example he was behind the floating orbs that can be seen when Harry is being taught by professor Lupin the Patronus charm. He also gave the Marauders map the ability to fold itself.

Paul actually makes a cameo in The Three Broomsticks.

 

Cast

Hogwarts Students

Harry Potter is played by Daniel Radcliffe.

When filming the scene where all the students are sleeping in the Great Hall, Dan’s pillow was rigged with a remote control whoopee cushion, in on the joke was Alfonso, Alan Rickman and Michael Gambon. While filming the scene Michael pushed the button so farting noises were coming out of Dans’ pillow, there is a scene of this on the DVD extras.

 

Hermione Granger is played by Emma Watson. Hermione’s new cat Crookshanks was played by two different cats, Crackerjack and Pumpkin. There owners saved the hair that they malted and then clipped it back onto the cats to give them a more rugged and dishevelled look. The cats were also given some eye-shadow and a jelly like substance to put under its eyes to give it more of an unloved look.

 

Ron Weasley is played by Rupert Grint.

Ginny Weasley is played by Bonnie Wright Percy Weasley is played by Chris Rankin and Fred and George are played by James and Oliver Phelps. If you want to tell them apart, Oliver has got a mole on the side of his neck.

 

Neville Longbottom is played by Matthew Lewis, who in this film wears bigger than necessary shoes, false teeth, and plastic behind his ears to make them stick out.

Seamus Finnigan is played by Devon Murray and Dean Thomas is played by Alfred Enoch.

Draco Malfoy is played by Tom Felton. There is a moment in the film where Hermione punches Draco, when practicing the scene Emma actually slapped Tom, neither could believe what had happened and Emma felt really bad about the whole thing.

 

Crabbe is played by Jamie Waylett and Goyle is played by Josh Herdman. Neither of which speak in the film. Goyle isn’t in the film as much as he was meant to be because he broke his arm so wasn’t available for filming.

 

 

Hogwarts Teachers

Albus Dumbledore is played for the first time by Michael Gambon after Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore in the first two films, sadly passed away from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

Ian McKellen was offered the role but he turned it down. Ian didn’t want to appear as another iconic character after he played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings series, it would be too much pressure.

Christopher Lee and Richard Attenborough were also considered for the role.

Richard Harris’s family hoped that Peter O’Toole would get the role as he was a family friend.

 

Minerva McGonagall is played by Maggie Smith.

 

Hagrid is played by Robbie Coltrane.

 

Professor Flitwick is played by Warwick Davis. When the script for this film was written, Flitwick wasn’t a character that had any lines and so he was just going to be background character. Alfonso, being a big fan of Warwick decided that he wanted to include Warwick more and so he turned his character into the choir conductor.

Professor Trelawney is played by Emma Thompson, however the role was offered to Tilda Swinton.

Emma has admitted that the glasses she had to wear were basically magnifying glasses and made her feel sick and dizzy.

Emma Thompson was once married to Kenneth Branagh who was Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

 

Professor Snape is played by Alan Rickman.

 

Argus Filch is played by David Bradley.

 

Lupin is played by David Thewlis. The room where Lupin teaches Harry the Patronus charm is an empty Dumbledore’s office.

Moony, Lupin, was spelt “Mooney” on the Marauders map, this may have something to do with Karl Mooney.

 

The Dursleys

Aunt Petunia is played by Fiona Shaw, Vernon Dursley is played by Richard Griffiths, Aunt Marge is played by Pam Ferris and Dudley Dursley is played by Harry Melling. They considered recasting Dudley because Harry had lost a lot of weight, but ultimately they got him to wear a fat suit.

 

Other

Cornelius Fudge is played by Robert Hardy.

 

Molly Weasley is played by Julie Walters and Arthur Weasley is played by Mark Williams.

The Shrunken head is played by Lenny Henry, the then husband of The Fat Lady played by Dawn French.

Ernie, the knight bus driver is played by Jimmy Gardener and Stan Shunpike is played by Lee Ingleby. Ernie and Stan were named after JK Rowling’s two grandfathers.

Sirius is played by Gary Oldman, although Robson Green was considered for the role. The tattoos on Sirius were inspired by Russian prison gang members and they translate to meaning that he is someone who should be respected and feared.

Peter Pettigrew is played by Timothy Spall.

 

Sir Cadogan is played by Paul Whitehouse, you can see him in the background when it has been discovered that Sirius had tried to break into Azkaban. There was also another scene that he was in but it was removed from the film and you can catch it in the deleted scenes.

Madame Rosmerta is played by Julie Christie.

 

The Knight Bus

In order to make it look like the bus is travelling at high speed what they did was make all of the traffic driving around the bus drive at a snail’s pace and have the Knight bus drive at a normal speed.

The filming location was the streets of Palmers Gree in North London. The spectators were asked to not take any flash photography as it could jeopardise the scene however no one listened this and they did it anyway.

 

Creatures

In the books JK Rowling based the dementors on her battle with depression. Alfonso understood how important the dementors were and he actually spent 6 months working on their design to get them right. They tried a puppet in the breeze, they tried puppets in the water but eventually they settled on CGI.

When discussing the dementors with the visual effects department Alfonso’s accent caused a bit of confusion. Alfonso asked for everything to turn to ice in the scene, however the people in the effects department thought that he was asking for lots of eyes in the scene. It’s safe to say that Alfonso was a little confused when they bought him some artwork with the eyes design.

When it came to designing Buckbeak there wasn’t much inspiration out there which meant that they could practically create a brand new creature. In order to make a realistic looking creature they looked at Golden Eagles and how they fly. They settled on something that was half horse and half eagle.

 

The bats that can be seen in Hagrids house are real and were quite problematic due to the fact that they urinated randomly a lot. However they were trained with food, there favourite being banana.

 

Music and Sound

This is the last score composed by John Williams, he worked on the music for the previous two films as well.

 

Easter Eggs

Newt Scamander is seen walking around Hogwarts on the Marauders Map.

A wizard in the pub can be seen reading “A Brief History of Time” by Steven Hawking.

A painting of Alfonso’s wife and baby appear in a moving portrait next to the Fat Lady and when she sings a Voldermort painting can be seen in the right hand corner.

When Buckbeak is first introduced he poops. He was the second ever animatronic creature to do this on films.

 

 

Bits and Bobs

The cast were told that the honeydukes sweets were coated in lacquer to stop them from eating them, whether that was true is unsure.

The set for Honeydukes the year before was the set for Flourish and Blotts.

In order to combat pirating the films, ushers at cinemas were given night vision goggles to allow them to see whether any illegal recording was taking place.

When Prisoner of Azkaban was released in the cinema Lego gave each customer who bought a cinema ticket, they were given a small Knight bus Lego kit.

 

I hope you enjoyed learning about the making of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

 

Original Text

The film is based on the book of the same name by author Joanne Rowling. Her novels were published under the name JK Rowling. Jo doesn’t have a middle name so the K stands for Kathleen which is her grandmothers name. The reason why her books were published under this name is because her publisher didn’t think boys would read them if they were written by a girl. This is also the reason why in America the word Philosopher’s was swapped for Sorcerers. Jo agreed to this change but said that she regretted agreeing to this. However being a new author she didn’t have room to argue.

 

Film Development

When the decision was made to turn the books into a film only the first four books had been released so it wasn’t always assumed it would be one film for each book. Instead, directors like Steven Spielberg wanted to combine the best bits out of the first couple of books and create his own version of events. Furthermore, it was also considered making the film an animated movie. Back when this film was in development visual effects could only go so far, they thought that animated movies would allow the film to be easier to make and it meant that they wouldn’t have to worry so much about the aging of the characters.

Luckily though I think they made the right decision in making a live action film for each book. J K Rowling was a big part of this decision. One of the things she wanted to make sure happened was that her story was told to the best of its ability not the version Hollywood wanted. She also asked that the entire cast be British/Irish in order to fit with her vision of the books. In order to make this happen JK Rowling was brought on as a consultant so that they didn’t do anything to conflict with her later stories.

 

Chris Columbus was found to be the director. Steve Klovis was the screenplay writer along with JK Rowling and David Heyman was the producer.

 

One of the problems with working with such a young cast is the fact that they have to have regular breaks so although the children are there for 9 hours a day, they have an hour for lunch and a break of 15 minutes every hour plus 3-4 hours of tutoring every day. This means that they only get around a maximum of 4 and a half hours of filming a day. Overall it took 169 days to film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

 

One of the few things that the film does better than the book is that it decided to put the students in uniforms. In the books, the students wear their own home clothes with their cloaks over there top, this can visually be seen on the front covers of the original Harry Potter books.

 

Cast

Hogwarts Students

Harry Potter is played by Daniel Radcliffe. It took a long time to find the right Harry, in fact they saw 5000 auditions, it was Chris Columbus who first laid eyes on the future Harry, not in an audition but in the film David Copperfield. Chris felt as though he could be Harry, he had something about him that would fit the role of Harry, but his parents were very reluctant to let Dan audition. They thought it would be too much of an upheaval in his life. Then when Dan and his parents went to see a play in London called “Stones in His Pockets”, who should be there but Steve Klovis and David Heyman who couldn’t keep their eyes on the play. Steve and David guaranteed that Daniel would be shielded from the media and so his parents allowed him to audition.

It was his dad who told him that he had gotten the role while he was in the bath.

Daniel looks very similar to book Harry but not identical. One of the biggest differences is that Daniel has blue eyes whereas Harry has green eyes. They decided to try him with contact lenses. It turns out that Daniel is in that 1% of people who couldn’t wear these kinds of contacts because his eyes reacted badly to them and swelled up and made him teary. The effects of this can be seen in the last scene of the film on the platform where Harry and his friends are getting on the train to return home. It’s emotional scene and Harry looks emotional because of the effects of the contacts.

Saunders Triplets, who are a group of triplets, two boys and girl who played Baby Harry.

 

Hermione Granger is played by Emma Watson. Emma wasn’t originally going to audition for the role, but when the filmmakers contacted schools up and down the country asking if there were any students they would recommend, Mr. Hancock, Emma’s teach recommended she apply.

Similarly with Dan, Emma didn’t look exactly like her book character, she was too beautiful. To combat this they tried to fit Emma with false buck teeth. Again you can see this attempt at the end of the first film on the platform. The false teeth didn’t stay, Emma found them too hard to talk with.

Ron Weasley is played by Rupert Grint who heard of the audition process while watching Newsround. He sent in a form and a picture but didn’t hear anything back. Then he heard that one person had sent in a video as there audition so Rupert sent in a video of himself rapping the reason why he wanted the role of Ron.

 

Percy Weasley is played by Chris Rankin.

 

Fred and George are played by James and Oliver Phelps who are not natural gingers and therefore had to dye their hair for the role.

 

Neville Longbottom is played by Matthew Lewis, Seamus Finnigan is played by Devon Murray and Dean Thomas is played by Alfred Enoch.

 

Draco Malfoy is played by Tom Felton and is one of the few Hogwarts students that had any filming background before this. He was ironically a ginger haired borrower named Peagreen and his father was the soon to be Horace Slughorn (potions teacher in book 6) actor Jim Broadbent.

During the casting process Tom was in a room with a lot of other Draco wannabes and they were asked what their favourite part of the books where. Tom having never read the books before just said it was the same bit as the person before him had said. Tom new he hadn’t convinced anyone, but he certainly channelled some Draco Malfoy personality.

Crabbe is played by Jamie Waylett, Goyle is played by Josh Herdman, Lee Jordan is played by Luke Youngblood and Oliver Wood is played by Sean Biggerstaff.

 

Hogwarts Teachers

Albus Dumbledore is played by Richard Harris who was convinced to play the part by his granddaughter Ella. She was a massive fan of the books and she told that if he didn’t take the part she would never speak to him again.

They has originally asked Patrick McGoohan to perform the role, but sadly he had to turn down the role because of health reasons. Richard Harris himself was only able to perform as Albus for two films as he passed away after filming ended on the second film.

Minerva McGonagall is played by Maggie Smith. Maggie and Daniel had both been a part of David Copperfield, the BBC 2-episode adaptation. Many other Harry Potter actors are also in this feature including Zoe Wannamaker who plays Madame Hooch, Dawn French who plays the Fat Lady in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Imelda Staunton who plays Delores Umbridge in Harry Potter 5 and 7 Part 1.

Hagrid is played by Robbie Coltrane who was handpicked by J. K. Rowling.

In order to turn Robbie Coltrane into a giant for scenes when he is surrounded by other people Hagrids’ body double, Martin Bayfield steps in and will wear Hagrids full costume plus an animatronic head to add further height.

Professor Quirinus Quirrell is played by Ian Hart although it was considered giving the role to David Thewlis who would go on to play Lupin in the third film. Ian also voiced Voldemort, although his voice was edited so that it didn’t sound the same. Also Voldemorts face on the back of Quirrell’s head was computer generated. However the Voldemort in the flashbacks was performed by Richard Bremmer.

Professor Flitwick is played by Warwick Davis. Warwick also provided the voice of Griphook while Verne Troyer was the physical actor.

It is unclear why Professor Flitwick in this film was created to look almost goblin/elf like when JK Rowling only ever imagined him as a little old man. If you’ve seen the later films then you will notice that they try and rectify there mistake by making him look a little more human.

 

Professor Snape is played by Alan Rickman who was reluctant to play another villain but was convinced to do so by his family.

Argus Filch is played by David Bradley who was dressed in false teeth and hair extensions for the character.

 

The Dursleys

Aunt Petunia is played by Fiona Shaw, Vernon Dursley is played by Richard Griffiths and Dudley Dursley is played by Harry Melling.

Other

Nearly Headless Nick is played by John Cleese.

James Potter is played by Adrian Rawlins.

Lilly Potter is played by Geraldine Somerville. The role was offered to Joanne Rowling, the author, but she turned it down.

Mr. Garrick Olivander is played by John Hurt.

Molly Weasley is played by Julie Walters.

Ginny Weasley is played by Bonnie Wright who wasn’t meant to have any lines in the film but she added in the “Good Luck” herself.

Firenze is played by Ray Fearon

The Sorting Hat was voiced by Leslie Philips

You Tube sensation Zoe Sugg is a “Girl in Potions Class” according to IMDB.

Susan Bones who gets sorted into Hufflepuff, was played by Eleanor Columbus, director Chris Columbus’s daughter.

The man on the platform who asks Harry “9 3/4 You think you’re funny do you” is played by Harry Taylor who reprises the role for Chamber of Secrets.

One character who is prominent throughout the books in the Harry Potter series, who they did cast and did record the scenes for but didn’t end up in the film was Peeves the Poltergeist who was performed by Rik Mayall. He wasn’t happy, in fact he used some very colourful words to describe how he felt about the situation.

They got some really tremendous actors and actresses for the many roles in the Harry Potter universe, but there are some actors that were turned away, including Robin Williams who wanted to play Hagrid, Rosie O’Donnell who wanted to play Molly. They were ultimately turned down because JK Rowling wanted a full British cast.

 

Beasts and Creatures

When Harry visits the Boa Constrictor it blinks, this is an impossibility and a movie mistake.

 

It took 2-3 hours to fit each actor in there goblin make up for the Gringotts scene and it took a long time to get the scene ready. Some of the goblins were getting a little agitated so when Chris Columbus explained the scene and the concept that the Goblins needed to look like they didn’t like Harry, they said they understood but they didn’t like him, Chris Columbus, who was a bit shocked at the situation.

 

When designing the Troll, they drew inspiration from a drawing of a troll in the American version of the Harry Potter book. The one with knobbly legs. They actually made a full sized Troll for the scene but Dan never actually climbs onto it’s back, it wouldn’t support Dan’s weight, he would have snapped it’s neck so instead Harry was digitally added in editing. I’ve got to say, I’ve watched the film, and therefore that scene over 30 times and I’ve never noticed.

 

80% of the Owls in the film are real. In order to get them to look in the right direction Fiona Shaw, Aunt Petunia, had dead mice attached to the front of her apron to get the shot of the Owls looking in the right direction.

 

Filming Locations

When they head to Kings Cross station, the exterior shot is actually of St. Pancreas station as this front is a lot more visually appealing than Kings Cross.

 

As Hogwarts is meant to be thousands of years the crew didn’t have the time frame, the money or the space to create an entire set of Hogwarts Diagon Alley and all other sets that were required to make the world of wizardry so they had to rely on existing structures. Old Cathedrals and churches were ideal as they have the archaic and grand look that Hogwarts needs. The filmmakers hoped to use Canterbury Cathedral but were refused by the Dean. He didn’t want the Cathedral, a Christian Church to be subjected to Pagan imagery.

The Dean of Gloucester on the other hand was a lot more welcoming, being a big fan of the books. However there was a lot of disgruntled members of the City who weren’t happy and voiced their concerns to the local newspapers and reported that they would block any film crews. In the end only one protester turned up.

The Cathedral was the location for the troll scene and several corridor scenes.

 

Duke Humfrey’s building at the Bodleian Library in Oxford is the location for the restricted section of the library was filmed. What is special about the Harry Potter filming process is that because Harry Potter was such a phenomenon already some rules were broken and some exceptions were made. For example the library had strict rules about not letting any sort of fire into the room for obvious reasons. The Harry Potter crew were the first to break this rule in hundreds of years.

 

The Dursleys all live at number 4 privet drive. Its specifically number 4 because it’s a number Jo doesn’t particularly like. It eventually got too expensive to film on location in Picket Post Close, Winkfield Bracknell so at Leavesden studios where the bulk of the filming takes place they built 4 identical houses on either side to film along.

 

Hidden Details

When you watch the Mirror of Erised scene take a closer look at the mirror. Around the edge it says “Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi”, if you read it backwards it says “I show not your face but your hearts desire”.

 

To create the floating candles, they tied them with invisible string and put them all on an pulley system so it looked as though they were floating. The effect was quite stunning in the film. Regrettably though, one of the candle wires fell and although no one was injured, it was decided for the safety of everyone involved they would resort to CGI candles instead for future films.

 

When Harry is being shown his father’s medal for Quidditch, in the background there is a medal for M. McGonagall.

 

There is a painting of Anne Boleyn on the walls, she was one of Henry 8th wives who was beheaded for incest, treason and witchcraft.

 

Many of the books in Dumbledore’s office are old phone books that have been decorated.

 

Bits and Bobs

The school motto is “Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus” means “Never tickle a sleeping dragon”.

While on set Dan (Harry) and Rupert (Ron) got hold of Robbie’s (Hagrid) phone and turned the language to Turkish.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed learning some facts about Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Come back on Friday 29th June for a blog all about the upcoming Fantastic Beasts films.