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Tom Felton Talks Filming the Potter Series
Posted by Megs

Recognise Magazine has a new interview with Tom Felton where he talks about what it was like in his personal life while working on the films as well as the audition process.

Did you realise what the role meant at the time, and how it was going to change your life from then on?
I didn’t realise what a massive success it was going to be. I just enjoyed acting so the job could have been a local play and I’d have been happy. Money wasn’t something that I, as an 11-year-old, really cared about, and I enjoyed school, so I wasn’t trying to avoid that.

You were part of the biggest literary phenomenon of the Noughties. How did you cope with the attention?
Well, when we made “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” there was no guaranteed sequel. It wasn’t as huge to begin with, especially not as big as it is now. I’m lucky because I come from a quiet country town; I was born in Epsom (Surrey) and raised in Leatherhead. I just recently moved to Dorking. I was never treated differently. I have three older brothers who were a bit mean to me, as they wanted to be actors too. I have normal friends who have no interest in what I do, as I have no interest in what they do. We’d rather watch the cricket. I’ve also got great parents, people think that I must have had a pushy mother but she was the opposite, she wanted me to stay at school.

Filed Under: Deathly Hallows, Tom Felton
USA Today Interviews Helena Bonham Carter and Tom Felton
Posted by Megs

USA Today has a new report where they interview Helena Bonham Carter and Tom Felton about their characters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

In the latest installment, Lestrange fairly begs to murder Harry Potter, lunging forward with unbridled bloodlust. “I just base her on a really, really naughty, horrible child,” says Bonham Carter. “She’s got arrested development. She’s totally unpredictable. You have no real idea of how she’s going to react.” She also is “the ultimate witch,” the actress says. “Kids are genuinely terrified by me on the street, which is quite funny.”

She didn’t relish the scene in which she tortures Hermione (Emma Watson). “It was pretty hard,” she says. “The sadistic part doesn’t come naturally to me. The oddness definitely does, but the sadism doesn’t.” All must have been forgiven. Watson and Bonham Carter happily socialized during filming. They discussed Hermione’s character, since in the final film installment, out in July, Bonham Carter impersonates Hermione. “We went to tea and had long chats,” Bonham Carter says.

———-

“He’s a character who’s very defined,” Felton says. “He was purposefully written by Jo Rowling as very one-dimensional in the first few books, because you’re supposed to hate him. You’re supposed to build up as much dislike for the character as you can until we get to Book 6. We hate him even more for the first half of that book because we think he’s up to something and we know he’s going to do some damage.  But it’s not until we actually see why he’s in that position and see him break down on two or three occasions that we actually start to feel a bit sorry for him. This guy’s a horrible victim of circumstances and terrible parenting.”

Felton says director David Yates explained Malfoy’s position in a way that hit home. “The Muggle (non-wizard) equivalent of what Draco was technically asked to do is like a terrorist group giving you a gun and saying, ‘Shoot your president in the head or we’re going to shoot you.’ God! Imagine a 16-year-old having to take that on! And that continues in the seventh book, when we really see him struggle. He’s a boy amongst men in a world that he does not want to be in. Every minute he stays there, he knows he’s not cut from the same cloth as those people.”

Filed Under: Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Felton
Ralph Fiennes Talks Voldemort with USA Today
Posted by Megs

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.”

Filed Under: Daniel Radcliffe, David Yates, Deathly Hallows, Ralph Fiennes, Tom Felton
Tom Felton, Rupert Grint and Matthew Lewis in Total Film Indonesia
Posted by Megs

In addition to Bonnie Wright and Evanna Lynch, we have the interviews that Matthew Lewis, Tom Felton and Rupert Grint did with Total Film Indonesia.  You can read all the interviews at the links on their names.  You can see the scans below and some segments from the interviews.

You start as a bully and end up being one of the more complex characters.
Tom Felton: Yeah, it’s a real journey, I think, for young Draco. I think Jo [Rowling] – I mean, I don’t know this for a fact – but I think he was written purposefully quite one-dimensional for the first five years as sort of a typical bully… to get the audience hating him, to get the audience knowing exactly what he is. And then on the sixth, we sort of go behind the scenes a bit and see his family, to meet his mother, who I think is a good representation of why maybe he was a bit softer than his dad. His dad is certainly more militant… he also bullies him to a small extent so that’s half the reason I think, why Draco is how he is. It’s been fantastic for me as an actor, really, to sort of play it one way and for it to be turned on its head and to completely go the other way with it… I was actually very nervous about the lack of stages of the character because I knew it was going to get a lot more complicated and I wasn’t really that confident in my ability. But David Yates set up several meetings to boost up my confidence and he’s really happy at the end of it.

Neville’s so heroic in the end, which is wonderful, so what’s your definition of a hero and who is your hero?
Matthew Lewis: Well, the Leeds Rhinos [his favorite rugby team] were my heroes, last night! I don’t know if you caught the game; they were unbelievable. But no, my real definition of a hero is… obviously, all the people who are in the Middle East right now. You know, those guys are the heroes. I don’t personally know anybody who’s out there, but I know friends of friends that are and it’s shocking. It’s wholly shocking that in the twenty-first century, that sort of thing still goes on. Those guys are out there, doing a job, and they don’t wanna be there, but they are, and I think that’s courage and heroic.

This time they’ve given you more deep, emotional stuff. How hard was it to do Ron’s jealousy and falling out with Harry?
Rupert Grint: Yeah, it was good. It was, I suppose, a different kind of side to Ron in this film. We don’t really see Ron kind of, um, turn against his friends that often. He really does have doubts with Harry’s ability and the fact that we’re not really getting anywhere with these Horcruxes kind of fuels that. He’s a bit jealous, as well, because he sees Hermione and Harry together, and he’s just not having a great time. It kind of erupts into a this bit of an argument. Those scenes are really quite good fun, actually. Whenever me and Dan are shouting at each other… it’s always great.

Filed Under: Matthew Lewis, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton
Tom Felton Talks Growing Up with Harry Potter and His Future
Posted by Megs

In a new interview with the Sydney Herald, Tom Felton has talked about what it was like growing up in front of the cameras, what the future holds for him and more.

“We are relaxed,” Felton says. “Doing a talk show or talking to a newspaper journalist is a lot more relaxed and a lot more fun; it used to be much more of a nervous thing when we were kids. And by now we’ve learnt the right things and the wrong things to say, plus we’re genuinely passionate about the films, so it’s nice to talk about something you’re excited about sharing with people.” 

“As the films have gone along, they have got darker,” Felton says. “But the humour has also gone up tenfold. It’s a unique type of humour. It’s British dry wit — there are no jokes, just awkward silences. In my opinion they’re not just scarier, they are also funnier.”

“It’s a strange experience and the gravity of what we’ve done together hasn’t really sunk in yet,” he says. “To have your puberty documented in a series of films is weird and even looking back at it now you can cringe at some of the early ones because of how young you look. It’s hard to come up with a sentence that explains it all but it’s been an incredible journey and we’ve got more and more excited each year.”

“As a youngster I wasn’t completely sure this is what I wanted to do with my life but being around so many fantastic actors has embedded a massive passion for filmmaking within me,” Felton says. He will star alongside James Franco in the Planet of the Apes prequel, Rise of the Apes, in 2011. “It’s far from plain sailing but it’s an exciting time for me because doors are open and I know I can convince people I can do more than Draco.”

Filed Under: Tom Felton
Tom Felton Talks Life After Potter and More
Posted by Megs

Hero Complex has posted a new interview with Tom Felton where he discusses what lies ahead for him now that the Potter series is over and much more.

“I love fans with passion, and I learned from the ‘Potter’ experience what it can be like to be part of something that gets people excited before they’ve even seen it,” Felton said. “It adds a certain pressure — it can turn into a love-and-hate thing too, because people are literally waiting for every screen-shot, every trailer and every new detail. They lean forward, and that’s what you want, that’s the way to lean.”

Felton said he marveled at the serendipity that put together a cast of young actors who meshed so well, and he said it was hard to say goodbye to the movie set where they grew up together. “It was a group that were picked, and we got on when we were 11, and we all got on when were 20, and that’s amazing to think about. The families had a lot to do with it, the people that did the casting had a lot to do with it, and then there was luck too.”

Steve Kloves even mentions what a great actor Tom is:

“Tom has been plying his craft for a very long time and even as a child was a particularly deft actor,” Kloves said. “As Draco transformed over the last two pictures from mere foil to a haunted, multi-dimensional young man, Tom’s skill has only become more evident. … [In the sixth film,] Draco is slowly crumbling from within due to the pressures imposed on him from outside forces of great power. Tom reveals the fissures slowly, so that over the course of the movie the hairline fracture he displays early on becomes, by the conclusion, a shattering of the soul. He’s respectful of the written word and applies his energies to interpretation, with often quiet but thrilling results. He’s a writer’s dream.”

Filed Under: Tom Felton
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