The LA Times Hero Complex has a new interview with Chris Columbus, who directed the first 2 Harry potter films.

“My biggest pride is seeing the pictures now, and watching the three of them from a distance, and seeing them do an entire scene in one shot,” said the director of the first two “Harry Potter” films, which were released in 2001 and 2002. “Seriously, I know that sounds funny, but in the old days — and, you know, the old days meaning eight years ago — and in that first picture in particular, it’s filled with cuts because they couldn’t really get beyond the first line without either looking into the camera, laughing or looking at the lights.”

“Having done the ‘Home Alone’ pictures, I realized that we needed to start casting kids based on their families and the security that their families could give them at this particular time in their lives — that was particularly the case with the “Potter” kids, who were about to become three of the most famous kids in the world,” Columbus said. “So David Heyman and I made sort of a pact that we were gonna cast the families as well as the kids.  And in interviewing Dan’s family and Rupert’s family and Emma’s family, they surrounded themselves with a really solid group of people. Their parents were very supportive, their parents were there for them all the time.”

“There wasn’t this obsession for fame,” the 51-year-old director said. “It all sort of happened — particularly with Daniel Radcliffe — reluctantly. With  the other two kids it seemed accidentally – they weren’t expecting it.  And I think as a result of that, because they had that sense of support from us at the beginning, and from their parents throughout, they’ve really turned into terrific adults.  And that being said, they’ve also turned into terrific actors, you know. “