Stars from the Harry Potter films have, once again, put pen to paper for this year’s National Doodle Day, benefiting Epilepsy Action, a registered charity in England. Epilepsy Action exists to improve the lives of people living with epilepsy by providing practical support and information in a number of ways – over 1.1 million people used our services last year.
Famous faces from the Harry Potter film series have been busy doodling in the hope their squiggles can raise much-needed cash for charity.
Stars including Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour), Tony Maudsley (Grawp) and Julian Glover (Aragog) have put pen to paper for this year’s National Doodle Day on Friday 6 February. The celebrities’ scribbles will feature in a ten-day eBay auction, beginning on National Doodle Day, to raise funds for charity Epilepsy Action.
National Doodle Day, which is supported by Dodo Pad, publishers of the original family ‘doodle’ diary, aims to get as many people doodling as possible. The event raises money to help support the 600,000 people across the UK with epilepsy. Last year’s auction saw doodles by Harry Potter stars fetch almost £1,000 for Epilepsy Action.)
This year, for the first time, members of the public can take part in National Doodle Day online. People can create, upload and share their scribbles on the dedicated website. Doodlers can submit their creations and compete for prizes at nationaldoodleday.org.uk, home of the celebrity doodle gallery. Every doodle uploaded will be entered into a competition, with winners chosen in an online public vote.
Philippa Cartwright, fundraising events manager at Epilepsy Action said: “Every year we are overwhelmed with the positive support that we receive from celebrities and members of the public alike. The celebrity doodle auction is always a terrific success, raising thousands of pounds in much-needed funds for Epilepsy Action.”
Information on the National Doodle Day celebrity auction and competition can be found at nationaldoodleday.org.uk. The eBay auction will run from Friday 6 February to Sunday 15 February 2015. The closing date for entries into the National Doodle Day competition is Friday 20 March. Voting closes on Friday 3 April.
Epilepsy affects around one in every 100 people in the UK alone and 87 people are diagnosed with the condition every day. Each year Epilepsy Action directly helps over 1.2 million people through a range of services, including its Epilepsy Helpline freephone 0808 800 5050, branch network, specialist nurse scheme and award-winning website, epilepsy.org.uk
National Doodle Day is Friday 6 Feb, and the eBay auction of doodles will run for ten days.
WB has released thirteen new interviews with the cast of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Bill Nighy, Tom Felton, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Isaacs, Ralph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans, Imelda Staunton, David Yates, David Heyman, and David Barron are interviewed. Watch them all in a playlist below:
SnitchSeeker (via Anais and HallowedGround) now has translations from the Premiere magazine feature on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The translation includes interviews with with Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch, Tom Felton, Bill Nighy (Scrimgeour) and Rade Serbedzija (Gregorovitch). Read the full translations here!
P: Everybody knows that the Harry Potter clan suffers great loss in this epilogue. What’s it like to witness the deaths of characters that you’ve known for 10 years?
B.W.: One thing is certain: the atmosphere would change dramatically once we started talking about the death scenes. There was a really strong emotional tension, but opposite the characters, we didn’t have time to feel sorry for our friends. We filmed this scenes just as J.K. Rowling described them: in the frenzy of the action.
P: After ten years of Harry Potter, say goodbye to the saga must have been especially heartbreaking.
TF: When we went back to the last festival at Leavensden after the end of filming, the emotion was at its height. It was the last time the full team was assembled in the Great Hall. We suddenly seemed very empty…a funny feeling.
P: You may find yourself in a few years wandering in the Harry Potter theme park that just opened in Florida.
TF: (Laughs) That’s exactly what I said! If I get too depressed, I will go live over there.
Premiere: How did you get to Harry Potter 7 ?
Rade Serbedzija: It’s a funny story…I was in LA, packing my bags to go back to England, when my oldest daughter – she was 16 at the time- asked me where I was going. I tell her that I’m going to London to meet up with the director of Harry Potter.
And then, she just freaks out: “You’re gonna be in Harry Potter? Dad, if you ever get the job, you don’t know how much I’ll respect you! “I playes alongside Stanley Kubrick, but I had to be on Harry Potter for my daughter to be proud of me. I’m playing Gregorovitch, a guy that makes miraculous sticks…
P: Instead of evolving as the other characters do, Luna stays true to herself…
E.L.: I auditioned for this character because I wanted to be Luna and no one else: I feel really close to this character because she doesn’t judge anyone. Underneath her loony and detached looks, Luna has had really hard times too. She’s the one who relates and puts an impartial view on the situation, things that I’m capable of doing myself. It’s thanks to her crazy looks that I managed to really be in her skin. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to keep any accessory. Impossible to steal a sock without getting a freaked out call from a costume designer…
P: How did you play Rufus Scrimgeour?
B.N.: Like an old soldier, a man of action turned politician. He had lived a life of war and fights that tired him and I wanted to give him a sweeter edge… You also had to be a little enigmatic. The readers of the sage know the character and its destiny, but I didn’t want to play him starting from the end… I kept a part in the shadows …so as not to make him a hero from the beginning.
Premiere: What captivates you the most in this last movie?
RG: The decision to make two films. The first part looks like a road movie – which we also filmed in large part outside, which was very exciting. In the second we sat down in the destruction of Hogwarts, with intense battle scenes but were very fun to run.
In a new interview with Digital Spy, Bill Nighy talks about filming Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bill will be playing Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, in the final films.
“Emma Watson is adorable in the extreme. She is such a lovely person,” he told Premiere. “And Daniel was charming. And Rupert I’d already worked with [in Wild Target], so it was nice to work with him again. And they were really welcoming a nice to me.”
Nighy also predicted a future in acting for the three stars. “I think they will all go on and make other movies. The audience that grew up with them will be happy to see them in other things. They are all good young actors and I should think they will continue to make movies and the audience will grow with them and follow them wherever they go, I would think.
“They are such popular performers now and they are part of people’s lives. They’ve grown up together, and that audience will stay with them, I would think.”
The first official trailer for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is now online! As some of you may know, Billy Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour) will be the voice of Reepicheep in the film. Watch the trailer below and listen to Bill! (Reepicheep is the mouse)
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will be released on December 10, 2010!
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