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April 28, 2008 - Translation: CNN10 OotP Junket

Journalist: the initial idea that sent us to London was for you, Harry Potter followers, to get closer to the cast.A lot of you consider yourselves to be the number 1 Harry Potter fan and ,also, a lot of you sent us questions to the cast.

Let’s go with some questions with Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.

So, this is from Andrea Bezerra from Venezuela: she wanted to know if before each shoot, they forced you to read the books.

Emma: Uh, yes because I can read the scripts but there are some things in the book that are left out and when I’m acting I need to know these things so that I can be subjective. For example, in this movie we don’t see any feelings growing between Ron and Hermione. Although it’s important that there’s a tension between them, these subtleties are not in the scripts. Like you said the fans are really important and they’re the main reason why we’re doing these movies in the first place and because they’re such big fans of the books.

Journalist: This is from Juliana Olivera who’s from Colombia and she thinks that in the past movies your character was a little scared but that with the progress of the Order of the Phoenix your character seems a little more brave; is that maybe because he’s growing up?

Rupert: Yes I think Ron has grown up quite a lot since the last one. He’s a lot more, um, definitely more sure and more stronger in this one. In the last movies he got scared really more easily like she said (Olivera). Now he’s more focused on his life because these are hard times with voldemort coming back which is terrifying.

Journalist: Roberto Etxeberria de Panama wants to ask you: why do you think Harry Potter is really famous to all ages? Himself is married and 30 years old.

Emma: Wow! Um, because J.K. Rowling is such a talented writer. They’re books for kids but at the same time, they’re not because adults can also read them. guess because they’re so much depth to them. You can never stop interpreting and getting more out of it. Each of the spells has a Latin name and a meaning. And all of these “magical words” that she can think of. There are a lot of turning points in the plot, a lot of depth and a story behind all of that. She has a ton of notebooks with details and details on all of the characters and their family throughout the generations. Which shows that this is not a book for kids anymore; you can get a lot out of it.

Journalist: So, this one is from Daniel Perez from the Dominican Republic. He wanted to know what are your plans when it comes to education? Are you going to go to university or are you going to continue acting?

Rupert: Um, I left school around 16, a couple of years ago, and ,um, I never really liked school it was never my favourite sort of thing. So I was really lucky that Harry Potter came along and that I could leave school. I could go back and take some classes, maybe I will but I was never good at school. I was only good in arts so if I do something new it’ll be in this field.

Journalist: Any admirer of Harry Potter’s magic would like to live in flesh the most exciting moments of this story. Well, good news because the Universal studios with Warner Bros. are making a theme park so that this dream can become real.

Scott Trowbridge: The world of Harry Potter is going to be a 7th new island that we are going to add to the Universal Studios in Orlando. It’s going to be the biggest project that we have added to one of our parks throughout the world. When you’re making a movie, one just has to make what the camera sees. Here we’re making a world for discovery and exploration. We’re making the buildings so accurately, I don’t think it’s ever been done before. People can see things from underneath, from the sides, they can feel and touch everything.

Source: video, translation thanks to the wonderful Claire!

Tags: ootp!

December 17, 2007 - Emma Watson Longs to Be a Normal Teen

Playing Hermione in the Harry Potter films has brought Emma Watson unimagined wealth and fame. But sometimes the 17-year-old actress would just like hang out with her friends without causing a scene.

“I’m not the girl they get the number 19 bus into town with to grab a coffee,” Watson tells the Daily Telegraph of her friends. “I just get mobbed. … It’s an uncomfortable experience for everyone. Sometimes I miss the fact that I have never really been a teenager because I have been Hermione for such a long time.”

Indeed, Watson won the role when she was just 9. She has shot five Potter films, with two more to go. And while she is grateful she got the part (”I just tell myself I won the lottery”), growing up in the spotlight has been challenging.

“When I heard I’d got the part of Hermione, my mother said to me it was very important to keep the friends I’d made already,” she says. “She told me that in the future it would be important to know people liked me for myself and not because of my career. … Now I know exactly what she means.”

Dating is particularly hard, as any boy she spends time with is immediately pegged as her boyfriend. Her younger brother, Alexander, is “about the only bloke I can go out with and not cause a stir,” she says.

She’s also ambivalent about press coverage of her. “I try not to read it, but it’s hard,” she says. “Who doesn’t want to read about themselves? But it’s always written with this tone – as if the person knows me. But they don’t.”

Watson is trying to branch out as an actress, and is appearing in a TV movie, Ballet Shoes, in the U.K. But she is also applying to Cambridge University, to give herself some options.

She explains: “I feel it’s terribly important to continue with my education, in case acting doesn’t work out for me.”

Source: People.com

December 15, 2007 - What Emma Watson did next

Is there life after Hermione for Emma Watson, the young heroine of the Harry Potter films? Now 17, she tells Lucy Cavendish about her first non-wizard role, and how she feels as if she’s ‘won the lottery’

Emma Watson has been in the public eye for what seems like forever. We all became aware of her eight years ago when she was cast as Hermione Granger in the first Harry Potter film, and it has gone on since then. So maybe it’s not that surprising that her publicity machine is fretting somewhat. ‘It’s her first interview away from Potter,’ the PR whispers to me on our way to meet the 17-year-old Watson. ‘She may be rather shy.’ We turn a corner to find Watson skulking around a kitchen, nervously sipping some juice and looking very pretty and gamine in the current teenage uniform of three-quarter-length leggings, faux leopardskin pumps and brown soft-leather bomber jacket. She has long blonde hair, a neat face and very dark plucked eyebrows, and she still seems terribly young, despite everything she’s experienced so far in her short life.

In many ways, it’s hard to separate her from Hermione Granger. ‘Yes, it is, isn’t it?’ she says all in a rush. ‘Sometimes even I get muddled which one I am, because I know Hermione so very well. My little brother, Toby, who’s three, gets very cross with me sometimes because when he sees me in Harry Potter he can’t understand how I can be Emma and Hermione at the same time,’ she says.

This Christmas, though, she is being not Hermione but Pauline Fossil in Ballet Shoes, an adaptation of the popular Noel Streatfeild novel on BBC One. It has a starry cast including Victoria Wood, Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon in the Potter franchise), Eileen Atkins, Harriet Walter and Emilia Fox. The story of three impoverished orphans, Pauline, Petrova and Posy, who have to triumph over adversity by their own talents, has entranced generations of young girls. It is a heartwarming tale full of organza dresses, velvet frocks, tantrums and tears. Pauline turns out to be a brilliant actress and Posy a brilliant dancer, while Petrova is brilliant at fixing cars and flying aeroplanes.

How her performance is received is obviously terribly important to Watson. ‘It’s the first time I’ve been anything but Hermione,’ she says, fiddling with the cushions. ‘Pauline is headstrong, so in that way she is quite like Hermione, but she is not academic. In fact, she actually reminds me of myself as a child, much more than Hermione does. Pauline is utterly obsessed with being an actress and I was just like that when I was younger. I dreamt of it. I practised speeches in front of mirrors. Whenever there was a part at school, I went for it. I was probably a bit of a show-off in the sense that any chance to get up and be seen, I did it.’ She sounds like a nightmare. ‘I was such a drama queen,’ she says, blushing a bit. ‘I used to wail and moan and cry, and little things were blown up into being big things. I don’t know how my parents stood it, really.’ She says she isn’t like that at all now. ‘I’ve grown up a bit,’ she says. ‘I’ve had to.’

It could be said she is playing safe with the wholesome Pauline Fossil, unlike Daniel Radcliffe who gained notoriety for stripping off on stage in Equus. Didn’t she want to do something a bit more radical, to break out a bit more? ‘Oh, God, no!’ she says. ‘This was nerve-wracking enough. I was so nervous I nearly turned it down. I’d just finished the last Harry Potter film, and it was the summer holidays and I hadn’t had a break, but then I thought, “I actually really want to be an actress, a proper actress who makes it her career.” I’m always expecting to be found out and I thought, ” If I’m no good, now is the time to find out.”‘

Does she think she’s any good in it? She tells me that on the first day she could barely speak, but that once she had got into it the whole part flowed for her. ‘Does that sound mad?’ she says. Also, she worked so hard she barely had time to think. ‘It was shot over four weeks. Potter movies go on for months. And I’m not classed as a child actor any more, so I don’t work restricted hours; I was amazed at how hard it all was. I enjoyed it, though.’

In many ways, Emma Watson’s career so far has dealt in fantasy - the fantasy-land of Harry Potter, the fantasy performing-world of the Fossil children. Even her own life appears to have been as fantastical as that of her characters. She was only nine years old when the producers of Harry Potter appeared at the Dragon School in Oxford looking for their Hermione. ‘I think there were about 18 of us,’ she says, ‘and we weren’t sure who we were auditioning for, but I knew I wanted to be Hermione. I had no interest in any other part. I felt I really was Hermione.’ She then went through a rigorous round of auditions and screen tests and pretty quickly she realised she was a contender for the role she had been dreaming about.

‘Actually, I was obsessed with it,’ she says. ‘My mother was so worried about me. She tried to talk to me about how other opportunities would come up, but I wouldn’t listen. I had so much invested in it.’ Now she says that she thinks it’s incredible she got the part. ‘I just tell myself I won the lottery, really.’

The upshot, though, is that not only has most of her childhood been documented on film but that she has hardly had one at all. Does she see her childhood as abnormal? Watson thinks a bit. ‘Yes, I suppose I do,’ she says. ‘I am very focused and very motivated, so I have tried very hard to combine being an actress with being a student, and so far it has worked out OK.’ I tell her that I wasn’t actually referring to her academic life. She is obviously highly intelligent. Not many girls could be filming for nine months of the year and somehow get A grades in all four AS levels as Watson did last summer. She still has two Harry Potter films to shoot - she will be 20 when the final installment is completed - but is applying to Cambridge to read English and philosophy. ‘I feel it’s terribly important to continue with my education, in case acting doesn’t work out for me.’

I am more interested in her relationships with her peer group. How does she manage it? Most teenage girls’ school years are made up of complicated friendship rituals involving equal amounts of joy and heartache as everyone jostles for position. Where does that leave this part-time schoolgirl? ‘It’s actually been very hard,’ she says. ‘When I heard I’d got the part of Hermione, my mother said to me it was very important to keep the friends I’d made already. She told me that in the future it would be important to know people liked me for myself and not because of my career. At the time I didn’t believe her. I was so excited I couldn’t care, but now I know exactly what she means.’

Watson says it isn’t just the money but the lack of being able to fit in. ‘It takes time for everyone to adjust,’ she says. ‘I’m not the girl they get the number 19 bus into town with to grab a coffee. Actually, whenever I have tried to lead that type of life it’s been very embarrassing because I just get mobbed. I’ve ended up hiding in unexpected places like the computer department in Dixons. It’s an uncomfortable experience for everyone. Sometimes I miss the fact that I have never really been a teenager because I have been Hermione for such a long time.’

The role has made her very rich, though - she is said to be worth about £10 million - and she acknowledges the fact that this is also a potential minefield with others of her age. ‘I don’t spend vast amounts of money,’ she says. ‘I really try not to.’ She says the most expensive thing she’s ever bought is a laptop.

In fact, as the list goes on of all the things she’s missed out on, I begin to feel rather sorry for her. As a young girl she had to adapt to life on set away from her family. Her parents, she tells me, are both hard-working lawyers, which meant that neither of them had much time to visit her. They separated when she was five but she is obviously very close to both. She grew up with her mother, Jacqueline, in Oxfordshire but spent every weekend at her father Chris’s house in London. ‘I’m one of seven children now,’ she says. ‘My father and his partner have Toby and twin girls, Lucy and Nina, and my mother’s partner has two boys.’ (The twins share the role of the young Pauline in Ballet Shoes.) She also has a younger brother, Alexander, from her own parents’ marriage. ‘He’s about the only bloke I can go out with and not cause a stir,’ she says. She can’t really have a relationship, as every man she’s ever seen with is called her ‘boyfriend’ by the press and consequently doorstepped. She can’t get drunk and rowdy, or misbehave, or cry in the street, or pierce bits of her body, or do anything remotely controversial for fear of having her privacy invaded.

She’s always being asked about her relationship with Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, who plays Ron. ‘We’re good friends,’ she says. In the summer she was rumoured to be dating the young Wasps rugby star Tom Ducker after they were spotted on holiday together on the Riviera - according to press reports they split up last month. Then she hit the front pages of the celebrity mags when she turned up at a ball with her fellow actor Henry Lloyd-Hughes, who had a bit part in the fourth Harry Potter.

‘The thought of all this publicity chills me to the bone,’ she says. ‘I hate seeing my name on the front of a magazine. I’ll walk past a Tube station and see something about me, and I try not to read it but it’s hard. Who doesn’t want to read about themselves? But it’s always written with this tone - as if the person knows me. But they don’t.’ But that’s the point, I tell her. We all do feel as if we know her because we can trace her back to being 11 years old when she wore sweet Pauline Fossil-type dresses to Potter premieres. In fact, the more I think about it, the more like Pauline she seems. Both barely have a life, bar acting. But surely there must be upsides to the job. ‘Oh, absolutely,’ says Watson firmly. ‘I’ve met some amazing actors.’

She also enjoys dressing up for the red carpet. ‘I do quite like the glamour, actually,’ she says. ‘I don’t have a stylist, as I seem to have a problem with them, but I have a relationship with Chanel.’ She says she is sent their designs to look at and then she can order in what she likes. ‘It makes life much easier,’ she says, ‘because I don’t really have to think about it.’ In fact, she says, the thing she’s really looking forward to at the moment is going to a Chanel show. ‘I’ve never been to a fashion show before,’ she says excitedly. ‘I can’t wait.’

She ends by telling me she was drawn to do Ballet Shoes not only to prove to herself that she could do more than just endless Hermione impressions but also because it gives the viewer a chance to see into a world that, in her view, captivates everyone it touches. Yet the book was written in 1936; it’s about the aftermath of one war, the beginning of another. Does Watson think that it is remotely relevant to girls of her generation?

‘Yes, I still think it’s relevant,’ she says enthusiastically. ‘Everyone loves that world, don’t they? The backstage world of what actually goes on during the rehearsals of a play or the making of a film. I thought it would be so glamorous, so exciting.’ And isn’t it? Emma Watson looks at me in surprise. ‘Yes,’ she says, eyes open wide, ‘of course.’

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, scans

December 11, 2007 - A Spellbinding Chat with ‘Harry Potter’s’ Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint

Everyone’s favorite students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry may be venturing into darker realms of both sinister sorcery and teenage angst in their fifth big screen adventure together, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but for the young British actors who play them—Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint—life appears to be downright magical.

Despite the unprecedented international success of the book and film franchise and a legion of enraptured fans who’ve followed their every move since their adolescence, the young stars have sidestepped the pitfalls of fame at an early age with nary a Lohan moment—thanks in some part, certainly, to spending most of their professional lives in London rather than Hollywood. Though both poised and worldly, otherwise appear just as sunny, sassy and downright silly as your average teen (Radcliffe turns18 in July, Watson is 17 and Grint turns 19 in August).

“They’re remarkably unaffected,” says David Heyman, producer of the entire Potter series. “They’re kids. They’re quite grown up kids, quite composed, but they’re having a good time. They’re not cynical, they’re not pretentious, they’re not arrogant. They’re humble and frankly very much the same kids that I loved when I began the process.”

On growing up on screen over the course of the five films:
Emma Watson: It’s quite a bit of a new context when you’re doing it on screen. Like I remember, especially with the earlier films, Dan and Rupert would grow like a couple of inches by the end of shooting because it was so long, or by the time the film was released, and that was kind of crazy. And I remember on the second one I was still losing teeth, so that was interesting. Like one scene I’d kind of have a full set and then, you know, try and cover all that up.
Daniel Radcliffe: Not a full, full set of teeth. It was one tooth. It wasn’t like the whole mouth.
EW: I was saying I had a full set of teeth and then I’d lose one.
DR: Oh, right. Okay. Sorry. I thought you said I had a false set of teeth.
EW: No! Oh my god, no! I don’t have false teeth!
DR:[laughs] So sorry.
EW:Yeah. It was kind of a weird experience trying to like make the whole growing-up process kind of run smoothly. We kind of had to do it without anyone realizing. I don’t know – we don’t really think about it. Everyone always asks this question: Is it really hard growing up on screen? And I’m just like “Well, I’ve never grown up any other way, so I don’t know.” It’s just kind of the way it’s always been and you just kind of deal with it, I guess. And we’ve been doing it since we were so young, so I can’t really remember what life was like before these films. I don’t know. It’s just the way it is.
Rupert Grint: For me, it just feels like it’s just been one long experience, really, because it didn’t really feel like that long. It’s only when you look back on the first ones that you sort of realize how much we’ve grown up. And it’s been really fun, though. I’ve enjoyed sort of every moment of it, so it’s been really cool.
DR: I don’t think you realize when you’re growing up. I think it’s just one of those things that just happens to you. And then somebody shows you a photograph of yourself when you were 10 and you recoil in horror. We’ve just grown up. We don’t think of ourselves as having grown up on screen. It’s been great. It’s been really good fun. We’ve met some of the people who we’re really, really good friends with through these films so we probably wouldn’t have had the chance to meet had we not done them so it’s been fantastic.

On whether Emma gets as big a thrill out of “breaking the rules” as Hermoine discovers she does:
EW: I’m sorry to disappoint you. I’m deeply uncool, really. I really never break the rules. I’m kind of me and myself, just not- - I don’t know, I just never really have a problem with – I’m not scared to say what I think or if I really disagree with something then I’ll say it, but I’m not kind of like a born rebel. That wouldn’t be a description of me. I guess it was fun to play her like that, definitely. Really fun and I think- - I mean, the film’s quite dark and I think that kind of element added a light touch. It’s just kind of like “What is up with Hermione? What is going on?
DR: It got a fantastic reaction [at the premiere] yesterday.
EW: Yeah, it was really nice. In the film, that kind of got a good laugh so I’m quite chuffed at that. No, it was fun playing her. I guess just I was able to do things from such a young age that I never would have been able to do. Always traveling and being given all this responsibility and freedom, so I’ve never really had any barrier to break I guess. I’ve been able to kind of - - I don’t really have anything to rebel against. I’m quite lucky really.

On which came first, Daniel’s long-awaited first screen kiss as Harry or his notorious live on-stage nude scene in the London production of Equus – and which was more nerve-wracking:
DR: I did the kiss first. And I think the reason that it wasn’t a problem or a worry in the slightest was that in the back of my mind I was thinking I’ll be naked on stage in six months, I’ve got to get over this. You know, because if that’s a worry then the whole nude-blinding-horses would be an even greater worry. So the kiss was sort of more of a big deal…Everyone sort of assumed it’s a big sort of moment, but it’s sort of just like doing any other scene, really, which is very disappointing for people to hear, I know, but that’s unfortunately how it was.

On whether Rupert is ready for his own lip-lock in the forthcoming sixth installment:
RG: Yeah, Ron does get a girlfriend in the next one. I think it’s a little bit intense so I don’t know. I did a little kiss, I did another film called Driving Lessons and there’s a little kiss in that. It was quite an uncomfortable experience, on this tiny set with all the crew watching. I didn’t really enjoy it too much but we have to wait and see. It’s going to be interesting.

On their opportunity to use their wizardly wandage to kick a little butt in the new film:
EW: Ron and Hermione kind of took a bit of a backseat on the last one because we were watching Harry deal with the tasks and stuff. So it felt really nice to be back in the action again. Nothing major, we had a couple of stunts to do, couple of harnesses and that sort of thing, which was really fun. We actually had a dance choreographer…all the different spells had different choreographed specific movements that went with them and so we had a couple of classes like that, which was really good fun. And I think this is the first one that you really see kind of like the craft behind magic.
RG: In the last one Ron’s been a bit of wimp and sort of stayed away from the action. So this time it was quite cool to get to be a bit tougher and get to fight. It was good fun.

On having their hands, feet and even their wands immortalized in cement at the famed Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood:
EW: I was amazed they asked us. I was like “Wow.” I couldn’t believe it. That’s such a big deal. I was really, really flattered. I mean it’s just amazing to be doing it. Really amazing.
DR: Yeah. But when you see those other names I think we all were like…
EW: “Really? Us? Are you sure? Really? Really?”
DR: Yeah. I don’t know. It’s amazing. It’s absolutely, it’s just fantastic. But yeah, I think we’re all just a little bit in shock that we’ve been asked…John Wayne is there, so that’s pretty cool. My favorite John Wayne line is a really early John Wayne movie, and it was obviously improvised because nobody could have scripted this. As he walks out of a saloon, I suppose – because they were saloons then, not bars – and he’s walking through the square and he’s quite young, and there are all these birds in the square. He walks in and they all flutter away and he goes [imitates Wayne] “Get out of my way, pigeon!” It’s just fantastic. If I can have my handprints next to that man then that would be awesome.

On how the addition of new castmate and avowed Potter fanatic Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna Lovegood, reawakened their wonder at the world of Hogwarts:
EW: When you step onto these amazing sets, we kind of take it for granted at this point, and when you see Evanna Lynch’s face every time she steps on a set it kind of humbles you again. It makes you realize just how amazing the whole experience is and it stops you from getting…
DR: …Blasé.
EW: And taking it for granted. It was really nice to have someone who’s so genuinely just completely excited and just sort of in ecstasy every time she saw something new. It was really nice.
DR: We did have one moment though when it was very, very hard to present an idea to [director] David Yates if Evanna was standing next to you because if you said something it was even slightly wrong from the book, she would not…
EW: She’d be ON you, like…
DR: And you would be in deep trouble. So you’d sort of have to be quite careful. Whenever I talked about the wording of the prophecy and she was there I’d just be like, “Where’s the book? I need it.” It was fantastic to have Evanna around because she is such a massive fan of the books and the films. So it was [great] to have that enthusiasm.
EW: I remember actually after I watched the film the person that I was most nervous about finding out their opinion was Evanna. I went up to her and I was just like “What did you think?” Really, really scared. And she loved it. So I was like “Okay, as long as she loves it, we’re good.”

On the impending arrival of the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and its effect on their characters’ destinies:
RG: It’s quite exciting, particularly this one because there’s so much hype about it. And everyone’s got their own theory of who’s going to die is the big question. And I don’t know, really. I’m really looking forward to it.
DR: Yeah. Who do you think is going to die?
RG: [Pause] I think it could be you, actually.
DR: [Deflated] Oh man. I do think absolutely there’s always going to be that hype around it. But the thing is with the books and the films, it’s NOT just hype. It’s deserved because they do get better and better and more exciting. I mean my favorite book is the fifth. And my favorite film is the fifth as well. And to be able to say that five movies in to a franchise is, I suppose, quite rare. But also I don’t know how the book releases affect us. I think we’re just, you’re very, very anxious about what’s going to happen. I don’t think we get totally distressed by it, do we?
EW: I get a bit distressed, I really do. I really like, I remember doing this interview – and I’ve always been convinced that Hermione’s going to make it – and apparently this hacker has been claiming that she’s going to die. In this interview, she sat down and she’s like, well, there’s this hacker that’s claiming that this is what’s going to happen and she’s not going to make it. And she’s the one [who dies]. And I was just like “No, no, no, no, no. You don’t understand, she’s meant to be with Ron and she’s meant to—“ I just had all these bees in my head about what was going to happen and it was all just ruined. It was horrible. But I guess from an acting point of view it would be good to have a death scene. If I had to die it would be a new challenge, I guess. I mean ,we obviously have like hugely invested interests, but I think mostly we’re like really big fans ourselves.
DR: Exactly. We’re all looking forward to finding out with the rest of the world. We certainly don’t get any inside information. That would, I did when I saw Jo [Rowling] at the premiere the other day I just said “How many people worldwide have read the book?” And you know, considering that at this point it’s under two weeks before it’s released and under 10 people have read it still, which is pretty incredible. But can you imagine being one of those people? How fantastic would that be? My God.

On life after the end of the Harry Potter saga:
DR: Potter is never something I would want to distance myself from because I’m incredibly proud of it and it’s given me the most amazing opportunities and I’ve met some of the most fantastic people and got to work with these brilliant actors. But I certainly, obviously, want to establish myself as an actor in my own right rather than being just the actor who plays Harry Potter. It’s just as much, if not more, to prove to myself that I can do it than to be able to prove it to the audience. Because there will always be people who see us as our respective characters no matter what we do. But ultimately that’s more their problem than ours, because they are not the people who are going to be stopping us from doing other different things.

Source: Hollywood.com

Growing with Potter

LEAVESDEN, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND — Daniel Radcliffe is seriously committed to the next two Harry Potter movies. But he also yearns for a life, a career, after the Potter phenomenon fades.

“Yes,” he muses to Sun Media during a shared two-on-one session to mark tomorrow’s DVD debut of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, “I hope there is one.”

Today, the 18-year-old Londoner is dog-tired, yet still game, proud of his contributions to the Phoenix DVDs.

We sit in a funky three-walled diner that is one of the sets for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, due in theatres in 2008. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will follow in 2010.

“This is an industry that can be very fickle and can be very perfidious sometimes and will turn its back on people,” Radcliffe says.

‘KEEP ACTING’

“But I hope that I can continue building up momentum and working hard just to make sure that I can actually sustain a career. My ambition is just to keep acting, essentially, and (that) means keep doing a lot of different roles. That’s all I want really.”

The Phoenix DVD reinforces just how Radcliffe has grown up and honed his talent since the first Potter film in 2001. On the two-disc Special Edition, extras such as the A&E documentary, The Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter, troll through the five movies to date and show Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint maturing.

On the Blu-ray disc, the viewer gets even more insight as the trio, plus other members of Dumbledore’s Army, pop up in the interactive In Movie Experience feature to share their insights.

Radcliffe says he participated to show people “that I’m incredibly serious and passionate about this.”

Doing the DVDs forced the young stars to look back. Grint finds that a tad embassassing.

“I don’t really sit down and rewatch all the films again,” Grint says in an interview, “but you see a lot of clips here and there. It is really sort of strange to look back and it just sort of makes you realize how long we’ve been doing this.

“It is quite hard to watch them because we have changed so much. But it does bring back a lot of good memories, really. Particularly the first one. I had a really good time doing that because it was such an exciting time in my life.

“It’s all sort of come into a routine now and we all get together again and do this. It feels more like a job, I suppose, but I still really get a buzz out of it so it’s good.”

The 19-year-old Grint enjoys how the series has matured along with the actors. Each movie has a core of life lessons hard-wired into the stories by author J.K. Rowling.

“They’re all sort of different in their own way,” Grint says. “The fifth one, really, this is sort of about their friendship and how they sort of team up together. With Dumbledore’s Army, we’re all sort of getting into a team and that was really cool.

‘HE GETS TO FIGHT’

“From Ron’s perspective (Grint plays Ron Weasley), it was nice to do something where he actually has to do a bit of the action, really, and he gets a bit braver. In the past films, he’s a bit scared a lot of the time and a bit of a wimp. In this one, he gets to actually fight and that was cool to do.”

Watson, 17, is keen on the Potter mythology that the DVDs provide. “It’s really interesting, especially with the end of the books — the release of the seventh one.

“It was really interesting how many different interpretations the books are open to, and how everyone had a different theory: ‘Harry’s going to die!’ Or: ‘Are Hermione and Ron going to get together?’ It was really interesting and the DVD really deals with that interest and looks in depth at the films and the themes.”

Producer David Hayman says Rowling’s books “are the real reason” for the success of the Potter franchise “and the real gift that allows us to keep it alive and keep it fresh, because she’s created these characters that we are all invested in.

“They are growing, they are changing, they are developing over the course of the series, which keeps them fresh.”

Source: Winnipeg Sun

December 8, 2007 - Is Harry Potter star Emma Watson turning into Keira Knightley?

The trouble with being successful and glamorous is, there is always someone younger and more ambitious coming up behind you.

So move over Keira Knightley, for Emma Watson yesterday gave her older competition a run for her money with a dramatic transformation from child star to grown-up starlet.

The 17-year-old Harry Potter actress has been keen to distance herself from her schoolgirl character.

And judging by the elegant Chanel outfit and slick of siren red lipstick which replaced her school garb, the A-level student is coming of age at a rapid pace.

As she attended an exclusive dinner hosted by fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, the immaculately-dressed Miss Watson had even perfected the hand on dropped hip which has become Miss Knightley’s trademark red carpet pose.

Like Miss Watson, 22-year-old Miss Knightley began her career as a child actress, starring in Bend It Like Beckham when she was aged 17.

Both young women come from respectable, close-knit families. And both have been courted as muses by the fashion label Chanel.

Miss Knightley won a reported £500,000 contract to be the face of the perfume Coco Mademoiselle and is set to play Coco Chanel in a film about her life.

Trading in her broomstick: Emma held her own as she posed at the celebrity-packed event with veterans Kate Moss and Kelly Osbourne
But it was her younger rival - who is on the books of model agency Storm - chosen to be an ambassador for Chanel’s fashion range, often appearing on the red carpet and as a cover girl in its lavish outfits.

And in a further snub to Miss Knightley, her fellow actress topped her in a magazine poll of Britain’s greatest female role models earlier this year.

Yesterday was no exception to her new appeal with Miss Watson - who has been playing Hermione Granger since she was 11 - donning a black silk pleated dress and shimmering sequined jacket.

In a bid to shed her goody two shoes image, the star partied the night away with Kate Moss and Kelly Osbourne.

Kylie Minogue, Natalie Imbruglia and Sean Lennon joined the glamorous party in London’s Nobu restaurant.

A fellow guest at a recent charity gala attended by Miss Watson said: ‘She is incredibly self-assured and despite following the likes of Elle Macpherson, is not bothered in the slightest. She is a star and knows it.’

The actress, who is the new face of the iconic brand, was also joined at the event by Charlotte Casiraghi, daughter of Princess Caroline of Monaco, actress Thandie Newton, Sophie Ellis Bextor and Natalie Imbruglia.

Models including Claudia Schiffer, Jodie and Jemma Kidd, Erin O’Connor and Agyness Deyn also attended the affair, which was thrown in honour of Lagerfeld.

Emma’s glamorous arrival comes just days after she unveiled her grown up new look in the pages of a glossy magazine.

In the fifties inspired shoot, she looked a world away from the most famous schoolgirl on the planet, Hermione Grainger, the heroine of the films based on JK Rowling’s novels.

But the 17-year-old is already well aware of the trappings of fame.

“Recently a woman took my arm, looked at me very seriously and said, ‘You’re quite pretty in real life.’ I didn’t quite know how to take it.”

Watson, who has earned an estimated £10 million from the five Potter films, says she shuns stylists for red-carpet events.

“Getting someone else to choose things takes the fun out of it,” she said.

When not working she splits her time between her mother’s house in Oxford, and her father’s in London.

She also has a busy social life.

“For the last three weekends I’ve been at an 18th birthday party,” she said.

Watson, who is currently juggling A-levels and driving lessons, will appear on BBC1 during the Christmas season in a new TV film, Ballet Shoes.

The teenager says she related to her character, Pauline Fossil, an orphan.

“She reminds me a lot of when I was younger,” she said.

“I was such a drama queen.”

When she got the part she said on her website: “I could not let such an amazing project go. I loved Pauline from the start.”

Set in Thirties London, Ballet Shoes is the story of Pauline and her two sisters, who are adopted by an eccentric explorer, played by Richard Griffiths.

Watson took ballet lessons and dyed her hair whiteblonde for the film, which will be screened on 28 December.

Watson was voted Britain’s greatest female role model in a magazine poll earlier this year, ahead of Keira Knightley and Kate Moss.

She is due to start filming the sixth Potter film, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince on 18 December.

Source: ThisisLondon.co.uka

December 7, 2007 - Young guns Emma and Lily outshine the old guard - as Naomi forced to take a backseat

Move over Naomi.

That appeared to be the message young ingénue Emma Watson sent as she and singer Lily Allen - both muses for Chanel - stole the show from the old guard - model Naomi Campbell - at an after-show party for Chanel last night.

Dressed all in black in a sheer blouse, sequin waistcoat and fashionable skinny jeans, Emma, 17, showed off her grown-up glamour outshining Naomi, 37, who looked less than fresh-faced.

Naomi, could only sit and look disconsolately on as the young pretenders hogged the limelight while the ageing model, who has weathered a storm of court cases for her phone-throwing behaviour, faded into the background.

Emma and Lily, 22, were feted by the great and the good at the afterparty for those who had attended Chanel’s first London fashion show.

Not looking so super: Model Naomi had to take a backseat at the party as Emma and Lily were feted by the great and the good

Both have been adopted as muses for the brand, and have become a fixture on the London social scene. And Emma was in attendance at an exclusive dinner hosted by fashion designer ‘King’ Karl Lagerfeld yesterday.

Emma’s slick designer look, and poise, has drawn comparisons to red carpet regular Keira Knightley.

And as well as stealing the show, the ingénues are also eclipsing the earnings of models such as Campbell.

Like Keira, Emma began her acting career aged 17, in the Harry Potter films. She is now said to be worth £8million.

And Lily headed over to the party after collecting £120,000 for just 40 minutes work last night.

She sang for an intimate audience at a Nokia Christmas party, which was held at Paper nightclub in London.

She boasted to the crowd: “That’s the most money I’ve ever made in the shortest space of time.”

That puts the supermodels classic boast of not getting out of bed for less than £10,000 somewhat in the shade.

Source: The Daily Mail

December 5, 2007 - From flying broomstick to scooter girl, how Hermione has grown up

Somebody’s waved their magic wand and transformed Harry Potter’s sidekick into a cool Fifties chick. Emma Watson is seen here looking a world away from the most famous schoolgirl on the planet, Hermione Grainger, the heroine of the films based on JK Rowling’s novels.

The 17-year-old actress loved the rockabilly-style wardrobe she wore for the photographs.

“I wish I could dress like this every day of my life,” she said.

She tells InStyle magazine of the highs and lows of fame.

“Recently a woman took my arm, looked at me very seriously and said, ‘You’re quite pretty in real life.’ I didn’t quite know how to take it.”

Watson, who has earned an estimated £10 million from the five Potter films, says she shuns stylists for red-carpet events.

Sophisticated: “I wish I could dress like this every day of my life,” the young starlet admitted

“Getting someone else to choose things takes the fun out of it,” she said.

When not working she splits her time between her mother’s house in Oxford, and her father’s in London.

She also has a busy social life.

“For the last three weekends I’ve been at an 18th birthday party,” she said.

Watson, who is currently juggling A-levels and driving lessons, will appear on BBC1 during the Christmas season in a new TV film, Ballet Shoes.

The teenager says she related to her character, Pauline Fossil, an orphan.

How it began: Emma in the first film in 2001
“She reminds me a lot of when I was younger,” she said. “I was such a drama queen.”

When she got the part she said on her website: “I could not let such an amazing project go. I loved Pauline from the start.”

Set in Thirties London, Ballet Shoes is the story of Pauline and her two sisters, who are adopted by an eccentric explorer, played by Richard Griffiths.

Watson took ballet lessons and dyed her hair whiteblonde for the film, which will be screened on 28 December.

Watson was voted Britain’s greatest female role model in a magazine poll earlier this year, ahead of Keira Knightley and Kate Moss.

Emma features in the January edition of In Style magazine, which goes on sale on Thursday

She is due to start filming the sixth Potter film, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince on 18 December.

The January issue of In Style magazine is on sale on Thursday - to see behind the scenes on the photoshoot go to www.instyle.co.uk

Source: DailyMail.co.uk

December 2, 2007 - A Christmas treat for all the family

Set in Thirties London, Ballet Shoes, a one-off film for BBC One, tells the exhilarating tale of orphans Pauline (Emma Watson), Petrova (Yasmin Paige) and Posy Fossil (Lucy Boynton) who are adopted by an eccentric explorer, Great Uncle Matthew (Richard Griffiths), and raised as sisters by his selfless niece, Sylvia (Emilia Fox), under the guidance of Nana (Victoria Wood). The film also stars Dame Eileen Atkins as ballet teacher Madame Fidolia.

The timeless and uplifting story revolves around each girl’s struggle to fulfil her dreams: Pauline longs to be an actress, Petrova yearns to be an aviator and Posy seems born to be a ballerina.

When Great Uncle Matthew, “Gum”, disappears, the money runs out and the girls have a fight on their hands. Their struggle to balance personal ambition with the need to survive physically, emotionally and financially, proves moving and comic by turns.

Ballet Shoes boasts an all-star cast, featuring Emma Watson, Emilia Fox, Victoria Wood, Richard Griffiths, Harriet Walter, Gemma Jones, Peter Bowles, Adrian Lester, Lucy Cohu and Marc Warren.

Victoria Wood, who plays Nana, remarks: “Ballet Shoes is one of my favourite books ever – if you looked at my copy now you would see chocolate cake crumbs in amongst the pages. It was a perfect book to lose yourself in – it was so long I would sometimes get to the end and just start reading all over again.”

Writer Heidi Thomas (Cranford) also cites Ballet Shoes as her most-loved book of all time. “It is a novel with the power to inspire like no other. As a child, I slept with a copy underneath my pillow. As an adult, I return to it time and again when life gets tough.” Her explanation for its enduring power is simple: “Ballet Shoes tells you everything will be all right.”

Producer Piers Wenger comments: “There is a strong rites-of-passage story at the heart of Ballet Shoes. It’s about three girls who, in their own separate ways, feel a calling. Following their passions forces them to discover who they really are. Pauline, Petrova and Posy each have individual stories, but at their heart is one common theme – an exploration of the trials of growing up.”

Victoria comments: “The book is almost a fairy tale – three orphans in a huge old house in London being brought up by kind Sylvia and down-to-Earth Nana – but the screenplay roots the story in a more realistic world, and looks at the dilemma of Sylvia, herself an orphan, being landed with three babies before she’s really had a chance to grow up herself.”

Emilia Fox, star of Silent Witness, plays Sylvia, the guardian of the girls. Emilia’s mother, actress Joanna David, appeared in a TV serialisation of the book more than 30 years ago.

“I feel the new film will open up the book to a whole new generation of readers,” Emilia declares. “There is a lot of nostalgia about Ballet Shoes, but so much of it is relevant to the present day. For example, I think the way the Fossils deal with poverty makes the film feel very modern. They pull together and survive against all odds.” She acknowledges, however, that the girls are not perfect. “They have their flaws, and that’s what makes them interesting.”

Director Sandra Goldbacher shares this view. “Our three young actors brought such passion, spontaneity and realism to their characters. They were not afraid to let them have tantrums or narcissistic outbursts. I think they’ll feel very believable to an audience today, and not like rarefied creatures with posh accents and perfect complexions. They are three young teenagers who squabble in their bedroom, but who happen to have extraordinary talents and dreams.”

When it came to casting, Yasmin Paige, star of The Sarah Jane Adventures, was found first. In terms of conveying Petrova’s stauchness and soulfulness, no one else even came close,” says Wenger.

Petrova, miserable and frustrated in her enforced career on the stage, undergoes a complex journey in the course of the film. “It’s a part that requires real maturity, but Yasmin has several years of acting experience, and it shows. This girl is the real deal – she moved us to tears on several occasions.”

Yasmin comments: “I liked the fact the sisters had different roots and they come together in this adopted family. I am very close to my own brothers and mother, and I really identified with the protectiveness Petrova feels for the people she loves.”

Yasmin looked perfect for the part – only giving her a tomboy-ish haircut proved troublesome. “Her hair is jet-black but quite flyaway and impossible to cut,” observes Heidi Thomas. “We wanted her to have a fringe, as in the original illustrations for the book, so wig mistress Sue Wyburgh painstakingly stitched a false piece into position.”

Lucy Boynton, cast next as feisty, ballet-mad Posy, also spent time in the hairdresser’s chair. Her own hair is dark blonde, but, says Heidi: “In auditions she was brilliant – loveable, but also hilariously funny – and we realised her delicate complexion would make her convincing as a redhead. So out came the scissors, the curlers and the dye.”

Lucy, who played the young Beatrix Potter in the hit film Miss Potter with Renée Zellweger, was understandably nervous about the transformation, and the colour was added over several sessions “so that she didn’t take fright”, says Heidi. The producers found an ally in Adriaane Pielou, Lucy’s journalist mother: “I persuaded her she had to suffer for her art.”

Lucy, overjoyed to be playing Posy, also had to brush up on her ballet moves, and took daily classes with the film’s choreographer, Sammy Murray-Brown. She loved her visits to the Pineapple Dance Studio: “I used to peep through the doors and watch professional dancers taking class. I was fascinated by the way they moved.” She confesses to falling in love with ballet all over again during the shoot, and hopes to take more classes in the future.

Casting Pauline proved toughest of all. Heidi reveals: “We saw every blonde actress in London, and not one of them was right.” In desperation, Wenger and Goldbacher arranged an open casting session. More than a hundred girls turned up – and none of them fitted the bill. “It was like a nightmare,” says Heidi. “There were women in their twenties turning up in ankle socks.”

When Emma Watson expressed an interest in the role, Wenger, Heidi and Goldbacher were delighted. Emma arranged to meet Sandra Goldbacher over a cup of tea, and there was an instant chemistry between them.

“Emma was perfect for Pauline,” reports Goldbacher. “She has a piercing, delicate aura that makes you want to gaze and gaze at her.” Emma was intrigued by the part; Pauline’s experience as a child actress who becomes a movie star had some parallels with her own.

Emma comments: “I was all set to go back to school after finishing Harry Potter but couldn’t resist Ballet Shoes. I really loved it; it felt so funny and real. It was also beautifully written.” She adds that a scene that had most resonance for her takes place the night before the première of Pauline’s first film. Pauline weeps: “Tomorrow night, my face is going to be blown up as big as a house, and everyone will find me out!”

According to Heidi, Emma need not fear. “Emma’s performance in Ballet Shoes is a revelation,” she comments. “She is maturing rapidly as a young woman and as an actress – her work is sensitive, subtle and intelligent.”

Heidi adds: “She is also incredibly hardworking. Our schedule was murderous, and she never once complained, even when she was white with exhaustion.” Insiders also noticed a refreshing lack of vanity – Emma agreed to play one scene with her hair in bright blue curlers. “She looked a complete sight but she just got on with it,” laughs Heidi.

Nevertheless, Pauline grows into a beautiful teenager in the course of the story, and, when Emma came on set to film her final scenes, she was wearing her first-ever coating of rich, red lipstick. “There were gasps,” says Heidi. “We suddenly got a sense of the great beauty Emma is likely to become – and it was breathtaking.”

Victoria Wood is sanguine about the challenges of acting with multiple juveniles.

“Working with Emma, Yasmin and Lucy was easy, but doing scenes with the little babies was slightly more problematic. We had a six-month-old who was as happy as Larry in her trailer, then went puce when put into a cotton nightie and clutched to Nana’s bosom.

“We had a toddler who held her hand over her face the minute the camera was turning – like a celebrity arriving at court for a divorce hearing. That particular child was supposed to throw a dolly out of a pushchair, well, she wouldn’t throw it, wouldn’t hold it; I think we should have got a bigger pushchair and phoned Janette Krankie.”

In contrast, Victoria enjoyed working with Emilia Fox, and adds: “It was a big thrill to do a scene with Dame Eileen Atkins – we didn’t share any dialogue, but she nodded in my direction and I did a sort of curtsey, so it was as good as… I feel Heidi missed a trick in not giving Nana a sing-song round the piano with Madame Fidolia.”

Heidi Thomas and Dame Eileen Atkins collaborate for the third time on Ballet Shoes – previous work together includes Heidi’s version of Madame Bovary for the BBC, and this autumn’s epic, Cranford.

Dame Eileen plays Posy’s mentor and ballet teacher, Madame Fidolia, and she has a particularly strong bond with the world of Ballet Shoes.

“As a child in the Thirties, I danced on the professional stage,” she explains. “My dancing teacher was an extraordinary woman called Kathleen Smith who styled herself Madame Kavos Yandie and pretended to be Spanish. We had her initials emblazoned on our costumes – ‘K.Y.’ on everything. We were constantly mocked!” She adds: “When we were hired as a troupe, we’d be tapping away whilst she stood in the wings screaming: ‘Smile! Smile! Smile!’”

Madame Fidolia enjoyed genuine success as a ballerina in her native Russia, but Eileen’s teacher was inventive with the truth. “She used to put 13 letters after her name – a string of false qualifications – but she was found out after the War and had to apologise in the Dancing Times.”

Like the Fossil sisters, Eileen was from a humble background, and needed the money her talent brought home. Throughout her childhood she danced in East End working men’s clubs: “I earned 15 bob a night, which was quite a good wage.” Her reputation grew and, at one point, she shared the bill with Anna Neagle and Randolph Scott. “I sang Yankee Doodle Dandy whilst toe-tapping on an upturned drum.”

Marc Warren plays Mr Simpson, the kind, melancholy lodger who moves into the Fossils’ home as a paying guest. He says: “My character is a really nice, posh bloke, which is quite against type for me. He’s recently returned from Kuala Lumpur and has had a tragic life, having lost his wife and son.

“He takes Petrova under his wing and they bond through their interest in cars – but he has feelings for Sylvia which he’s too shy to admit to.” He adds: “It’s a wonderful script, really lovely, and the original book is delightful. I don’t think Ballet Shoes is just for girls, however – it will appeal to the whole family, as the sisters take on such a range of responsibilities. Working with Yasmin, Emma and Lucy was fantastic.”

Piers Wenger sums up: “There are numerous reasons why it made sense to produce Ballet Shoes now. The cult of the TV talent shows demonstrates just how titillated we all are by the pleasure and pain of performance. But I think Ballet Shoes is also a great antidote to the notion of fame for fame’s sake; the story is about discovering what really matters in life, something which we hope would also strike a chord with modern audiences.”

Source: BBC Press

Tags: ballet shoes!

November 26, 2007 - Three’s a Charm

LEAVESDEN, HERTFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND — As a seven-film franchise, Harry Potter is a miracle of casting.

“It’s a remarkable thing,” says David Yates, director of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, due on DVD Dec. 11, and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, now shooting at the Leavesden Studios, a former Rolls Royce airplane engine factory.

Each child star — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — has grown up on screen and grown into his or her role as an actor (Yates now calls them seasoned pros).

Each has stayed the course, despite Watson’s self-doubt about her commitment to the profession (that phase has passed, she says).

None has become a public spectacle for bad behaviour or drug-and-alcohol related scandals. Not like Drew Barrymore, an alcoholic at nine after starring in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. Or Lindsay Lohan, seemingly in rehab after every movie.

The Potter kids have avoided Hollywood partying and have stayed clean in England, where a voracious celebrity media unearths every transgression. So they must be doing something right.

“Chris Columbus deserves huge credit in casting who he cast,” says producer David Hayman, who attributes it to good instincts and better luck. The core trio was chosen by the American filmmaker, who directed the first two Harry Potters.

“They were obviously not the only choices he had. These were the choices he made and I am forever grateful to him for that.”

The soft-spoken Yates praises his young stars. “They are remarkable children, really,” he tells Sun Media. “They are very down-to-earth. They are very gifted. They are lovely kids. So it is a very special talent to be able to choose them. That’s why I’m going to buy him (Columbus) a pint … or two.”

Their professionalism is also shown in their commitment to the new Order of the Phoenix DVD, in which they exceed normal expectations and provide fans with solid insights into the history of the franchise.

“I don’t think the franchise, in a way, needs any justification because it is such a leviathan of a thing anyway,” the 18-year-old, London-born Radcliffe tells Sun Media in a shared interview on the Half-Blood set. “Things don’t get that big without merit.

“But, I suppose, it (extra work on the DVDs) is almost to prove to people that we are, in fact, taking this very seriously. More seriously than people would probably assume. I took it very seriously when I was 11 and (growing up in the Harry Potter role) I’ve taken it more and more seriously.

“So, to me, it’s just about letting people know that I’m incredibly serious and passionate about this — this series of films — and how much they mean to me. If you’ve been involved in something for more than seven years now, you want to be able to talk about it articulately and explain why you love it, explain why you loved being involved in it so much.”

Growing up on screen as Hermione Granger has been strange for the 17-year-old Watson, who was born in Paris but raised in England.

“It’s funny because it happened to me when I was so young,” Watson tells Sun Media. “You barely notice yourself growing up when it’s happening, but I guess that’s what has happened, really. It’s very peculiar looking back on them and seeing how much I’ve changed and how much I’ve grown and what I looked like before all this happened.

“But, in a way, that’s what people really identify with. It makes it a real journey — a very real journey — because we literally are growing up with the characters.”

The razor-sharp Watson respects the profound themes that author J.K. Rowling has woven into the text of the seven Potter books, themes transported to the films.

“For such mainstream entertainment, it has such depth. It is very complex. That’s why I wouldn’t just call it a kids’ book. I would call it an adults’ book as well because it genuinely can be read by all ages.

“Everything about the book, everything about J.K. Rowling’s world, is thought down to the very last detail. You can pull apart the spells and they’re Latin and they actually mean what they’re doing. And all the names are so interesting and they’re unique and different and everyone has their own history. How she’s come up with all of this is just amazing.

“At the end of each book, it’s almost like an Aesop’s Fable. Every time, every year, there is a lesson that Harry learns, so that the reader in turn learns.” With no lectures. “Exactly! So it doesn’t feel tiresome.”

As for acting in the future, Watson is now keen. “I did a film for the BBC, called Ballet Shoes, in the summer. Having an experience outside of Harry Potter really helped me. I think it convinced me that this is where I am meant to be and this is what I’m meant to be doing: That I do want to be an actress.

“But I think I needed to have an experience outside of Harry Potter because, in a way, I was really plucked out of obscurity and given this role. I mean, I really wanted it but it never felt like a decision that I made. It just happened to me. I felt that I won the lottery. So I’ve always kind of slightly questioned it.”

The 19-year-old Grint, a local lad from the Hertfordshire town of Stevenage, has no such career doubts since playing Ron Weasley. Sort of. In his interview, Grint uses filler language such as “sort of”, “really” and “cool” repeatedly. And he loves the Harry Potter franchise.

“It’s just been an amazing experience,” Grint says. “I’ve enjoyed sort of every moment of it. It’s been wicked. It’s sad, really, because it does feel that it is coming to an end now with the seventh (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, due in 2010) on the way. It is nearly all over. I think I’m going to miss it. But I’ll just sort of move on after that.”

Each of the three has done other work, mostly movies, outside of Harry Potter. Radcliffe was also on stage (and naked) in a London revival of the play Equus, which he will debut on Broadway Sept. 18, 2008, for an extended run. Each young actor may be heading to a solid and long career.

“I think that’s a huge credit to the producers and a huge credit to their parents,” says Imelda Staunton, an Oscar nominee for Vera Drake and new to the franchise with Order of the Phoenix. She also credits the child stars for their own efforts.

“These kids have worked bloody hard for all these years, on set and off set in school. It’s bloody hard work for them and I think they’ve done it with great grace and ability and humility. They’re so professional. That’s what (you have to be.) There’s no time for messing about!”

Source: TorontoSun

Tags: half blood prince, harry potter!

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