“Goblet of Fire” Press Junket with Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson
Media: Hi, you guys. Cindy Pearlman from the Chicago Sun-Times.
Daniel Radcliffe (DR): Hello.
Media: Congratulations. This was one of the great Harry Potter movies.
DR: Thank you very much. Thank you.
Media: Let us know what you thought about him growing up. was it something you guys have identified with a little bit in your own life, and what do you think about your characters aging?
DR: Well, I think… you don’t mind if I start, do you? Okay then. It’s great because there is so much pressure on the films now to get better and better and better and better and especially after the third one, which I… for me was great. There was an awareness that we had to work really hard to go further with it, to make it better. Otherwise, people would be very disappointed I think. So for me it is also a lot of fun… sorry, it’s also loads of fun playing Harry as he’s getting older because it’s almost as if, sort of, we go from being… I think when we start Harry is ten. It’s his tenth birthday, and it’s almost as in real life – the stories that people sort of grow extra emotions, which is partly to do with hormones and all the trouble that they cause. And it’s partly just a thing about growing up. You have other aspects to you, and it’s fun to play that in Harry as he grows older.
Emma Watson (EW): There is also a lot of speculation as to whether we’re going to outgrow our parts or that the films will take longer than we will. But actually it works out pretty well because each film takes about a year, and obviously that goes right with us. While they’re at school, we’re pretty much growing alongside them, and sometimes everything that we’re going through in some cases they are, too.
DR: I’m sorry, this is quite good. Because there is always this thing of “Will you get to old for your part?” But people are playing a lot younger than they actually are in real life. I don’t think it’s as big an issue as a lot of people are making it out to be.
Media: [unintelligible]
DR: You know what? That was really awful for me. No, that was great! It was fantastic, and if Katie had been in there, “Thank god. I hated doing the hugging scenes with Dan,” or something, but for me it was great fun.
CL: Rupert?
Rupert Grint (RG): So what was the question?
[Everyone laughs]
DR: We have gone far off the topic since.
RG: Yeah, I think it’s cool that the characters have grown. They’re moreso the teenage sort of life. But Ron was a bit more moodier in this one. But yeah, there are a few arguments, and yeah, I enjoyed doing all that. That was fun.
Media: Now that you all have got a few films under your belts, can you tell me a little bit about some of your favorite things? What do you splurge on? What are your luxuries, your favorite gadgets? Can each of you talk a little about that?
DR: Rupert, gadgets?
RG: Yeah, I really do like gadgets. When I went to Japan last year, that’s a good place for them. I’m not sure about gadgets at the moment, but…
DR: What about the camera thing?
RG: Oh, yeah! When I was in Japan, there was this sort of spy camera, and it was disguised as a cigarette box. And that was quite cool, I think.
DR: And the NDAB office helped.
[Everyone laughs]
EW: For me it’s the iPods. Where I come from, they’re everywhere.
DR: Well, you see, I find the iPod thing hard because I’m quite obsessive about CDs. And so I quite like to have the actual CD with the little sleeves and the back and the pictures. Which some may call bad. For me it’s mainly CDs, books, and DVDs, I suppose. I mean, I haven’t changed much over the past five years, which isn’t that exciting. But that’s the honest answer.
Media: The three of you – Steven Shave with the Boston Herald – are now a part of this empire, this global phenomenon of Harry Potter movies, not just the books. And yet you’ve got such low-key profiles. You’re not individually famous or anything like that. Now, is that all going to change now that you’re real teenagers with hormones and everything? Are we going to see you turn to Lindsay Lohan and start trying to shock us with some stuff? Are you going to be party animals?
[Everyone laughs]
EW: Hopefully not.
DR: Well, I’m planning on buying twenty Porsches and crashing them just for the extravagance. I don’t think that… I think it’s quite a really good thing that we haven’t because the characters are so well-known and iconic. If we had been going out, and if we’d been… basically if we’d gone to every party on the planet we’d been invited to, it would be hard for people to divorce what they see in the films from what they see in magazines.
EW: Mm.
DR: And starting that would have been a mistake, and that’s why we basically only go to the premieres pretty much.
EW: Yeah, and I think we do have a responsibility to that as well. And I don’t think… we aren’t particularly party animals.
DR: Yeah, I quite enjoy the not having a high profile thing. I quite like that, but it is… I sort of feel like I’m fooling people because it’s this massive thing, and yet it’s still quite a low-key thing. I feel like I’m tricking everyone.
Media: [unintelligible] Does everyone where you go to school know who you are?
EW: At the new school two years ago. At first, you do get some funny looks, but after a while, they just accept the fact that you’re there all the time, and I didn’t get treated any differently, and that’s how I like it so much happy.
Media: Angela Dawson, Entertainment Newswire…
DR: Quickly, sorry, this is interesting – the answer. The only thing that I would sort of… basically when you get back to school, as Emma said originally, when you’re that person, as if you’re sort of running along with an extra arm or something, but then after a few weeks or something, it sort of settles down. And then they just go, “Oh, there’s the kid with the extra arm.” It just doesn’t seem to affect everyone quite as much. I mean, it’s actually the only time it peaks is if I’m ever at school; I mean, it’s only every happened once really, when I was at school when the third film came out. Then it went a bit… sort of hit fever pitch again, sort of mad, but I mean it’s not really a problem. Is it for you?
RG: Well, I’ve finished school now, so I don’t really get the same sort of reorganization as that. But getting recognized is sort of weird anyway. I’m seventeen now, yeah. You get the odd person sort of shouting out “Ron” or something. And my hair at the moment is sort of stand out at the moment. It’s not really a problem.
Media: Angela again. I wanted to ask you, “Each of you has issues with each other going on throughout the film. I thought it was interesting – the fact that Rupert, you and Dan get to be at odds a little bit with each other, and there’s a sort of tension with Emma and Rupert and stuff like that. And can you talk a little about the disconnect that goes on, and how do you guys like when you come back to a new film? Is it like going back to school?”
EW: I loved all the arguing. I thought it was really juicy. It’s not these people [who] always get along perfectly, and I think it’s much more realistic that they would argue and that there would be problems. So I thought it was great fun. And I think it makes up for quite a dark book; this one makes up for a lot of the humor, which is nice, light relief.
DR: What’s quite nice, actually, about the thing that goes on between Harry and Ron in this one is the tension – is that it’s funny to someone looking in on it – but to them, it’s absolutely serious, and they’re really angry at each other, and each of them feels that they’ve both behaved in a really bad way. Sort of like they’ve been betrayed by them. And so it’s mutual blame… both to blame for how they’re acting, but to someone else watching, it’s quite funny because you sort of… in the long run it’s actually quite trivial what they’re arguing about as a lot of arguments sort of are. They seem really important at the time, and then two years later, you can’t even remember where it started or what it’s about. So I think that’s probably… as you said it does provide a lot of the humor – that and the dribbling orange juice.
EW: Oh, yes, that was good. They both behaved rude[ly].
DR: I enjoy doing that, yeah, sorry.
RG: Yeah, I think it’s also sort of again just them growing up.
EW: [unintelligible]
RG: Yeah, sort of more natural, I suppose.
Media: I’d like to go back to what Emma said about this being quite a dark film. I also thought it’s easily the funniest of the Harry Potter films. Was it difficult finding the balance of the tone when you’re playing emotionally grueling stuff, then quite light-hearted?
DR: As you go along…
EW: I think it was quite difficult because it’s difficult to know quite what to do because I think for… I mean, it’s difficult because there’s such a huge audience that’s children. You get kids being so into it, so part of the people who are making this film feel, “Oh, we don’t want to make it too scary because we’re going to cut out this huge audience that are so passionate and love Harry Potter films.” At the same time, they want to be faithful to the book, which is a darker book, and I think they did a really good balance because I really do think it was the best way to go because, from the very beginning, it’s been “We’re going to stay faithful to what this is about” and not about getting everyone, having huge audiences.
DR: I mean, I think it would have been hard to adapt. Steve Kloves, who wrote the script… that’s what must have been… I mean, to adapt something as huge as the fourth book is is something. I certainly wouldn’t envy that task. I mean he did an amazing job on it. I mean, to me, the humor is actually essential to the darkness in a way. I mean, if you had that darkness running the whole way through the film, you’d be tired, and it wouldn’t be effective. I mean, what’s nice is that Mike lulled you into a quite false… you’ve got a dark opening with the snake and caretaker being killed, but it then goes into this sort of feeling that almost like the first film in it’s almost – with the Quidditch World Cup – wide-eyed, and it’s sort of wonder and everything, and that highlights the fact that suddenly they come out, and everything is ablaze, and everything is on fire, which means the same thing as ablaze. I don’t know why I said both. And you know, and suddenly, instantly, it’s more of a shock when you go into that darker world. So I think the humor is all sort of essential to that.
EW: I don’t think Mike has ever held us back in any way. He’s ever really pushed us to make it so really real, how you would react in that situation. He really, really went there. And the other thing about Mike is that he really, really treats us like adults. He wasn’t taking any slack. He was expecting us to be professional the entire time, where I think before in some ways… I don’t know.
DR: We could get away with more.
EW: Yeah, but he really took no excuses. He really pushed us, which was really nice to feel that there was a real challenge.
Media: Emma, in the ball scene, there is a magical moment when you stand at the top of the staircase and come down. How many times did you have to shoot it, and did you have input into your costume?
EW: That actually took a while. I didn’t know there were so many ways that you could walk down stairs actually until that day, and it was difficult. It was hard work. Mike was giving me all these directions, “Keep your head up, make sure your back is straight, but don’t make it too frumpy, glide smoothly.” [laughs] By the time we did it, I was an absolute wreck. But hopefully it looks okay, and it’s up to that amazing transformation, which it is for Hermione. As for the costume, I had a bit of input, but I loved it so much anyway, there’s nothing I’d wanted to change about it. I mean, Jany Temime, who is head of Costume, created a truly magically dress – I mean beautiful, beautiful – and there were loads of fittings for it throughout the whole [time] leading up to that scene. I think it looks really great.
Media: [unintelligible]
EW: No, it’s upsetting. I’d loved to have kept it, but no.
Media: [unintelligible]
DR: I got to swim – not in a dress, though which would have been [unintelligible]. No, that was amazing. That was quite hard work actually because those days, I could feel I call what I did “work.” Because normally, I think I’ve got this thing in my mind that work can’t be fun because I’ve always connected it with not enjoyable. So I’ve never really associated Harry Potter with work in that way. On those days it was tough. It was fun, but it was hard. I trained for about six months beforehand, and it was just… I’d go under, and I was sharing someone else’s air from their SCUBA-diving tank, so we both had sort of regulators, and they’d say “three, two, one”; on the “three” I would blow out all the air in my lungs, and then on “one” I’d take a very big gulp of air in, and then it’s how much action you can do with that amount of breath in your body kind of thing. It was actually quite… the hard thing was not holding breath. It was the fact that you couldn’t… I wasn’t actually allowed to let any of the air out because Harry is supposed to become a fish with gills, so there'[re] not supposed to be bubbles going around. So if I looked at all pained…
EW: You know why.
DR: It was good fun, and I have to point out I have the most amazing stunt team backing me up. I trained with them for six months. They were down in the tank with me, so they were fantastic.
Media: [unintelligible]
Media: For each of you – now that it’s been four films – what’s the thought about whether acting is your long-term life choice, or don’t you know, yet?
DR: Rupert…
RG: I think I’m really enjoying doing all the Harry Potter films. It’s really good sort of experience, and in the future, it’s not such a bad job and so definitely.
EW: I definitely wouldn’t want Harry Potter to be the last thing I do whether within this business it turned out to be film or not, but originally what I used to love was being on a stage and reacting to a live audience, and maybe my calling is more in theatre. But I don’t know. There are so many different things you can do within it. But definitely looking around and definitely interested.
DR: I love doing it, and I was trying to sort of work out the other day, “What’s the attraction? Why do I love it so much?” and I have no idea. The sort of conclusion I reached was that it’s something to do with the idea, a sort of power thing. Because you have a character, and in many ways, it’s up to you how that character is perceived by people who are watching the film. Obviously, it’s not just up to you; it’s the script and direction as well. So I suppose that’s something I love doing. Huge passion for acting. I’m also quite interested in maybe… I’m not even saying it’s happening within the next twenty, thirty years, but eventually maybe directing or something like that. Simply because I’ve been so inspired by working with Chris Columbus and Alfonso and now Mike and having conversations with David Yates, who’s doing the fifth film and also talking to Gary Oldman because he directed a film – Nil by Mouth, which is a fantastic film – quite harrowing, but it’s brilliant – I mean to watch, to talk to him about it… he just said, “When you’re doing, you’re creating all the time,” which is quite appealing to me. A long way down the line.
Media: Matthew Vines, Veritaserum.com. Which scenes that you filmed that were cut would you have most liked to have seen in the final movie?
EW: Good question; difficult to say. It’s… I try to think about what they did cut. When it’s all put together, and you see the final thing, it’s very… I don’t know. It looks… it all flows so well that you forget what’s actually missing. I’m trying to think …
DR: Personally, I was quite happy because all the bits I was really worried about me being really bad in they cut. Which is wonderful. I don’t know… what were some of the bits? They were just needling sort of moments where there was one… where we just went into… there was another I thought I didn’t do as [well] as I could have there, and they weren’t in which was fantastic. Which obviously meant I was right. I hadn’t done as well as I could have done. But it was… I can’t actually think of any whole scenes that were cut. I’m sure with the amount we shoot there must be.
EW: A huge amount was cut.
DR: When you see the film, it does seem so complete that…
EW: You don’t really miss it. It’s so good that I can’t remember anything that was cut. I can’t remember.
Media: Can you talk about – I’m going back to the theme of the parallels to your own life – how the opposite sex treats you? With boys at school, do you have boys chasing you, everywhere?
[Everyone laughs]
DR: Is that for me? [laughs]
EW: I don’t really know how to answer that, to be honest. Dan, you’re always good on this question, you take it.
DR: Do I have boys chasing after me? [laughs] I don’t, but to be honest, you talk about parallels in the film. There is a parallel in that both Harry [and I] are not very good with women. [laughs] I think I’ve gotten better now. I think any man who says he has never had an awkward moment with a girl… he’s a liar, or he’s delusional because he is sitting there thinking he is doing really well, and the girl is thinking, “Who is this man, and why is he talking to me?” So I think that is probably the main parallel between Harry [and me] in this film. I would like to say, though, “That’s got huge amounts of attention, but I think there’s this sort of dividing thing between what people think they’re going to get when they see the film and then what the reality is.” I think it’s slightly grimmer possibly.
[Everyone laughs]
Media: [unintelligible]
DR: Yeah, oh, nothing but! [laughs]
Media: Rupert, are you engaged? [Everyone laughs]
RG: I’m pretty much the same as Dan, yeah. I think I’m probably very similar to Ron really. He is not very lucky, and he has some bad experiences. [laughs]
DR: And the worst date in the world.
RG: Oh, yeah.
Media: [unintelligible]
DR: From experience. That is what I like about Harry and Ron. They are the worst dates in the world, and these poor girls, Afshan – the girl who plays Padma, the girl who had the misfortune of going out with Ron – is one of sort of my best friends, and it was great because you just feel so sorry, and this night should be the greatest night in the world for her, but it’s horrible, and then you have that little bit outside – which is quite true – with those dances and type of thing where you’ve got sort of the ballroom casualties […] outside weeping because their night has been so horrible.
EW: Hermione included. [laughs]
DR: Yeah, included.
EW: That’s the thing. I loved doing it so much because I could relate so much to what she was going through. I so know that frustration where guys can be so insensitive. Yeah, but I can relate to a lot of things she experiences and a lot of awkward moments and feeling so unsure about… that is the really sweet thing about the relationship that Hermione and Viktor have, and the one that Mike really wants to play to is that Hermione is so insecure about herself that she’s never really had any attention from any guy before that when she sees Viktor looking at her, she thinks, “Is that guy really looking at me?” and he genuinely wanted to come across as she is quite literally being swept of her feet. She doesn’t know what is happening to her, and she gets caught up in this whirlwind with this incredibly famous Quidditch player, and she can’t believe that it is happening to her so it is quite an emotional roller coaster for her, but…
Media: If you were a bit older, I wonder which one of the more mature roles in the series would you like to have played?
DR: Sirius, yes, probably. Mainly because Gary Oldman played him, and I think he is one of the most brilliant actors. I think Sirius is very similar to Harry, and it is what is sort of fascinating and would have been fascinating if I would have played Sirius and will be when I’m doing Harry in the fifth film. It’s because there is sort of a relationship that is based on two relationships that are based on a mutual need for someone that is gone, so Sirius [and I] is basically based on the fact that we both miss James, and he’s clinging onto James through me, and I’m trying to get to know my father through him, and the same thing happened with Cho Chang [and me] in the film when I was the last person there, and her boyfriend got killed. We sort of had a crush on each other anyway. It would have been nice to get to know Harry from a different angle. So maybe when they remake the film in fifty years, I’ll be lining up for it. [laughs]
EW: Rita Skeeter. She’s so deliciously evil. She is just such a personality. She’d be so much fun to play because she’s funny, but she was something that is very… there is something very real about her, and her costume is fantastic.
Media: [unintelligible]
EW: Sorry?
Media: You said there is something very real about her.
DR: We’re in a room full of journalists.
EW: Maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say? [laughs] I’m going to backtrack, [laughs] yeah, but…
DR: What Emma meant… [laughs] people have [laughs] a malevolent side to them.
EW: They can! [laughs]
DR: But none of you! [laughs]
EW: None of you. Not any in here. [laughs]
Media: Rupert?
RG: Yeah, I’ll tell you. I’d be Hagrid; he’s pretty cool, yeah. I’d probably be him. I don’t know why. He’s tall. Yeah, he’s tall. That’s one reason.
CL: We have time for two more questions, and then we’ll go to the phone.
Media: Could you go through who your favorite actors are that are not in the film and who each of your favorite bands are or musicians?
DR: Rupert, you want to go first?
RG: Yeah, okay. I’m inclined to comedy films, really. When I was young I really liked Jim Carrey. I quite liked Dumb and Dumber and Mike Myers as well, and I liked Shrek and yeah, maybe them, yeah.
DR: Music.
RG: Music, yeah, I’m into sort of rock. AC/DC [is] quite cool, yeah.
EW: This question is a killer. I hate it.
DR: Look what you’ve done!
EW: There are so many people that I’ve never had one person [whom] I’ve particularly idolized, or I thought “Wow, I want to be just like them.” It used to be when I was younger Julia Roberts. I used to just love her. There is something so appealing about her, and I think pretty more recently I’ve loved Natalie Portman – not just on screen but [also] how she’s handled herself. I think she’s done a really good job. I love people like Renée Zellweger who'[re] not afraid to look unattractive and really put themselves into a character role and to really be an actress and not just be onscreen “am I pouting and looking beautiful” because that’s not really what it’s about. Nicole Kidman has had a fantastic career, and she’s done loads of different things with herself. She’s been really successful, and she’s done loads of different things. Okay, music. Again, this is really difficult. I like so many different things. I have had so many music influences in my life, and my dad has had a lot of influence on that. He got me into Eric Clapton, BB King, and loads of stuff like that, and then my mom got me interested into the symphony, and me for myself I divide up what I like. For dance I like hip hop and all that. There'[re] things I just like listening to. I love Damien Rice. I just love music generally. If you come to my house, I have music playing, yeah. [unintelligible]
DR: In a way, it’s hard to think of actors. We’ve been incredibly luckily. I’ve worked with some of the best British actors of their generation: Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, and I’m trying to think of other actors. And a German actor who I think is absolutely amazing – but I don’t think it would ever work – is Daniel Brühl who is in The Edukators, AKA Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei, and “Goodbye Lenin” as well, and he’s amazing. When Alfonso did Y tú mamá también, Gael García Bernal is amazing. I mean come on now. Think of someone who speaks English.
[Everyone laughs]
DR:: I can’t actually think of… to be honest, I would like to worked with Peter Sellers. Older actors that I’d like to just have… well, would have been Peter Sellers. Because when you people talk about classic British actors, you talk about Lawrence Olivier, and Peter Sellers was just the most amazing in films. He played four parts in them – I think it was four or three – three. So he’s just amazing. But with music, that comes easier to me. Which possibly the other way around, it should be. I’m one of those people, I got an album the other day by a band called We Are Scientists, a band called… yes, good! It’s so rare that my taste gets recognition from someone. That’s a very special moment. Fantastic! The Rakes, Dogs, Hi-Fi… what else? I’m also listening to a sort of… because they’re not similar, actually… the new Franz Ferdinand album is extraordinary. They all sound kind of indie. But I also like a sort of more orchestral type like… any heard… ? Hands up if you’ve heard the band called Godspeed You Black Emperor? Yes! Fantastic. Brilliant. And also, my dad listens… my dad has got me into David Bowie and T-Rex and stuff like that. Electric Warrior, what a brilliant album! But also he got me into… when we were in San Francisco, he bought Melanie’s greatest hits. It’s brilliant! Absolutely fantastic! There’s this one song called “Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma.” It’s fantastic! So those are probably some of the ones at this moment.
Conference Leader (CL): We have time for one more quick question before we go to the phones.
Media: I know it’s very difficult, but what memory will you – of this film – carry away with you? When you’re lying in bed ,and you’re thinking, “Oh, my God, that was brilliant,” which memory will it be?
DR: Seeing it, probably. When you see sort of eleven months of your life, and you go in everyday, and you do it, it’s very particular, Harry Potter. It’s a very gradual process. And you piece it together day by day, and you refine and refine and refine and go through all the different stages, and I mean, it’s fifteen minutes of credits. Thousands of people work on it – all whose work is as important as the last. And then it amounts to this massive thing at the end of it, which is just amazing, and it is a fantastic thing to see because even if we hadn’t – I mean, I believe we’ve made a great film, a really good film – the sense of achievement would be still be this amazing thing. So that would probably be for me the thing about the film.
EW: My answer is quite similar to Dan’s. You’d think that working on something for the five years I’ve been doing this for, the novelty would start to wear off, and it would get a bit boring and probably start to get complacent and want to move on and stuff, but a couple weeks back, the trailer was shown for the first time on ITV. And I remember coming into the kitchen, and I saw the screen, and it said that it was going to play in five minutes. And I literally filled with excitement all over again about the fact that I was part of this and that I was in it. I could be excited about that there was all this talking again, and I was going to see it soon and all the waiting. And when I saw it I was literally just like, “Oh!” I was so excited again. Then… so yeah, probably sort of waiting to see how it would come out. And there’s a huge wait. A killer wait. You worked on the film for eleven months, and you have to wait six months to see it. It’s painful. You just so want to know what it looks like. So yeah, probably that.
RG: Yeah, I tried. I find it harder to actually remember anything really being quite like that.
[Everyone laughs]
RG: I’d have to say seeing it. Seeing it at the end.
DR: It seems productive.
EW: Mhm.
RG: Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
DR: It’s far too early to be reminiscing though, I think. We’ll be having parties soon. It was really nice to end that. Sort of, yeah.
CL: And now we’re going to go to some questions from our phone. So operator, first question?
Operator: First question comes from the line of Paige Banfield of DanRadcliffe.co.uk. Please go ahead.
Media: Hi, Dan! My question is for you.
DR: Hello, Paige!
Media: Hi! How are you?
DR: I am very well, thank you. How are you?
Media: I’m good! What is the one impression of this film that you wish that the viewers would take away that perhaps they didn’t get from the first three films?
DR: I think this film… I think the main theme of the entire [film] – sort of like all stories are – is I think it comes across more in this film than the last one… is the whole series is about a loss of innocence. If you go with the first one, it is all sort of very wide-eyed and almost naïve. He is quite naïve and thinking because it is a magical world, it is going to be better than the world that he has come from. Where in actual fact it’s not. It actually… there are further extremes. The further… it can have extremes of joy, which possibly are more than in the normal human world, but also the depths that man can sink to and people like Voldemort, and I think in this film he starts to wake up to that fact even more than last time. He comes to the realization that if he’s going to make it in life, he’s going to be making it alone. And I think that’s the main thing that he discovers in this film, and hopefully people will realize that about me. That I’m not out wreaking havoc! [laughs]
CL: Okay, operator. Second question.
Operator: Second question comes from the line of Lisa Carlin of CBS Radio. Please go ahead.
Media: Yes. Hello. Congratulations to all of you! It is a wonderful movie, and I’d love to hear each of you answer this question. After all these years, I am sure that you are incredibly invested in these characters in the story. J.K. Rowling is writing the seventh book now – the final book. If there was something you could say to her that you either really want to happen or really don’t want to happen before this series is finished, what would it be?
DR: If Quidditch isn’t absolutely necessary, maybe don’t make it so…
EW: [laughs]
DR: Because I read in an interview with her a while ago saying… she said something like that it has become quite a chore writing Quidditch now. It’s quite tough to film!
[Everyone laughs]
DR: It’s tough on both of us. No one is benefitting!
[Everyone laughs]
DR: So maybe that would probably be one thing, I would say. Then again, it’s also incredibly exciting for people to watch. So there is that as well.
Media: And how about Emma and Rupert?
EW: I’m going to make Rupert really uncomfortable now. For goodness sake! Hermione and Ron just need to get it together! This has been SO long now! They’re so wrong, but they’re so right. It just needs to happen, and they just need to get on with it. Yeah, if that doesn’t happen, I am going to be really frustrated. Oh, God! It’s still ongoing. So hopefully they will end up together. [laughs]
Media: Great answer.
RG: Yeah… my answer is a bit different.
[Everyone laughs]
RG: I was actually looking forward to Quidditch, really. So I’ve ruined it. Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
CL: Okay, operator. Question three?
Operator: One moment. Next question comes from the line of Sharon Eberson of Pittsburgh Post. Please go ahead.
Media: Hi! How are you guys doing? I was wondering… you said on this film Mike Newell treated you as adults, and perhaps that hadn’t been the case before or as much so before? In what way did that manifest itself? How did you know that “Wow! We’re being taken seriously!” and more like adults this time around?
DR: Do you want to say something? I am still thinking. So…
EW: I feel it’s just the way that… I mean, Alfonso put a lot of trust in us, and it was so nice that he really wanted to hear what we had to say and what we thought because… but Mike kind of took it to a new level. I mean, sometimes, in a way I think I would be saying to him… I would be learning something really difficult and just say, “I can’t get this right! Just tell me what you want me to do! Just tell me how you want this to be because I am going crazy!” And he would just say, “I can’t tell you how to do it. I’m not going to tell you how to do it.” And I would be like, “Okay!” And he said, “Just think about it.” I mean, it was just nice that while he guided us really well, we felt responsibility for ourselves, for our role, for how we came across. He left a lot of trust in us to do that, and it was really, really nice.
DR: I mean, I suppose sort of the main thing that I got out of Mike’s direction was to… I mean, we’re not old enough to appreciate scenes being analyzed and broken down. The fact is there is such a rigorous process of drafting the script on Harry Potter – on all films, but Harry Potter, we must go through ourselves before we get to the one, before we start shooting them. So basically by that time, if it’s in the script, it pushes the story forward, and it advances things, and it is there for a reason, and Mike was fantastic about going into detail. I mean, I remember sort of the first time we were rehearsing with Mike. It was Matt Lewis – the boy who plays Neville, who is fantastic – [and me]. He’s just the greatest guy, and we were doing a scene. And on the page, the scene was around an inch-and-a-half long, and we spent an hour-and-a-quarter rehearsing it and going through different… and we were going like, “Mike, if this is how long an inch-and-a-half of script takes, how long will it take when we get to the twelve-page things with Voldemort?” We were sort of slightly apprehensive about how we were going to be pushed, but it was very exciting. He realized that we are now old enough to appreciate really going into detail about the scenes. And I think that was probably the main thing that changed in this film.
RG: Yeah. The same really. Well, actually I’ve finished school now, so for me, it feels like I’m sort of grown up a bit more now anyway. Yeah, and Mike was great. He was really into your own sort of input. Yeah. I’m uniform in that. Yeah, definitely.
CL: Okay, operator, we have time for one more question.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Earl Dittman of Wireless Magazine. Please go ahead.
Media: Hi, guys and girls! How you doing?
DR: I’m sorry. One second. You’ve just been greeted by two members of the audience.
Media: [laughs] I’ve got the final question. One thing. A two-part question. Now that you’ve played these characters for over four films, do you feel a connection to them like twins or best friends? And are you excited about doing the rest of the films, the rest of the books? It’s for all of you.
DR: Emma, do you want to go first?
EW: I am hugely attached to Hermione’s character because I’ve already played the part for four years. I know any of you who interviewed me early on know that there is so much of me that goes into her as far as so much as my experiences and the things that Mike did. He really made me think about while I was acting. I was kind of regurgitating my own experiences. I don’t know what I am going to say now.
[Everyone laughs]
EW: Yeah, no. Putting them into… applying them to what Hermione’s going through. So I know if anybody else played Hermione, it would actually kill me. I wouldn’t be able to deal with that at all. I’d go after her. Anyway…
[Everyone laughs]
EW: So yeah. No girl can replace her.
DR: A threat to any future Hermiones.
EW: Yeah. Watch out!
DR: Actually, what you bring up… it’s enough to bring up an image. No, you’re absolutely right. He did make us draw upon our experiences. I think you can’t really help but feel attached to… I can’t help but feel attached to him in some ways. But I mean, kind of like twins. Oh! Someone’s tape has just run out. I just wanted to point that out. But I don’t know if it’s so much that… in a way, I don’t know if me playing him has turned out how much I am like him now or being so close to him over five years has influenced my own character. I mean, I don’t think it’s… I haven’t developed a complex over it or anything, but it is sort of an interesting thing. Yeah. I mean, it is very hard to separate yourself from him in some ways, but ultimately you go home at night, and it’s not like you stay in character all the time. It would be very hard to be a method actor on Harry Potter because then you’d have to try to find a figure of ultimate evil. Rupert, you’ve broken the… sorry, that wasn’t a part of an answer to the question.
[Everyone laughs]
DR: So that would be my not particularly clear answer to that question. Oh, the other part. Yes, sorry. I think it comes down to the fact of “are we still all enjoying it?” If we are, I think it would be sort of stupid not to. If the script is good, and it’s a challenge, and it’s an interesting director, as long as… I mean, I’m going to speak for myself. I’m not going to speak for everyone here. I don’t want to put words in everyone’s mouth. But I would feel as long as I am doing sort of enough other stuff. For some reason I keep addressing all the phone questions.
[Everyone laughs]
DR: As long as I can do enough other stuff around the same time, then I think it would be… and also, I sort of try to read the books when they come out very impartially and not make up my mind. But the fact is [that] when I was reading the sixth book, there was that bit, and I was going like, “Oh, my God. I would love to do that.” It was so good.
Media: Do you get those books earlier than the rest of us?
DR: No. No, we don’t.
EW: No, no.
DR: I tell my friends. I tell my friends I know and then make up stories, but I don’t actually get them. No.
RG: Yeah. Well, since the beginning, I always felt like I could sort of relate to Ron in a way. We’re both ginger, if you want, and we both have sort of big families. I’ve obviously been playing him for a long time. So I got to know him. So yeah. Definitely.
EW: It’s really difficult when people ask these questions because it is such a huge commitment and you can’t appreciate how much you’re on it, the amount of time everything takes. An eleven-month film is huge, and it’s not just a little bit every day. It is a full day. We work a lot of hours. So I think I would never want to do it if I felt I wasn’t going to give a 100%. I’m so focused on this one now. I’m so psyched about this film now. I’m really not thinking about anything. You have to take it one at a time. Otherwise you just get a bit overwhelmed, I think.
DR: I mean, I would just… I mean, I am not in any way trying to undermine… just in case we get prosecuted, we don’t actually work for very long hours. We work very long hours…
[Everyone laughs]
DR: … and when we’re not working… I think what makes it hard is that a lot of actors act like that. That’s the thing.
EW: Right.
DR: When actors aren’t filming, they just go to their dressing rooms and relax. Whereas we go… so yeah. And I think that makes it come to the equivalent because when we’re not filming… when other…
Media: Well, congratulations again for a great movie.
DR: Thank you very, very much, Earl.
EW: Thank you.
CL: We have to get them on out of here, so thank you very, very much.
[Audience applauds]
