On Thursday December 1st Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick and Griphook), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley), Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown), and Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley) made a special appearance at The Harry Potter Shop in Harrods and harrods.cominterviewed them exclusively at the event. Harrods have also sent us a few photos from the event which you may view in the gallery!
What is the funniest anecdote you have from the Harry Potter films?
Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown): I remember filming a scene where Rupert and I had to run up a stairwell and then we had to stop and kiss and then keep running. But there’s no wall so there was just a guy standing on the floor holding his arms out just in case one of us fell. I remember thinking ‘this is Rupert Grint, surely if he falls this is going to be bad! I’m okay if I fall!’
If you could play another character in the film, who would you play?
MW: It changes all the time but I quite fancy the idea of being Bellatrix. Because she obviously just had great fun doing it, didn’t she? Caffeine mad that woman!
OP: I’d quite like to play someone like Krum in The Goblet of Fire.
MW: He’s just so cool, isn’t he? How can someone be that cool?
JC: Dolores Umbridge, definitely. Just so wacky, with that cats and the kitsch costumes.
JP: Either George or Dobby.
WD: Professor Snape – “you have your mother’s eyes”.
Did you all have to read the books before you made the films?
MW: I confess, before I was in the film I read the books avidly, after I was in the film, they became homework.
JP: It did help though because you knew that even if a certain story wasn’t in the film, you could still know where you got to. You could play into it and act accordingly. I think they said that if they were to make the first book, The Philosopher’s Stone, into a script it would be seven hours long. So who knows how many days the last one would have been.
MW: The eight films are 19 hours and 30 minutes in total.
James and Oliver Phelps chatted with WA Today over breakfast while in Sydney, Australia last week. Some snippets from the interview may be read below.
How did you feel about going ginger? James: I didn’t think anything of it until I walked into school one day with red hair and everyone looked at me differently. It was weird. People do treat you differently; they’re almost a bit [ruder]. It’s odd.
Did it make you the coolest kids at school? James: No, no one seemed to be that bothered by the hype; our mates don’t realise how big it is because none of our friends are in the industry. Film and TV was nothing I’d ever dreamt of going into. In fact, about two months before we had the audition, there were auditions for the school play and the head drama teacher, in the first round of auditions, was like, ”Nah, you’re never going to go anywhere in acting, don’t bother,” so it was great walking back in there on the first day of the next term and saying, ‘I got a contract with …”
Oliver: The drama department was just really unhelpful towards the whole acting thing, to a point where the head drama teacher said, ”Your priorities need to shift if you’re going to continue with acting so can’t you film Harry Potter on a Saturday?” He thought we should have been at school doing his class rather than making these films that were watched worldwide.
What’s next for you both? Oliver: Yeah, there was [something we went for], actually. I won’t say the film but there was a film that had twins in it; we read for it and it looked rosy but Harry Potter was filming at the same time so we missed out. But we have different things coming up; we’ve got two individual projects in the new year and then another film together in May in the States and I’m also going to do a little documentary program as well, which will be quite cool.
This morning we have a fun piece of news from Warner Bros.! Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick and Griphook), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley) and Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown) will be making a special appearance, where they will be meeting with fans and giving autographs, at Harrods in London on December 1st starting at 5.30pm at The Harry Potter Shop at Harrods. The full press release may be read here.
Due to the limited time available, access to the queue to meet the stars of the films will be strictly limited to 300. Wristbands will be issued from 10am at The Harry Potter Shop at Harrods on the day of the event on a first-come, first-served basis with a queue starting at Door 3 of the store.
Hmv will be opening up to 150 of its stores around the country especially early at 7.00am on day of release – Friday, 2nd December, so that fans, including those travelling to work or school, are able to purchase their copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows™ – Part 2at the earliest opportunity.
Many of you follow James and Oliver Phelps on Twitter so you have most likely seen them mention Harry Moseley and the charity his mother started in his honor, Help Harry Help Others. Harry was an eleven year old boy that recently lost his fight against brain cancer. He was an inspiration for James & Oliver, and they always wear one of his bracelets. His charity, which raises money by selling bracelets, benefits Cancer Research UK’s brain cancer research.
Weasley Twins Community, the first James & Oliver Phelps Italian Community/Forum, is doing a Christmas Project for the twins. They are asking fans to to buy a Help Harry Help Others bracelet (by a minimum personal donation of £2), take a picture or short video of themselves wearing it and send the picture/video to their e-mail (weasleytwinscommunity@hotmail.com). They will then make a video using all the photos and videos from fans and send it to James and Oliver.
[A special thanks to Nora who attended the event on behalf of the site!] You may view a few photos from the day in the gallery, with more on the way later today!
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Walking into Harry Potter the Exhibition was like being transported back through time and into a magical world. The exhibition opens November 19 in the Powerhouse Museum Sydney, the first location to harbour it outside North America. Magical Menagerie was given the special opportunity to preview the exhibition two days early, with special guests James and Oliver Phelps who play Fred and George Weasley. They described the fun they had filming the Harry Potter series, reminiscing about the Halloween scenes where they got to enjoy real food and after 30 takes the actors were swearing off profiteroles. They also talked about the delicacy of the wands they had in the sets and how they’ve broken several wands on- and off-scenes.
Magical Menagerie asked the actors on upcoming projects and whether they plan to pursue their interests such as football and music. James Phelps said he wished he could be a football commentator, but for now he’s focusing on his acting and has lined up some jobs. Oliver is planning to go on a vacation before going back to work, and both boys are excited about pursuing their acting careers separately.
We also met Eddie Newquist, the Chief Creative Office of GES who described the complexity of putting together the exhibition. Robin Stapley, Exective Creative Director of GES, mentioned the hard work of selecting the different props to display in the Great Hall and then transporting the exhibition pieces in total of 23 containers to each sites. He then walked us through the exhibition and highlighted the details and intricacy of the pieces.
The exhibition shows you the different sets of Harry Potter movies, recreating some of the sets such as Harry and Ron’s bedroom and Hagrid’s Hut. The details that you get to see in the pieces are the main reason this exhibition is so worth seeing. We got to see up close the details on Buckbeak and Fawkes, the lovely creatures that appeared in the movies. There were numerous pieces that makes you appreciate how much thoughts J.K. Rowling must have put into the character. We saw the life-size painting of Professor Lockhart and all his narcissistic photographs and Professor Umbridge’s clothing and her kitten ceramic plates. It was also interesting to see how the different directors seem to influence the style of the uniforms worn by the different characters.
There aren’t really enough words to describe how magical the exhibition is. It really makes you relive the whole Harry Potter adventure, and you just have to be there to witness it. The enchanting series might be over, but it will forever live in our minds.
This morning Warner Bros have sent over some official footage from the Harry Potter Celebration that was held at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this weekend. The video includes interviews with the various cast members in attendance and highlights from the weekend. The film was released on DVD in the US last week and will come out in the UK on December 2nd!
US fans may order the movie through the following links:
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