THE POTTER GANG
HARRY POTTER and the Order of the Phoenix features Harry's struggles through his fifth year at Hogwarts. The adventure, fantasy movie is based on the novel of the same name, by JK Rowling. The book, the fifth novel in the Harry Potter series, is the longest book in the series. The movie, directed by David Yates, follows Harry Potter entering his fifth year at the magic school Hogwarts. It includes the surreptitious return of Harry's nemesis Lord Voldemort, OWL exams, awkward teenage love and the Ministry of Magic.
The screenplay was written by Michael Goldenberg, who replaced Steve Kloves, writer of the first four films. The sixth-highest grossing film of all time, it surely was a success. David Yates was chosen to direct the film after Mike Newell who directed Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire turned down the offer.
We bring you interviews with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint after the film was shot ...
What is it like to initiate a new director? Is there anything special you do on his first day?
Daniel Radcliffe: Like hazing, you mean? No, I don't know, it's great. I think whenever a new director comes on board, there's always a real intense excitement because you're aware that something new is going to be brought to the table and I think that can only be an exciting prospect. So, I don't think we go through any particular rituals, do we?
Emma Watson: No. There are no introductory rituals. But, I don't know, it's really nice. I mean, I love the cast and crew that have been on the film since the very beginning, kind of been there for all four, five years. So, there's quite a nice friendly family that hopefully is not so intimidating for newcomers. It's kind of really friendly.
Rupert Grint: Mmm. And all the directors have been always quite different, as well. So it's always quite exciting to meet the new ones. We've had some pretty good ones. Yeah, we've been lucky.
We've literally watched the three of you grow up as we're reminded in this movie. For the three of you, growing up with these characters, have you found that they've influenced you in real life?
Daniel Radcliffe: That's a question that gets asked in different ways a lot. And it's one that I think people always wanted us to say, yes, we couldn't live without them, sort of thing. And while they've been amazing, I don't know if they've actually influenced us. Well, certainly, for me. I can only speak for myself. Harry, as a character, hasn't influenced my character too much personally, but I don't know how you guys feel about that.
Emma Watson: Yeah. It's really funny. We get asked a lot, about growing up and being on camera and growing up in the limelight and all of that sort of thing. It's a really funny question for us to ask because we can't see ourselves from the outside, if that makes sense? It's a bit like trying to look at it from a different perspective, so it's a bit funny. But, yeah, sometimes I feel like I barely have to act because I feel so close to my character and I just feel like I know her so well. And I think we're quite similar in a lot of ways. So, my job isn't too hard, really, so I'm quite lucky like that. And so, yeah, it's nice. Yeah, we've kind of grown up together. All of us are a teeny bit older than our characters. So, in a way it's nice because we kind of experienced what our characters are going through before them.
Rupert Grint: Well, yeah. To me, it's really weird, looking back at all the films. It just seems like one long film. Feels weird looking back about the early ones, how young we were and how much we've changed now. It is really weird. No, we've really enjoyed it. It's been really good part of my life and, yeah, I'm really enjoying it.
Daniel Radcliffe: I had a hideous reaction at one point when I was in a screening of Harry Potter 5 and there was a picture of me on the screen, but then there was a clip of me in the first film at one point is used in the fifth. And I just heard lots of girls go, 'aww,' and that was just so destroying.
Did the three of you preorder your book or did JK Rowling give you a little bit of a preview about what's going to happen?
DanieL Radcliffe: No, none of us gets a preview.
Emma Watson: Unfortunately. Literally, the security on the books and making sure it's kept is pretty tight. So, we get one the night that it is released. But not before. It's really funny 'because we know Jo. We've known her for ages and it would feel really awkward asking her for her autograph now. I would never do that. I bet like in 20 years, I would really regret it, but still.
Rupert Grint: I still got it signed, the first book.
What's been the biggest things that you've treated yourself to over the years or recently?
Rupert Grint: Oh, well, I recently, I've got an ice cream van.
Daniel Radcliffe: That's fantastic, actually.
Emma Watson: It's got like the ice cream sweets, the toppings.
Emma Watson: I really want to see it.
Rupert Grint: I should've let you go first.
Daniel Radcliffe: You can't top that. No, nothing particularly exciting, I mean, I'm quite interested in artwork and things like that. But I've never been into cars or anything like that, so I don't think I'm going to splash out on a classic car collection, which I think people seem to expect me to. I don't think I'm going to be doing anything particularly exciting. And I would like to point out at this moment in time that I have not bought and never planned to buy a Fiat Punto. This was reported a while ago. And it was completely untrue and the best part of the article said that I was working with Fiat to get just the right shade of green with my car. And I would like to now state that that has never happened.
Emma Watson : I haven't really. I mean, I bought myself an Apple Mac, my little laptop, which I love; it's my pride and joy. I've used it so much, I don't have memory space on it anymore. But I'm not into driving at the moment. I'm taking my lessons now, so I suppose, at some point, I'll be wanting to get a car. But to be honest I'm finding driving so hard, and getting in a car so intimidating, I can't really imagine myself buying myself a big fat sports car or anything. I want a small engine.
Daniel Radcliffe: A very small engine.
Emma Watson: I want something really small, really safe, and really unintimidating.
Daniel Radcliffe: Yeah, a Punto.
Emma Watson: Yeah, a Punto, and they really will have something to write about. Yeah, my shade of green.
Dan, Harry goes through a great deal of emotional stress and angst in this film, so does Alan Strang in Equus. I'm just wondering, do you leave these things at the end of the day or do you take them home with you?
Daniel Radcliffe: Yeah. It's very important to leave Alan Strang in the theatre. Sometimes, I suppose it could be hard to detach yourself from a certain character, particularly after having done the show for 16 weeks. You do get very attached to him and, in a way, you do miss going out and doing it night after night. But at the same time, it is essential that you do just leave it behind and move on, and now I'm doing another film in August and then onto Harry Potter. So, it's just time to keep moving on to other things now.
How was the stage experience for you?
Daniel Radcliffe: The stage experience was phenomenal. I think it came at exactly the right time for me. I think, at that stage, it's exactly what I needed to do, and it was great fun. It was fantastic, and I met some brilliant people and got to work with Richard Griffiths in a totally different capacity — because as Uncle Vernon, it's great and we always have a laugh, but he's only normally there for a week, a week and a half. And, so, to spend 16 weeks or more between rehearsal with him as this kind of character was fantastic. Yeah.
What message do you want people to take home with them, both from the movie as a whole and your performances individually?
Emma Watson: Well, I guess in a big way, what this film is about is that Harry is in a really, really difficult place. He feels really isolated. He wants to isolate himself because he thinks if he does that then he won't have as much to lose. And I think a lot of the film was about Harry's journey to realising that he doesn't have to do this on his own and the importance of his friends and the importance of just friendship, and the need to look at it in the positive ways. The friends that he has and the people he has behind him were scared because he might lose them. He actually gives them something to fight for and that makes him a much more powerful wizard/man than Voldemort. So that's, I think, for me, one of the key messages.
Emma Watson: I think it's a natural step, but it's not something we've really thought about. I think it's just that we've grown up and we've watched a different director. He has brought out different things in us and helped us to develop and we've learned more. For every film we learn something new and we bring all of everything that we've learned together.
Daniel Radcliffe: I think, we're a lot better as well in this one. We have all grown and developed, and I think it does add something to the film, certainly.
How easy did you find it to become leaders and teachers of Dumbledore's Army? How did that affect you guys?
Rupert Grint: I've really liked doing these things. They're really good fun because there's a really good atmosphere on the set and because they had a lot of good stunts as well, which is really cool, like I got pulled back on a wire because I'm....
Emma Watson: You're nosy.
Rupert Grint: Yeah. Yeah, so I've really enjoyed those things, they were really cool.
Can you tell me about the scenes in which you're teaching?
Daniel Radcliffe: Oh yeah. Those scenes were great. I mean, for me, I was thinking of it as, sort of, he starts off as this very reluctant leader, starts teaching them, and by the end, he is Henry V to the point where, David Yates, the director, did actually want to give me note that said, 'Dan, could you not bring Henry V? We don't want it to go quite that far in yet.' But it was great. The only problem with those scenes was that set we filmed them on, we had under-floor lighting. The whole place was mirrors and so, in every shot, you would have to have fires all around, which meant that set seemed to be a sort of degree hotter than the sun.
Emma Watson: It was really lit. It was like walking into an oven. And the worst thing is that it's an enclosed set. Everything was closed off so it was like, 'Oh my God!' It was so hot.
What thought have you each given to your careers post-Harry Potter? What would you like to be doing next?
Daniel Radcliffe: I don't know. I suppose I'll just keep acting and hopefully do really interesting and different things. And hopefully just continue to find things that are really difficult for me to do and challenge me, so I don't become complacent or whatever. I really just carry on, really. And I'd love to write, I suppose, as well, in very, very long way away, but that's another thought. But, yeah, I suppose for now, just to, hopefully, continue to where I'm going.
And write fiction?
Daniel Radcliffe: No Just sort of poems and things, really.
Rupert Grint: Yes. I suppose it's the same with me. I don't really give it much thoughts, to be honest. But I think I do feel like continuing acting and I'd like to see where it goes from there, really, and if it doesn't work out, I still got the ice cream van.
Emma Watson: You can't really say, 'This is what I want to do' because it's not really your choice, you know? This business is completely unpredictable. You never know what films are going to being made, what work is out there. You've just got to see what's out there, really, I guess. But, ideally, I'd love to try some theatre at some point. I'd love to do a period drama. I mean, there's loads of different things I want to do. And I also really love to sing and I'd laugh like I don't, why I'm not launching a singing career or anything.
Rupert Grint: When's the album out, Emma?
Emma Watson: Yeah. In a couple of months. Only me. No, no, don't worry. Yeah, but I'd love to do something which has music in. It is in those things I'm really interested, but it's just what comes up, really, and it's also just what works in terms of scheduling because I was able to do Harry Potter and juggling that with school and stuff. I don't want to do something just for the sake of it. I really want to wait for the right things to come along.
It was a laidback set, but you also said, Daniel, that you were pushed harder than on any of the other films. What was that like?
Daniel Radcliffe: Yeah. David would come up to me at the end, after a take, and he'd say, 'That one was good, but it wasn't real, you know?' Or, 'You can get it better than that.' And there were times when I was thinking, 'I can't. I don't know how.' But actually, in the end, I could, and he was right.
Emma Watson: Yeah, I was actually a bit nervous about working with David Yates just because I felt, I don't know this guy. I'll go and watch some of his previous work. And the performances he got out of people in those pieces of work, I was just like, 'Oh my goodness. How am I ever going to live up to that standard of just acting quality, I guess,' and just how real everything was. The thing that occurs to me most about David and the most about this film is it really made me feel something. It really makes you feel. Also, having seen that David is staying on for the next one, having seen the film, it's amazing, and it sounds lame, but it feels like it's unfinished business. It feels like he has more to do, more to say. And it doesn't feel like I've learned all that I can from David. I still feel like there's so much more that I can learn and get out of him.
Daniel Radcliffe: I'm thinking of, of getting David Yates into his director's chair and breaking his leg, so he can never leave. (laughs)
Over the years, what kind of audiences have you heard from, and what do they tell you they're responding to in the films?
Rupert Grint: There's a lot really. I think it's quite a varied audience response. I mean, obviously, it's quite for the younger ones particularly, and also, they've probably grown up by now. That's one. I've always had so good feedback for the films.
Daniel Radcliffe: Yeah. It's quite unique in a way because it does attract a huge range of people, and that's what's great about it. And because you know that Potter in a way is one of the few films that's targeting certain groups of people. But really, it doesn't just appeal to one demographic of people. It appeals to a huge range of them and then, you know, we get a response from a lot of people of different ages, all around the world. And also, the amazing thing about it is that the people who were 10 when the first film came out, and indeed, seven when the first book came out, they've grown up and they are now our age, but the nature of Potter and the fantastic storytelling means that younger kids are still coming to us. So, it's got this audience that regenerates itself through generations.
Emma Watson: What I love is this: I'll be out and about, and one day, I'll have a seven or eight-year-old come up and say, 'Oh, my God, I'm a really big fan, love the films,' and the next day, 30, 40. Literally, it ranges from grandmas to young kids. It's amazing. The range is absolutely universal. And I really like that. I really like that they have adults in there. And as they come along, they're getting a lot darker and they're getting a lot more mature. And I think we are growing with that initial audience that we first had at the beginning. We're taking them on a journey. I didn't think anyone will be like, 'Harry Potter's too young for me,' or anything like that.
Emma Watson: It's amazing. It really does much to give every type of audience what they want, I think. So, yeah, it's good.
Fans always focus on Harry's wonderful characteristics. What are his bad points?
Daniel Radcliffe: I think Harry does have bad aspects, and I think everybody has, in a way. When he lashes out in this film, he lashes out at his two best friends. And I think that's something that a lot of people do simply because they know that ultimately, they'll be okay. I think he can be selfish because if he does feel he has to live up to this image of himself that all these people have of being this sort of great defender of right and magical things. I think he does really have to be the hero, and so he has to go alone. So, he does try to cut himself off from people. I think those would be a few of them. And also possibly in the third film when Snape infers that he's like his father and that he's arrogant. But I think there's possibly some truth in that, that we possibly get see more of, I don't know. I know you guys will be very diplomatic.
Emma Watson: Oh, we will. Thank you. You have to consider and you have to remember that this is a boy who never knew his parents, who is living with the Dursleys, which I think is anyone's worst nightmare. He's been completely isolated from everything and everyone. He's probably quite lonely. No one in the world will ever understand what it's like to be him or go through what he's gone through. Everyone knows who he is and looks at him in the Magic World industry. Considering all of that, it's a job that he's actually sane. And that he is a really nice guy. And that he isn't more screwed up or self-centered, just not completely gone off the rails. I mean, he's a survivor. He's a fighter. He's pretty strong.
Daniel Radcliffe: Yeah. And JK Rowling did say at one point, because a lot of people had a problem with the fifth book because they didn't like Harry's anger; they felt he was too angry. And J K Rowling did say, 'If you haven't understood Harry's anger in the fifth book, then you haven't understood the four books previous to it. Because if you did, then you would see that he has a right to be this angry.'
Dan, there are some similar themes to Harry Potter in your new film December Boys — the loneliness and being an orphan. Tell us a little bit about that film you're going to be doing in August.
Daniel Radcliffe: Yes, December Boys is about four boys who grew up in a Catholic orphanage in the outback of Australia and who, by a generous donation to the orphanage, were all sent on holiday for their birthday month, which is December, hence why they are the December Boys. And they all have various rites of passage stories while they are away. And I think it's a really sweet, genuinely warm and heartfelt film. And hopefully, other people will like it too. As you say, there were similar themes. The tally is now up to three orphans — Harry, David and Maps. But it is a very, very different film. And he's a very different character from Harry because Maps is much more restrained than Harry. Harry lets a lot out, and Maps doesn't at all. And later in the year, I'm doing My Boy Jack, which is about Rudyard Kipling and his son who wanted to go and was sent to war despite having failed numerous army medical test because his eyesight was so bad. It's a very, very sad story. But it's a beautiful script written by David Haig, who is also playing Rudyard Kipling, so, very exciting. Yes.
Which was each of your favourite scenes in the film and why?
Daniel Radcliffe: Hmm. I like the scene after the kiss with Cho Chang.
Emma Watson: I was about to say that.
Daniel Radcliffe: Because all of us were in hysterics. And I think a lot of that was genuine. I think that day we were just in quite a giggly mood. All of us were actually trying to keep it together. And in the end, it really works, this very sweet scene, by all of us being in hysterics with each other. But I also love doing anything with Sirius, Gary Oldman.
Emma Watson: That was for everyone as well, just because I just have such good memories about filming it. I don't know if you remember but it was something to do with orange and I don't know why. And literally, David, I remember, just filmed me laughing in hysterics. Dan and Rupert both stopped. They read their lines.
Rupert Grint: That was quite scary, actually.
Emma Watson: And I was still going, I was on the floor and just laughing. And he just filmed all of it. So, my laughter is really genuine, which I just think feels like a scene that brings together our real friendship and our characters' friendship.
Daniel Radcliffe: I know. All part of life's rich tapestry.
Emma Watson: Yeah. Yes, exactly. So, yeah, mine's the same. I'm really fond of that scene. I really like it.
Rupert Grint: I think the fondest one to do and then watch back was the prophecies because there's just nothing there. It was like no set at all. It's all green screen and then watching it is really weird. But, that was pretty cool.
Daniel Radcliffe: But I think it's fair to say we enjoyed most of the scenes in the film. I think, generally speaking, we are laughing pretty much all the time.
You mentioned Harry's fame. How is it for the three of you to be dealing with fame?
Emma Watson: I guess what was difficult for Harry was the fact that he'd lived all of his life just this normal boy, and then suddenly he found out he's a wizard and that he was famous and just, something he had to deal with. In a way, it feels kind of easier for me because it almost feels like I've never known anything different. I was so young when I first started doing this, and it kind of builds up quite gradually as well, that I learned as I went along the way just from experience and it just sort of built up my confidence in myself in being able to deal with it. And I've also just been pretty well looked after, I have to say. Warner Bros has just from the very, very beginning really taken care of us, not just as kids from the Harry Potter, just as individuals and these people that she's really fond of. Like the fact that we've had that kind of family idea, and that they really genuinely care about us as people and that we're not just vehicles. That really helps. And I guess me, Dan and Rupert all have really strong families around us as well who have really taken care of us and I think that's what keeps all three of us sane, is just having a really strong base and a really strong identity outside of the films. And all of us know that we're worth something apart from what everyone thinks of us.
Rupert Grint: It is funny. And, actually, there will always be certain things that some people will be able to do that we can't do, and that's fine, but also loads of opportunities through this have been extended to us, and that's amazing. So, we're also very fortunate. I mean, it is obviously a very strange experience. But I think what Emma said about not being thought of or treated as sort of entities that will either sell a film or not sell a film is true, since we've actually been treated really just fantastically. We're very, very lucky in that respect.
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