| masterofmystery | 10-07-2010 03:49 AM |
Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, Tom Felton, more Deathly Hallows interview
Translations for the interviews with Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, Tom Felton, Bill Nighy (Scrimgeour) and Rade Serbedzija (Gregorovitch) in Premiere France magazine have been sent to SnitchSeeker, where the actors talk about filming pivotal scenes for the last installments of the Harry Potter saga, and coming to the end of the era. The interviews, translated courtesy of Anais and HallowedGround, can be read below. http://www.snitchseeker.com/gallery/...remiere005.jpg Quote:
Premiere: Let’s start with the hot topic, the famous kiss with Harry. The fans have been waiting so long for it, how did you prepare?
Bonnie Wright: It was really weird. Since I’ve known Daniel, the bonds we share are purely platonic. Each of us has his own life, but we are really good friends. Asking me to kiss him was almost harder than asking me to kiss a perfect stranger. Really, it was almost embarrassing!
P.: You’re one of the “veterans” of the saga. From all the directors who worked on Harry Potter, to which one did you feel closer?
B.W.: Hard to say. They were all different. Chris Columbus was the one most faithful to the books and the story, while Alfonso Cuaron introduced a more dark aspect. We worked for so long with David Yates that we acquired a kind of common sensitivity and we could almost predict what he was going to ask for. It’s with him then that it has been the easiest to work with.
P: Everybody knows that the Harry Potter clan suffers great loss in this epilogue. What’s it like to witness the deaths of characters that you’ve known for 10 years?
B.W.: One thing is certain: the atmosphere would change dramatically once we started talking about the death scenes. There was a really strong emotional tension, but opposite the characters, we didn’t have time to feel sorry for our friends. We filmed this scenes just as J.K. Rowling described them: in the frenzy of the action.
| Quote:
Premiere: How long was the filming of the two parts of Deathly Hallows?
Tom Felton: A little over a year, fourteen months to be precise. We can say that the team has every reason...
Premiere: Fourteen months! It leaves time to carry a baby...
Tom Felton: Exactly! It's pretty surreal to spend so much time on a project. It was more sodas than ever to the end of this shoot*
P: After ten years of Harry Potter, saying goodbye to the saga must have been especially heartbreaking.
TF: When we went back to the last festival at Leavensden after the end of filming, the emotion was at its height. It was the last time the full team was assembled in the Great Hall. We suddenly seemed very empty…a funny feeling.
P: You may find yourself in a few years wandering in the Harry Potter theme park that just opened in Florida.
TF: (Laughs) That's exactly what I said! If I get too depressed, I will go live over there.
P: Throughout the saga, your job was to embody a character that people hated. It could not have been easy every day.
TF: I actually accumulated a certain amount of negative waves during the last decade. It was quite funny, in fact. Groups of children were regularly visiting the set of Harry Potter and when the moment comes to meet me, they'd all go to hide behind the legs of their parents. I learned to take it as a compliment.
P: You also have your fan club, which annoys JK Rowling… because many young girls love Draco Malfoy, even though he is [rotten].
TF: I'm not sure how to answer that. You know what it is, girls have always love the bad boys.
| Quote:
Premiere: How did you get to Harry Potter 7?
Rade Serbedzija: It’s a funny story…I was in LA, packing my bags to go back to England, when my oldest daughter – she was 16 at the time - asked me where I was going. I tell her that I’m going to London to meet up with the director of Harry Potter.
And then, she just freaks out: "You’re gonna be in Harry Potter? Dad, if you ever get the job, you don’t know how much I’ll respect you! "I play alongside Stanley Kubrick, but I had to be on Harry Potter for my daughter to be proud of me. I’m playing Gregorovitch, a guy that makes miraculous sticks…
P: Magic wands?
R.S.: That’s it. I have three scenes with my friend Ralph Fiennes whom I really like. It’s the first time we’ve worked together. He's particularly disturbing as Voldemort… And, for once, he’s the bad guy and not me.
As you know, I'm usually the bad guy in American movies. Even better, I play a crazy person on “Eyes Wide Shut.” When people recognize me in the street, it’s because of Snatch or Saint. Now that I’m in Harry Potter I’ll make new friends.
P: Did you know the saga before being cast in DH?
R.S.: I had seen a film, the first one, I think. I didn’t continue, because after the first one, my youngest daughter kept wetting her bed because she was scared. I was really mad at Harry Potter. (laughs.)
P: She’s not scared anymore?
R.S.: No. She’s become the prettiest girl of the world. She has a new passion: vampire movies.
| Quote:
Premiere: Can we count on an accurate adaptation of the DH or should we expect some surprises?
Evanna Lynch.: I get tired with people going: “Oh god, they didn’t keep the scene with the elf!” If you want the book, read it! We didn’t do a movie for nothing. Personally, I love reading. Right now I’m in the middle of “Lolita” by Nabokov. I think it’s amazing. But a movie necessarily offers a different point of view.
P: Did you read Twilight? Do you share Emma Watson’s opinion, that recently declared that Twilight only sold sex?
E.L.: I didn’t only read them, I loved them. And, as I talked about it to Emma, I know it’s her case too. We talk a lot. Her words must have been motivated by a particular episode and the non-stop comparison with the Harry Potter saga.
P: Instead of evolving as the other characters do, Luna stays true to herself…
E.L.: I auditioned for this character because I wanted to be Luna and no one else: I feel really close to this character because she doesn’t judge anyone. Underneath her loony and detached looks, Luna has had really hard times too. She’s the one who relates and puts an impartial view on the situation, things that I’m capable of doing myself. It’s thanks to her crazy looks that I managed to really be in her skin. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to keep any accessories. It's impossible to steal a sock without getting a freaked out call from a costume designer…
P: Now that the shooting of Harry Potter is over, do you have any other projects?
E.L.: I put my personal life on hold during the years for Harry Potter. I’m trying to make up for the lost time now. Look (she smiles all teeth showing): I have had braces put on. I’m gonna pass my exams too. I almost didn’t to anything at school because of the shootings and the results were bad. Afterwards, if I don’t get any offers, I’ll attend an art school. I don’t feel like going to a theatre class. I’m gonna go all out.
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Premiere: Bill, you said you were the only English actor who hadn’t played in Harry Potter yet. Were you jealous?
Bill Nighy:(Laughs) You know, I was just standing beside David Yates when he got offered the job! We were shooting a scene for Girl in the Café when his phone rang. Warner Bros was offering him Harry Potter 5. When he got off the phone, I told him: "Cool, I won’t be the only English actor who hasn’t played in Harry Potter anymore!" He laughed but I still had to wait five years to get the job…
P: Was it good for your ego?
B.N: It was starting to worry me, not being in the saga. Seriously, Harry Potter is an institution in England. It has become a national cultural treasure. People were tied to the books and now they’re tied to the movies. Being part of this adventure is quite flattering. And after playing a zombie, an octopus and a vampire, I was surely able to portray an old wizard.
P: How did you play Rufus Scrimgeour?
B.N.: Like an old soldier, a man of action turned politician. He had lived a life of war and fights that tired him and I wanted to give him a sweeter edge… You also had to be a little enigmatic. The readers of the saga know the character and its destiny, but I didn’t want to play him starting from the end… I kept a part in the shadows …so as not to make him a hero from the beginning.
P: Did you have any references?
B.N.: No, none. Actually, David and I had a strong idea, but I don’t know if I can talk about it…
P:I’ll be as quiet as a tomb.
B.N: Yeah right. (Laughs) Well, OK: I played him with a Welsh accent.
P: Welsh? Is that the secret?
B.N: Yes. It’s a really sweet accent, really exquisite… For me, it’s the sign of an intelligent spirit, calm and strong at the same time. But to answer your question, I didn’t have any role model in mind. And, if you speak of intelligence, sweetness and firmness, you can’t look up to English politicians! We don’t have that in stock here, trust me.
P: The photos of Scrimgeour don’t necessarily show you at your advantage… What was you reaction when you first saw yourself wearing that wig?
B.N: I thought: “You sad old little thing!” But as I tell myself that every day when I wake up, the wig didn’t change a lot.
P: You’re part of the newcomers… How was it the first time you arrived on a set where everyone already knows everyone?
B.N.: But I knew them all before arriving on set: Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Gambon – a genius, Ralph Fiennes… British actors form a really close circle, we know and respect each other. We laughed a lot on the set of Harry Potter. There’s a golden rule in England: Once you have Michael Gambon on a set, you know you’re going to laugh a lot. And on this set, he was really on top of his game…
| UPDATE: Thanks again to HallowedGround for Rupert Grint's interview translation: Quote:
Picture Quote: On the first take on the scene of the kiss between Ron and Hermione, it was strange to see Emma Watson’s face get so close to mine!
Doe in the woods, creeping paranoia, and a kiss waited for years by fans: Rupert Grint’s update on HP7
Premiere: How do you see Ron at this stage of the saga?
RG: He is very different. He has matured a lot since The Half Blood Prince. He is a bit out of phase having left the familiar world of Hogwarts to find himself catapulted into the unknown when the trio sets out to find the Horcruxes and he has complications that develop between Harry and Hermione as they’re hiding in the forest. Their friendship is put to the test. The tension builds as does his paranoia. There’s a dynamic exchange between the characters, and suddenly everything becomes more complicated for him. It reveals a depth of character and a very poignant sensibility that will culminate in my opinion, when the death of a close and in the epilogue...I've always had many affinities with Ron, but I took a renewed pleasure to play him in The Deathly Hallows, to explore his other facets. Especially as it was for the last time.
Premiere: What captivates you the most in this last movie?
RG: The decision to make two films. The first part looks like a road movie - which we also filmed in large part outside, which was very exciting. In the second we sat down in the destruction of Hogwarts, with intense battle scenes but were very fun to run.
Premiere: As far as the Ron and Hermione kiss?
RG: With Emma, we were really scared. I was both a bit anxious about playing this scene, but especially anxious to be credible. In the end, things went better than I had imagined. Even if, on the first take, it was strange to see her face get so close to mine! Not to mention that we were soaked to the bone ... Fortunately, it took only four takes to put the scene in the box. It's a nice moment, very tender.
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released November 19, 2010 and July 15, 2011. |
