The newest movie to be released this July is creating waves this early!
A new online interview with Harry Potter actors Dan Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron), and Emma Watson (Hermione), together with Half-Blood Prince Director David Yates was released by
MSN UK. This new interview correlates with the
Harry Potter Tour which will start in Dublin on June 10, 2009. This Q&A interview features a number of questions on a variety of subjects posed to the Trio and Mr. Yates.
The Q&A started with actor
Dan Radcliffe, who talks about his first serious role on stage,
Equus, and how he enjoyed a bit of a change. As much as he loves Harry , he's excited to work on other projects too. He also discusses how Emma Watson always beat Rupert and him at table tennis, his love for indie rock music, and his feelings upon filming the final films which quoted as follows:
"It will be very, very odd to suddenly not be coming back to Harry Potter. It does act as a safety net, in a way, when you're going off to make something else. Knowing that you don't have that will be sad. I'll be sad to leave the character behind and not see the friends I've made on a daily basis."
Finally, when asked if Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince will show another side of Harry, he comments as saying,
"There's friction in this film it's much more to do with Ron and Hermione than it is to do with Harry. Harry is unhappy for a lot of this film, mainly because people keep trying to kill him. And his love life is awful, too. That's what Jo [JK Rowling] does so well: combining everyday, mundane problems with this incredible other world."
Now with
Emma Watson Q&A, she talks about how pleased she was to be back because it only shows how things picked up for all of therm. She relates her similar feelings with Dan about doing something else other than being Hermione and how Harry Potter movies fame changes her life. When asked how she feel when she won the Best Actress Award at the ITV Movie Awards, this is what she says:
"It was so lovely. I genuinely didn't expect to win it. It wasn't just about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was about all the films and I was delighted that the public had voted for that award. It's one of my proudest moments."
Back to Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince movie, Emma explains her feelings about her budding romance onscreen with Ron who was played by an old friend. she says,
"I don't know that it's tough. Rupert's a really laid back guy but I'm really looking forward to it because I quite like the romantic comedy side of it. Rupert and I end up providing light relief, as the films get darker. It's funny seeing Rupert struggling in the romantic stakes. Hermione and Rupert are so different yet they have this chemistry, so it's interesting. It'll be awkward doing those love scenes; there's no other way to put it, but its all part of the job."
On the lighter part of the interview, Emma expresses her enjoyment to beat Dan & Rupert at playing table tennis saying she was quite a tomboy as a kid & loves playing a lot of sports. She also talks about the diary she keeps of "funny little things I said or thought" and small stuffs memorabilia from Harry Potter movies. And lastly, when she was asked about having an autobiography one day, this is what she said:
"No, I couldn't see myself doing that. It's too strange and weird looking back on that little girl. I'm very self-critical so I find it hard to watch the early films again. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was a film I was proud of, but I had to watch it three or four times before I could calm myself down and stay focused on my performance."
So next to our line of Q&A is Rupert Grint who's also widely known as Ron Weasley in Harry Potter movies. Reading this interview with Rupert, you will clearly see how cool the kid is. Quoted below are the bits and pieces of how the Q&A go...
About playing Quidditch,
"Yeah, I've never done Quidditch in the films before so this is my first Quidditch experience. Dan says it's really painful and I know where he's coming from because it's quite uncomfortable, with the harness and stuff, and you're getting slung about. There are two stages. One is the try-outs where Ron is not very good and keeps getting hit in the face. Another stage is where Ron takes the potion and thinks he is really, really good. It's quite tricky but I've really enjoyed it. I'm always on a wire because the broom is quite high up, about 18 feet."
About coming back for Harry Potter filming and how he feels about the earlier Harry Potter movies,
"Each film is a little bit different, but it is a lot like coming back to school. It's the same people you've worked with and we're never away that long anyway. It's easy to get back into the routine."
"Sure. It's quite sad because it's been a massive part of my life. It's hard to get my head around something that will have taken up 10 years of my life when it's finished."
"I haven't watched the films all the way through for ages but I've seen bits and pieces on Sky. It feels like a different person, to be honest; it feels like it all happened ages ago. It brings back a lot of good memories because it was all a good life and it brings back all those exciting times to me. I had barely done a school play before I started so it was very scary in those early films. I never thought of it as a serious thing. It was all just fun for me back then."
About his kissing scenes in Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince movie,
"Yeah, and Ron gets a girlfriend in this one. When we did the kissing sequence, it wasn't easy because I'm standing on a plinth and the whole room is watching. It was quite embarrassing and I was actually dreading it. It was weird and the girl who plays my girlfriend is really cool. It was fine after the first 10 takes. [Laughs.]"
And so our cool guy ended his interview by saying how he loves playing golf with the twins and an assurance to his fans that as long as he is wanted, he will keep on coming back for Harry Potter movies because he really enjoys doing it and for him its really cool.
So down with the last Q&A for director David Yates to answer questions about his returning as director for the final films, the performances from the actors in the film, his decision to return for Deathly Hallows, and a 'through-line,' which Yates says "...goes right the way through to the end... We're just putting in all sorts of little details between the characters, which hopefully will resonate through the films."
When asked if he feels more relaxed or more terrified with this new Harry Potter movie, knowing of what to expect, this is what he says:
"It’s kind of a bit of both. I felt really self-conscious making the last film. I didn’t realise how big it was until I got to the premiere and then got to America and saw how massive the release was and how huge the reaction was. That was when the penny dropped that this was such a big thing for so many people. Oddly, when I started this one, I was a little bit more wary of everything. The first time round you just do it; you just go for it. But I’ve settled in and this one’s quite different to the last one. It’s a little bit more grown up and a bit wittier. It’s a different vibe, I think."
Mr. Yates also goes on to describe the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film as:
"It’s love, potions and rock ‘n’ roll. There are all these wonderful things in our story. There’s a potion that gives you perfect luck. You take it and everything goes right for you. But it does heighten your senses somewhat and you get quite breezy with it. Then there’s a love potion that makes you very tactile with everybody. Rupert gets overly tactile with Jim Broadbent at one point. So, it’s got all those metaphorical values. There are some really lovely comic beats here, which we didn’t really get a chance to do last time. It was just a very different beast. "
So there you go... I for one is very excited to see this new movie from Harry Potter books series. And for a teaser/trailer of Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince, click here.
