Steve Kloves talks about writing the Harry Potter scripts in the new issue of
Creative Screenwriting magazine.
Four scans can be viewed
here courtesy of
Veritaserum.
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"I'm sympathetic to Chris [Columbus] because Chris has pretty good commercial interests," concedes Kloves, "and I even know people who thought 'Chamber of Secrets' was too scary for very little kids. Had we hit the mudblood thing even harder, God knows."
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After seeing what they did in 'Philosopher's Stone', "it invigorated me to write for them. I think I know what Emma can do, I think I know what Dan can do, I think I know where Dan can be funny and where it's forcing it. It has less to do with Dan than it does with Harry. Harry can be funny in a certain kind of moment. You don't want him to carry the joke. Hermione is funny in her obsessiveness, and Emma can handle that very, very well. And Rupert is a kind of genius. I really believe that. I think Rupert is someone that has made lines hysterical that, honestly, I don't think are that funny."
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At the same time, Kloves feels a certain protectiveness for his characters, and Ron is a good example of where Kloves fought to give a character more dimension. Acknowledging, "that there will always be a tendency to default to Ron being funny," Kloves has believed that, "for a couple of movies that Ron needs to evolve and show some spine," which he does in 'Goblet of Fire'. Kloves appealed to Newell, who agreed that Ron not be "just the trembling sidekick."
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Two innocent lives are hanging in the balance, but Kloves works in a comic line to ease the tension; "Does my hair really look like that?" Kloves "knew that Emma would kill that line. Up till now she's driven the scene for two minutes. It just makes her a real girl. I knew that Emma would do it well because Emma is a real girl. Underneath it all, there's fragility, and that's the kind of stuff you love to write for an actor. Everytime I saw it with an audience, people laughed because they recognised the truth of it."
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The moment occurs on the train, and Newell plays it very subtly; so subtly, in fact, that "at first I thought it was too subtle. But it doesn't matter because it isn't a plot moment, so people will either pick up on it or not." When Ron orders a couple of items off the trolley and realises he only has enough money for one, Harry offers to pay, to which Ron responds, "'No, no, it's alright.' But it's not accented at all. You'll miss it in a second if you're not watching for it. But it's character-consistant, which is nice. Ron doesn't want Harry paying his way. Rupert turns away, doesn't even make an issue of it. That's a sign of maturity on Ron's part, which is, 'Let's not even talk about it.'"
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In Ron's case, "he's always had brothers who are more talented and more gifted and is just starting to come into is skin and realise that he has talents of his own."
Hermione "ultimately knows that she relies on her intellect," and Kloves fondly recalls the way Hermione plays Poirot: "In one draft for each film, I've had Hermione saying, 'This doesn't make sense.' She's cogitating about something. And thank God she's there, because Harry and Ron, left to their own devices, might just walk off the battlements, and that would be the end of it."
But Harry "is a darker character than people realise." One must never forget that Harry "was abused as a child. For all the comic exaggeration of the Dursleys, they locked him in a cupboard for a decade. So everything Harry sees is still through the tiny eyes of a boy peering out at the cracks of light from a cupboard."
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Steve Kloves interview in 'Creative Screenwriting' 
