I met producer David Heyman about five years ago and we were talking about the fourth movie--that was before you'd even come on board the fifth--and he was saying that it's impossible for one director to do back-to-back movies because pre-production and post-production overlap. You somehow have managed to do four in a row. Did you just read the seventh book and realize you had to push to stay on the last movies as well?
David Yates: It developed simply because 5 went really well. We all got on really well and the studio and the Davids really liked the work even before 5 came out, they said that I'd do 6. We had a conversation that went like this. They said, "We think we'd like you to do 6, but can you do comedy?"

I was like one of those actors trying to get a job. "Can you ride a horse? Can you do a French accent?" I said, "Of course I can do comedy!" I love comedy so we started on 6 and then about halfway through shooting 6, they just said, "We know it sounds impossible, it's quite a lot of work, but would you stay for 7? We've worked it out very carefully. It means you being in about three places at once..." You'll have to ask them why they asked me back.

How has that been working out? For the seventh movie, are you literally shooting scenes for both halves at the same time or are you shooting one then shooting the other before doing editing on the first?
Yates: We're trying to finish one and start the other, but simply because of availability of actors, we're having to shoot a little bit of Part 2 while we're doing Part 1. I would say we shot about 10% of Part 2 and about 85% of Part 1, so there's a wee bit of checkerboarding but not much, and it's going brilliantly. We've been shooting for five months. We finish shooting next spring, and it's quite a long shoot for both movies, but it feels great.

It's looking very different to what we've done before and it feels very contemporary and quite edgy, certainly Part 1, and Part 2 I just want it to be epic. I've never made a film ever that's like Part 2. It's much more of a ride in a sense. It's got huge set pieces and that's what I'm really excited to do.

And these are all new sets and locations? Because the first six movies have all been at the same Hogwarts sets just redecorated and dressed differently.
Yates: Yeah, yeah, and this time we're out on the road and then we come back to Hogwarts, but the difference is we trash it. We blow it up. It turns into Stalingrad, which will be really haunting.

I want to talk about the humor, because it was shocking to me. This was the first Potter movie I saw without reading the book and I was surprised by the humor due to where the fifth movie ends, you'd think it would be darker with the Death Eaters around but it's fairly light. Is this a tone you're going to try to continue on through the rest of the series?
Yates: I really love the humor. I like humor. I think it leavens the load a little bit, and Dan, Rupert and Emma do it quite well. Even though the next script is quite intense, and Steve's really great at pairing it with little moments that are quite charming. They're not gags. They're just really delicate funny humorous bits. Then I'll throw in a few things, like the scene with the pies when Rupert sits down. That was just a bit of improvisation. There was just a big plate of pies and I went, "Rupert, I know what we'll do, let's try this" and then Steve writes a lot of really funny stuff which I adore, and the guys adore doing. I think we need to keep that. I think audiences enjoy it, it keeps them in the right mood.

I want to ask about the actors because it's fairly unprecedented for a movie to have the same actors for six movies, completely changing their personalities over the course of the series. I don't think anyone who saw the first movie could even imagine that Tom Felton could do what he did in this movie, and Bonnie Wright who plays Ginny is just amazing. When you came onto the last movie, knowing that you couldn't recast anyone, did you have a plan of how you were going to get them to the point where they could do the things needed for this movie? Or did you just figure Steve would write things to their strengths?
Yates: I think it was a process of nurturing and encouraging and supporting, and I did workshops with Bonnie before we started shooting. I got really excited. She has a quality and it goes back... all credit to David Heyman and Chris Columbus who found them in the first place. They found these kids and what was special about them all was that right from film 1, the audience obviously can really empathize and like them a lot.

My job has just been to sort of develop them and help them get stronger as actors, rather than just as who they are. It's a key part of what I do really.

You were saying before that the script for 6 came in after you finished 5 but the 7th book then came out around the same time. I was curious how the timing worked, because if you had the script for 6 done and then the 7th book came out, that would probably affect things. Did you try not to read the 7th book?
Yates: No, I read it as soon as it came out. Gosh, I can't quite remember (the timing) but we had a couple drafts of the 6 script and we read the 7th book straight-away, just to make sure we weren't doing anything really dumb in the adaptation, and to make sure we were setting up the 7th film correctly. Yeah, as soon as that book came over, we were all (reading it) over the weekend. We kind of knew but we still took things out that I felt were necessary to take out. It's always hard, the adapting process. It was nice actually to finally know where it was all going to end, and that was the first time.

When does Jo get to see your movies? Does she wait for the premiere?
Yates: No, we always show her before the premiere. This one we showed her about two months ago and she's a bit like waiting for your papers to be marked by the headmaster. She went in and we're all very nervous and she came out and she loved it. She said it was her favorite one.