SnitchSeeker attended the preview of
Harry Potter: The Exhibition in Norrköping, Sweden earlier this week, where we got the chance to meet and speak to actors James and Oliver Phelps at the Nya Parken venue. The twins discussed next month's VIP event of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley and if they may attend, and some of their favourite parts of the exhibition and Sweden itself. Photos and a transcript from that event, from SnitchSeeker correspondent Alexandra, can be found below. Harry Potter: The Exhibition will be in Sweden from now until Sunday, September 7, 2014.
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Do you have any plans for now when you are in Sweden?
James: I go home tomorrow, my best friend is getting married so I can't miss it, but we were in Stockholm yesterday and we were there a couple of years age. We just wandered around and got lost. Exploring things was pretty cool.
SnitchSeeker: Will you be attending the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley VIP preview from June 17 to 20?
Oliver: Yeah it's possible, I think. We have been there already to look around and it's absolutely amazing. That's going to be special.
SnitchSeeker: I can take the next one too. Which item is your favourite from the exhibition? Both Weasley related and non-Weasley related?
Oliver: For me it would be ... Weasley related, my wand. Everybody's, every characters' wand was unique to that character. And I always wanted to have it. I was so sure they would give it to me at the end of the filming like "here you go" but unfortunately it's gone on this worldwide media tour. So it's nice to see that. And non-related it would probably be the, hang on let me think ...
(to Oliver) You really liked the ... fire ... dragon.
Oliver: The dragon's egg. The golden dragon egg in the fire would be my favourite non-Weasley related item.
And how about you, James?
James: My favourite Weasley item would be the ... box, they are really detailed, and it's hard to make them so I always thought they were really cool. And my favourite non-Weasley related item would be the dragon ... with it's eyes looking at you.
Do you have any contact with other actors today who were in the film?
James or Oliver: Yeah, we speak quite often with loads of the guys. I mean we were filming together since we were very young. The same relationship you get with someone you went to high school with or university, you know. We speak to each other on daily regular basis. Play ... and golf every now and then with Matt, Matthew Lewis, a few weeks ago. So yeah, we do keep in contact. Even if it's just text messages every now and then, you know.
I'm sure you get to answer this question all the time as you guys were natural doers of jokes in the films, but did you do anything behind the scenes to each other or to others in the cast? Any interesting pranks you guys pulled on anyone there?
Oliver: Not that we can say in public. But there is a prank going on right now. We are involved in a prank right now with one of the guys who is building the exhibition.
Are you going to visit Sweden again? Privately?
James: Yes, I think so. My, our cousin actually lives in Gothenburg.
SnitchSeeker: What additions have there been to the new Exhibition here in Sweden and how did you go about choosing to add those or not to add anything?
Jesse (Exhibition rep): I could probably take that one. So actually we only have one new prop here in Sweden. It's actually kind of interesting because most of the places we go to are pretty limited in size. The venue itself is usually a museum or something similar with a small area. Here we have a huge arena, so this is the first stop we have been on that has every single piece that we have on the display. Usually we have to put some things in storage because we don't have the room for it.
So everything is going to be on display and, for this stop, for the first time ever, we are pretty humble to present Mad-Eye Moody's costume. That was the brand new addition for this stop. As you noticed, most of the stuff inside the Exhibition was, I would say 50 percent was from film 5 and before. We did this during the Half-Blood Prince, when they were filming that one. So the majority comes from those movies. But every single stop that we have been to afterwards, we always added stuff. From the battle of Hogwarts in the Deathly Hallows, every time one of the films were done we had a little list of things that we wanted. A lot of them we got and some we didn't. We always were in a battle with the ones who decided ... and this is the first time I ever mentioned everything is on display.
How did you find out about the casting of Fred and George?
Oliver: We saw it in a national newspaper that they were doing casting for all the parts. So we thought, "Yeah why not?" We get to maybe be in the movie and we definitely have a day off school so it's win-win really. So we went to the audition and we had to wait for about three hours before we were seen.
Everyone was getting one line to learn so we did that and then a couple of days later we get a phone call saying, "Would you like to come meet the director and the producer?" And then so we did and that happened three of four more times and then we had to do a base screen test. So that's when they put you on a set with all the cameras and the crew and that kind of thing to see how you get on there. So we did that as well and it all was over after about six to seven weeks. And so we did the screen test and then we got a phone call saying, "Would you like to play Fred and George?" So yeah, pretty easy.
So how did you guys choose who would play who?
James: We never chose who would play who but we got to the read-through when the whole cast sits at a table and read through the script, and we said to the casting director "Who is Fred and who is George? We still don't know." And she was like "Oh you're going to be good at these parts." "No but really we don't know who is who!" So she went away and she started speaking with David the producer and the director and J.K. Rowling. They were talking and then she came straight back saying "James you are Fred and Oliver you are George." I don't know whether she just said something there and then or if they made a huge meeting about it and discussed it, I don't know. But that's how we found out who was who.
Because you're twins, did you make a prank on the cast just for fun, say personal or as character?
Oliver: Yeah we did pranks but necessarily playing on the twin-thing though. Not pretending to be each other, though that would have been fun ... but yeah, we pulled pranks with other people involved mostly.
Are you aware of any fan fiction about you and have you read it? If so, what did you like about them?
James or Oliver: No, I have been warned never to read it. So I never had. I leave all that to J.K. Rowling.
What things do you remember most from the films, personally?
Oliver: For me it would be the premieres.
First one or ..?
Oliver: No the last one. It was incredible. It was the biggest premiere they had ever held in London. Thinking about how many premieres there have been in London, it's quite a thing. The red carpet and massive amounts of people as well; tens of thousands of people. So that I will never forget.
And for you?
James: It must be all the fun if I'm going to be honest with you. It was not like we were working, you are very aware that you have a job to do but really you were there with your friends so it was never a dull moment. Always having someone to talk to, and we had very much fun.
SnitchSeeker: What do you think European and Swedish fans will take from seeing the Exhibition for the first time? Are they exited that it finally got to Europe?
Oliver: Yeah, I mean, just for the preview, sold out in eight minutes. You hear about concerts doing that but never an Exhibition. That says it's popular and a demand of having it. This is great because it's accessible for people in the area. And being the first stop in Europe is kind of a nice claim. We started 2009 and the demand is still here. So there are still people out there who want to come and see it.
How do you feel nowadays about people seeing you as Fred and George, do you see it as a positive or negative thing?
James: I see it in a positive way, really, because when you are ... say we go out, if people see us they don't see us as Fred and George, they see us as the good guys.
Is there anything in the books, like a scene or something that was cut, which you would have wanted to see?
Oliver: What can I say? Of course there are scenes but I've learnt that in the first movie, if they wanted to do everything as the book in the script it would be a seven hour film. It's quite a lot! But I think a lot of people are lucky that we didn't do every scene with Fred and George as they were in the books.
What was your favourite part as Fred and Geroge in the movies?
Oliver: Um ... the ... in the Goblet of Fire when George and Fred turn into old men. They were funny. That was really cool. The whole process took a long time, those wigs and hair pieces and powder after powder. And were there rolling around on the floor. You could see the hair and makeup - girls were like *demonstrates*.
James: Yeah that was a lot of fun. Actually in the rehearsal, Oliver broke the director's rib. We were going to fight each other so we thought it was just to push each other but the director went, "No no no, let me show you." So he said to Oliver, "Throw me." And he threw him. We only found out about six months later, when he was telling us that he was cool about it.