Times Online has posted their interview with Emma that I posted about earlier!
Inside, however, I reckon little has changed since a small, determined nine-year-old went to audition. “You wouldn’t believe how much I was compelled to play Hermione. I knew I was right to play her, even when my parents were trying to convince me not to. I made it my life for three or four months, just getting through those auditions.” Now Watson is equally determined to bury acting for three years. With four As at A level, having studied obsessively between takes, she is taking up a place in September to study English and art at a university in yet another undisclosed location. She wants to be a civilian again, “like Jodie Foster when she went to Yale,” says Watson. “And I want to forget about hair and make-up.”
On the Potter set, “it takes an hour to get ready every day. They call us at 7.30am.” Watson leans forward across the trailer’s Formica table to show me the extensions plaited into her backcombed light brown hair to give it Hermione Granger’s messy curls. Plus there are fake scars – “They must have rubbed off – I just took a nap” – and plenty of slap to make her lightly freckled skin matt and witchy. The heavy eyebrows are for real, though.
The LA Times has another interview today with Stuart Craig.
JP: When dealing with CGI, do you suddenly see some things and think ‘that would be better computer-generated?’ Or do you just design everything as if you will physically have to build it?
SC: A lot of that has to do with physical limitations. Obviously the actors would prefer a physically real set to react to and respond to as directed. The CG effects encourage you to be bigger and more ambitious and scale things up, so what we try to do is build a physical set — which is always limited by the soundstage it’s on or the corner of the soundstage you have available — and then the CG extension becomes hugely important. Most of our sets when we began “Harry Potter” were real or were fully realized prototypical sets, and now most of them are part built with a bigger part that’s a CG extension and then occasionally and increasingly, some sets are almost totally computer-generated. We just build the floor that actors stand on.
UK Yahoo has posted a new clip from Half-Blood Prince with a lot of new scenes! It is a mix of some clips we have seen, interviews with the cast and crew and it is just awesome! I’m working on getting the video for youtube! It is 3 minutes and 53 seconds long!
The Telegraph has a portion of an interview Emma Watson has done with The Times.
“I want to forget about hair and makeup,” she said in an interview with The Times. “Sometimes on a publicity tour I can’t remember what time it is, what country I’m in. Now it’s coming to an end I’m trying to hold on to it. So I have a book, and everyone I’ve met has a page. I want to remember them and not just be left with the media version of what happened to me.”
Watson also disclosed details about the filming of her long-awaited screen kiss with Rupert Grint, better known as Harry Potter’s friend Ron Weasley. “We did it two weeks ago,” she said. “Four takes one way and two takes with the camera in the other direction. Six takes altogether.”
In the interview Watson also picked out Helena Bonham Carter, who played Bellatrix in Harry Potter, as the biggest influence on her career. The pair struck up a friendship after Bonham Carter invited the teenager to her house to discuss their scenes. “I admire her so much, she is so confident in herself, so happy,” she said. “She probably has no idea how important those two or three hours with her were to me.”
The first five minutes of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince are now online. Head over to Videoload in Germany, you need to register then access where it says “Exklusive” to watch the first five minutes of the film. I’m working on getting the video, hopefully I can! 😀
UPDATE: for now there is a poor quality version on youtube that you can see here. The clip is in German sadly. (I didn’t watch because I want to be surprised, when I see the movie on the 9th, haha)
UPDATE 2: The user has removed the video.
UPDATE 3: It is now on youtube with subtitles, here!
There is aa new interview with actress Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) from the Harry Potter movies where she talks about her education, working on the films and with fellow actors. There is also a GORGEOUS new photoshoot of her. You can see the photoshoot over at SoBonnie!
It was slightly embarrassing because on set everyone knew that it was The Day when we’d kiss,’ she admits. It was definitely a case of “pass the mints”. But at the moment of the scene, everything just worked. Ginny kind of initiates what happens between her and Harry. He doesn’t really know what to do because she’s his best friend’s sister, so she takes the lead. It was very calm and romantic.’
The first audition, in [producer] David Heyman’s office, was kind of strange, as I didn’t have any lines really,’ she confesses. And I had no idea of getting the part since there were probably loads of more experienced kids who’d been acting since the age of two.’ Eventually, her parents were told that she’d landed the role. We were in the car, going to our house on the south coast, and you know when you can tell that your parents have something to say to you? They were just silent for ages, as if they were about to announce they were getting a divorce. When they finally told me, I remember screaming out of the window all the way up the motorway. I was ecstatic.’
