Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’s cast gathered at the posh Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan — and SheKnows was there for the scoop on the most anticipated film of the summer!
“Chipmunk face, big teeth, bushy hair,” says Emma Watson. “My lips are like the lips of a horse,” says Daniel Radcliffe. “I was s**ting myself massively,” these are the kinds of self-deprecating
statements we got from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince actors Daniel
Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton and Bonnie Wright when we spoke with them recently at the Waldorf.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince peeps
It’s clear that over ten years of praise and fan adulation hasn’t turned these young actors into snobs. We realized, as they currently shoot their roles as Harry, Hermione, Ron, Draco and Ginny in
the last two Deathly Hallows Harry Potter films, that these young actors are childhood pals who will soon go out into the world, alone for the first time; some (Emma and Bonnie) to
college, others (the boys) continuing their film careers with further education on the back burner.
For now, the wizard brood is taking a break from shooting the away-from-Hogwarts, action-packed last two films, in order to fill SheKnows in on the sometimes comic romantic entanglements that their
characters experience all while fighting some very dark magic in Half-Blood. We got the scoop on how they date without the benefit of love spells (Emma jokes that she is dating her
stalker), Rupert’s comic turn on the Quidditch team, Dan and Bonnie’s kiss, Emma and Rupert’s upcoming snogging session and what was it really like to lose Dumbledore? When Michael Gambon stuck his head in the door to tease Dan during our interview, we noted that old and very wise wizards never really die, they just become more playful.
Fashion alert for the Half-Blood Prince cast: picture Dan in eye-matching blue shirt and black slacks, Emma in classy little black dress and very high gladiator sandal heels, Tom in
Draco-appropriate black suit and Bonnie in cute white tunic with rainbow-colored, sequined embellishments, black slacks and sweater. We can’t get over how beautifully these kids have turned out.
Let’s dish all things Potter…
SheKnows: How did you handle working on the balance between teen romance versus the dark heavy drama in Half-Blood Prince?
Emma Watson: I think it was a nice break. I think if Hermione kept going at the rate she was going in terms of the amount of worrying she was doing, she might have developed a
hemorrhage, so it’s nice that she had a bit of light relief for all of us. For kids’ books, they’re pretty dark. They can be pretty heavy and serious. I sound like an English Literature student but
having more of that (humor) actually heightened the pathos at the end where Dumbledore died. By, having some other, lighter stuff, it was pretty shocking when suddenly it was like ‘whoa! A
really big figure in this series has just died’. So, it was really good.
Rupert Grint: Yeah. I thought it was one of the funniest (of the films). You’ve got two new characters as well; Jim Broadbent, who I think, is hilarious in it and Jessie Cave as well who is my girlfriend.
Emma Watson: Stalker.
Rupert Grint: (laughs) Yeah. I really enjoyed it.
“Rupert’s finest hour”
Daniel Radcliffe: Yeah, I have to say as well, for my money, in terms of the comedy, I think this is Rupert’s finest hour. He’s absolutely brilliant in the movie and reveals
himself to be a fantastic practitioner of physical comedy. He always has been and he balances the dramatic stuff as well wonderfully but the scene on the broomstick in Quiddich which is like
something out of Buster Keaton or something, it’s absolutely brilliant and I was belly laughing. It was wonderful.
Rupert Grint: Thanks, I know you mean that.
SheKnows: Emma and Rupert, was there a kissing scene filmed that didn’t make it to the movie or is that an internet rumor?
Emma Watson: I think there might have been a small misunderstanding. The kissing scene that they have is in the seventh film and this is the sixth one so it wasn’t that we did it
and it was s**t and didn’t make it (laughter). We’ll see after the edit. But, yeah, we did the scene about two weeks ago.
Rupert Grint: (is he blushing?) Yeah. We did it. (laughter). It was not something we were looking forward to. It was quite a strange thing to think about doing
but I think it was all right in the end.
Emma Watson: Yeah. David (Yates, the director) doesn’t really let us watch playback but he let us watch in this circumstance and Rupert and I were quite nervous that it might look
ingenuous as we were so desperate to get it over with. I think Rupert and I felt the pressure of this kiss. There’s so much media interest and also the fans…this is like ten years worth of
tension and hormones and chemistry and everything in one moment and we had to ace it. So, it was like ‘oh, God’. But, hopefully we did. I’m sure you’ll critique it in a couple of years. Please be
nice.
Daniel Radcliffe: (to Rupert and Emma) I think, to be honest with you, you’re probably going to come out very well. But, poor Bonnie, who is sitting down at the other end of this table, who has the kiss with me, I saw the film again a couple of nights ago at the premiere and I really watched it and my God! My lips are like the lips of a horse (laughter) kind of distending independently away from my face and trying to encompass the lower half of hers. I apologize, Bonnie.
Bonnie Wright: I don’t know what to say. Well, I didn’t notice so don’t worry.
SheKnows: Well speaking of horses. Daniel, you’ve just finished Equus. Do you have another stage project lined up?
Daniel Radcliffe: Nothing specific, no. Nice segue, though. Using the horse at the end of that question was excellent (we laugh). No, nothing specific at all. I would love to be back on the stage sometime within the next two or three years but there’s nothing planned at all. Obviously, if Broadway would have me back, that would be incredible because I had an amazing
time here.
SheKnows: What did you learn about your characters this time around and Bonnie how did you feel playing a much bigger part in this film?
Tom Felton: It was a great opportunity for myself to really dive a little bit deeper into Draco’s head and discover that he really is a coward through and through (laughter). But, no, it was great fun to really explore a bit deeper and make him more three-dimensional.
Bonnie Wright: Yeah, the same for me. When you’ve got more to look at with your character and it’s not just in one section at the beginning and then at the end of the film, it’s a continual development so I was able to take the character further and have more to do.
Hogwarts’ girl power
Emma Watson: I think, in the film, we see quite a strong Hermione, quite a kind of girl-power Hermione. She’s the brains behind the operation dragging the guys around with her but also, in this one, I think she’s much more fragile and vulnerable and emotional. She’s experiencing her first heartache, really. I think she’s very confused by how she feels about Ron and how upset she is when he kisses someone else so it was a challenge for me to play this much more emotional, vulnerable person. It was fun to do a lot more comedy with Rupert (he laughs) which was great. I actually had a lot of fun doing this one and I loved it a lot.
Rupert Grint: Yeah. I liked to think this is Ron’s best year at Hogwarts. He gets a girlfriend, joins the Quiddich team for the first time. And, yeah, it was nice to have something
to really get stuff into and I really enjoyed it, yeah.
Daniel Radcliffe: For me, the big change in Harry this year is his relationship with Dumbledore. Previously, it’s always been very much teacher and student and this year it changes
to being a general with his favorite lieutenant. Harry becomes foot soldier in this movie and happy to be so. Also, in all the other ones, you see Harry going ‘yeah! We’ve got to get Voldemort. We’re gonna kill him’ but he never really does anything towards it. This year he’s actually being pro-active and planning and trying to actually do something towards the ultimate destruction of Voldemort.
SheKnows: Ron has this stalker girlfriend who is impressed by his celebrity. For the three of you, has it gotten a little strange where you find you are dating people more interested in your character rather than yourself?
Daniel Radcliffe: Fortunately, I don’t think that’s the case for any of us. I don’t think that any of us are…
Emma Watson: I’m dating my stalker. (laughter)
Daniel Radcliffe: Well, that’s often the best way to deal with them. You just confront them with it, then they often go off.
Emma Watson: He’s always there when I need him. I can be very demanding. He’s so into me. (now everybody is laughing). It’s the way to go. I really recommend it.
Daniel Radcliffe: Well, I’m not but it’s still good.
Rupert Grint: (long pause) Oh, I’m not but it sounds quite good really. You get a lot of attention, I suppose.
Up next…Harry Potter’s stars talk about the Harry Potter journey nearing the end.
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