As many of you know, the BAFTA Awards were held today and the Harry Potter series received the award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema, it was presented by Stephen Fry and there was a montage accompanying them accepting the award. Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, JK Rowling, David Yates, David Heyman, Helena Bonham Carter, Bonnie Wright, Jamie Campbell Bower, Miranda Richardson and director Mike Newell were at the awards ceremony. Hopefully there will be a video of the cast and crew accepting the award online soon. Emma Watson also presented the Rising Star Award. A lot of videos are beginning to appear online so here is the first roundup. You can also watch a video of Rupert here that has embedding disabled.
In a quick new interview with Total Film Rupert Grint and David Yates discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The quotes can be read below or seen on the scan in the gallery.
“The Great Hall turns into this flaming ball of rubble with dead children and bodies everywhere. It’s shocking but going to look really cool!”
David Yates had this to say about the film:
“There’s so much emotion – and death,” sighs a blessed-out David Yates of the last act, in which several key characters crake it.
In a new interview with USA Today Tom Felton, David Yates and David Heyman talked about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.
The second film comes out July 15. “The very last one’s a big old epic, with lots of battles and dragons and goblins. It’s going to be operatic. And then it’s over,” says director David Yates.
“The decision to split this into two was purely a creative one. By doing two, there’s more detail and more time to engage with the characters in the way that we do,” says producer David Heyman. “It allows the audience time to bring themselves to it. The audience has the time to project their own feelings and engage with the characters.”
Asked if he’s feeling nostalgic, Yates says, “I don’t think we ever took it for granted. We’d sometimes joke about what we’re going to do when it’s all over. We’ll never have this amount of resources again. We’re going to have to go back into the real world, after living in this bubble.”
“One of the greatest gifts that Jo Rowling and the whole franchise has given (the actors) is that we can really end up making a kid’s night just from saying hello,” Felton says. “I was 12 when we started shooting; 13 when it came out. I’m 23 now. It’s been a long journey. You don’t see people growing up, not when you’re there. It’s only when you look back at the films. … Look at Daniel! He was bloody tiny. My face was like a basketball. But those angelic features seem to have left me,” he jokes.
“The last film will be it. It’s never going to be like this again. You never take this for granted,” Heyman says. “You want to do the end justice, so there’s a little bit of anxiety.”
Thanks to TLC for reminding me that I forgot to post this yesterday.
In a new interview with USA Today Ralph Fiennes talks about playing Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films! Tom Felton, David Yates and Daniel Radcliffe also talk about Ralph.
“He’s really sort of the devil,” says Fiennes, 47. “He’s completely emotionally detached. He has no empathy. You find that in psychopaths.” “It’s about power with Voldemort,” he says. “It’s an aphrodisiac for him. Power makes him feel alive.” “Jo Rowling has always said that the thing that separates Harry from Voldemort is that Harry is not afraid of death,” Radcliffe says.
Director David Yates praises the actor’s ability to nail Voldemort’s mercurial menace. “Where he goes in his eyes is really haunting.”
And no matter the lights, cameras and presence of dozens of crewmembers, Radcliffe was consistently unsettled by Fiennes. “When Ralph’s doing his Voldemort stuff, he just really freaks me out.”
Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy, says he also was unnerved. “Ralph is mesmerizing,” Felton says. “He never did two takes the same. … I had to keep reminding myself: ‘Stay in character. Don’t just sit there and watch his performance.’ He dominates scenes in the film, and it’s like that off the set as well,” Felton says. “He’s quite a charming guy. And when he opens his mouth, people listen. Let’s put it this way: No one talks over him.”
In a new interview David Yates talks about Deathly Hallows and more specifically the darker moments of the film, including the scene where Bellatrix tortures Hermione.
Q. What preparation and approach did you use for Hermione’s torture scene?
Yates: Emma wanted to do research. She was really keen to get it right. It seemed like a really bizarre request, but I asked my assistant to find some documentaries where people talk about what it’s like to be tortured. I didn’t shoot it like a scene where you [say] action [and] cut. I kind of let the camera roll for four or five minutes and I let Helena and Emma improvise to a certain extent those moments, so they could build an intensity together.
Q. What was Watson’s reaction?
Yates: The first time we did it, I [did] yell cut. Emma said, ‘You cut too early! You cut too early!’ She was getting to this intense point. And I said, ‘Well, it was getting scary, Ems!’ And she said, ‘No no no no, let me try, let me try.’ There were one or two moments that were really powerful, where Emma was able to just let go a little bit and forget for a moment that she was acting. And the screams were quite horrible to listen to. It was a very odd energy in the room. She was kind of exploring and exorcising demons really, and serving the scene doing that. I felt in that moment, and in that day and in that room, she kind of crossed the line as an actress. She discovered something within herself that will make her a great actor.
MovieFone has added a bunch of new interviews with the stars of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! In the interviews the stars answer questions from fans, some of the answers are quite amusing. Particularly one involving Daniel Radcliffe, some liquid and a sock. Watch them all below:
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