[IMG:L]Everyone’s favorite students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry may be venturing into darker realms of both sinister sorcery and teenage angst in their fifth big screen adventure together, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but for the young British actors who play them—Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint—life appears to be downright magical.
Despite the unprecedented international success of the book and film franchise and a legion of enraptured fans who’ve followed their every move since their adolescence, the young stars have sidestepped the pitfalls of fame at an early age with nary a Lohan moment—thanks in some part, certainly, to spending most of their professional lives in London rather than Hollywood. Though both poised and worldly, otherwise appear just as sunny, sassy and downright silly as your average teen (Radcliffe turns18 in July, Watson is 17 and Grint turns 19 in August).
“They’re remarkably unaffected,” says David Heyman, producer of the entire Potter series. “They’re kids. They’re quite grown up kids, quite composed, but they’re having a good time. They’re not cynical, they’re not pretentious, they’re not arrogant. They’re humble and frankly very much the same kids that I loved when I began the process.”
On growing up on screen over the course of the five films:
Emma Watson: It’s quite a bit of a new context when you’re doing it on screen. Like I remember, especially with the earlier films, Dan and Rupert would grow like a couple of inches by the end of shooting because it was so long, or by the time the film was released, and that was kind of crazy. And I remember on the second one I was still losing teeth, so that was interesting. Like one scene I’d kind of have a full set and then, you know, try and cover all that up.
Daniel Radcliffe: Not a full, full set of teeth. It was one tooth. It wasn’t like the whole mouth.
EW: I was saying I had a full set of teeth and then I’d lose one.
DR: Oh, right. Okay. Sorry. I thought you said I had a false set of teeth.
EW: No! Oh my god, no! I don’t have false teeth!
DR:[laughs] So sorry.
EW:Yeah. It was kind of a weird experience trying to like make the whole growing-up process kind of run smoothly. We kind of had to do it without anyone realizing. I don’t know – we don’t really think about it. Everyone always asks this question: Is it really hard growing up on screen? And I’m just like “Well, I’ve never grown up any other way, so I don’t know.” It’s just kind of the way it’s always been and you just kind of deal with it, I guess. And we’ve been doing it since we were so young, so I can’t really remember what life was like before these films. I don’t know. It’s just the way it is.
Rupert Grint: For me, it just feels like it’s just been one long experience, really, because it didn’t really feel like that long. It’s only when you look back on the first ones that you sort of realize how much we’ve grown up. And it’s been really fun, though. I’ve enjoyed sort of every moment of it, so it’s been really cool.
DR: I don’t think you realize when you’re growing up. I think it’s just one of those things that just happens to you. And then somebody shows you a photograph of yourself when you were 10 and you recoil in horror. We’ve just grown up. We don’t think of ourselves as having grown up on screen. It’s been great. It’s been really good fun. We’ve met some of the people who we’re really, really good friends with through these films so we probably wouldn’t have had the chance to meet had we not done them so it’s been fantastic.
On whether Emma gets as big a thrill out of “breaking the rules” as Hermoine discovers she does:
EW: I’m sorry to disappoint you. I’m deeply uncool, really. I really never break the rules. I’m kind of me and myself, just not- – I don’t know, I just never really have a problem with – I’m not scared to say what I think or if I really disagree with something then I’ll say it, but I’m not kind of like a born rebel. That wouldn’t be a description of me. I guess it was fun to play her like that, definitely. Really fun and I think- – I mean, the film’s quite dark and I think that kind of element added a light touch. It’s just kind of like “What is up with Hermione? What is going on?
DR: It got a fantastic reaction [at the premiere] yesterday.
EW: Yeah, it was really nice. In the film, that kind of got a good laugh so I’m quite chuffed at that. No, it was fun playing her. I guess just I was able to do things from such a young age that I never would have been able to do. Always traveling and being given all this responsibility and freedom, so I’ve never really had any barrier to break I guess. I’ve been able to kind of – – I don’t really have anything to rebel against. I’m quite lucky really.
[IMG:R]On which came first, Daniel’s long-awaited first screen kiss as Harry or his notorious live on-stage nude scene in the London production of Equus – and which was more nerve-wracking:
DR: I did the kiss first. And I think the reason that it wasn’t a problem or a worry in the slightest was that in the back of my mind I was thinking I’ll be naked on stage in six months, I’ve got to get over this. You know, because if that’s a worry then the whole nude-blinding-horses would be an even greater worry. So the kiss was sort of more of a big deal…Everyone sort of assumed it’s a big sort of moment, but it’s sort of just like doing any other scene, really, which is very disappointing for people to hear, I know, but that’s unfortunately how it was.
On whether Rupert is ready for his own lip-lock in the forthcoming sixth installment:
RG: Yeah, Ron does get a girlfriend in the next one. I think it’s a little bit intense so I don’t know. I did a little kiss, I did another film called Driving Lessons and there’s a little kiss in that. It was quite an uncomfortable experience, on this tiny set with all the crew watching. I didn’t really enjoy it too much but we have to wait and see. It’s going to be interesting.
On their opportunity to use their wizardly wandage to kick a little butt in the new film:
EW: Ron and Hermione kind of took a bit of a backseat on the last one because we were watching Harry deal with the tasks and stuff. So it felt really nice to be back in the action again. Nothing major, we had a couple of stunts to do, couple of harnesses and that sort of thing, which was really fun. We actually had a dance choreographer…all the different spells had different choreographed specific movements that went with them and so we had a couple of classes like that, which was really good fun. And I think this is the first one that you really see kind of like the craft behind magic.
RG: In the last one Ron’s been a bit of wimp and sort of stayed away from the action. So this time it was quite cool to get to be a bit tougher and get to fight. It was good fun.
On having their hands, feet and even their wands immortalized in cement at the famed Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood:
EW: I was amazed they asked us. I was like “Wow.” I couldn’t believe it. That’s such a big deal. I was really, really flattered. I mean it’s just amazing to be doing it. Really amazing.
DR: Yeah. But when you see those other names I think we all were like…
EW: “Really? Us? Are you sure? Really? Really?”
DR: Yeah. I don’t know. It’s amazing. It’s absolutely, it’s just fantastic. But yeah, I think we’re all just a little bit in shock that we’ve been asked…John Wayne is there, so that’s pretty cool. My favorite John Wayne line is a really early John Wayne movie, and it was obviously improvised because nobody could have scripted this. As he walks out of a saloon, I suppose – because they were saloons then, not bars – and he’s walking through the square and he’s quite young, and there are all these birds in the square. He walks in and they all flutter away and he goes [imitates Wayne] “Get out of my way, pigeon!” It’s just fantastic. If I can have my handprints next to that man then that would be awesome.
On how the addition of new castmate and avowed Potter fanatic Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna Lovegood, reawakened their wonder at the world of Hogwarts:
EW: When you step onto these amazing sets, we kind of take it for granted at this point, and when you see Evanna Lynch‘s face every time she steps on a set it kind of humbles you again. It makes you realize just how amazing the whole experience is and it stops you from getting…
DR: …Blasé.
EW: And taking it for granted. It was really nice to have someone who’s so genuinely just completely excited and just sort of in ecstasy every time she saw something new. It was really nice.
DR: We did have one moment though when it was very, very hard to present an idea to [director] David Yates if Evanna was standing next to you because if you said something it was even slightly wrong from the book, she would not…
EW: She’d be ON you, like…
DR: And you would be in deep trouble. So you’d sort of have to be quite careful. Whenever I talked about the wording of the prophecy and she was there I’d just be like, “Where’s the book? I need it.” It was fantastic to have Evanna around because she is such a massive fan of the books and the films. So it was [great] to have that enthusiasm.
EW: I remember actually after I watched the film the person that I was most nervous about finding out their opinion was Evanna. I went up to her and I was just like “What did you think?” Really, really scared. And she loved it. So I was like “Okay, as long as she loves it, we’re good.”
[IMG:L]On the impending arrival of the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and its effect on their characters’ destinies:
RG: It’s quite exciting, particularly this one because there’s so much hype about it. And everyone’s got their own theory of who’s going to die is the big question. And I don’t know, really. I’m really looking forward to it.
DR: Yeah. Who do you think is going to die?
RG: [Pause] I think it could be you, actually.
DR: [Deflated] Oh man. I do think absolutely there’s always going to be that hype around it. But the thing is with the books and the films, it’s NOT just hype. It’s deserved because they do get better and better and more exciting. I mean my favorite book is the fifth. And my favorite film is the fifth as well. And to be able to say that five movies in to a franchise is, I suppose, quite rare. But also I don’t know how the book releases affect us. I think we’re just, you’re very, very anxious about what’s going to happen. I don’t think we get totally distressed by it, do we?
EW: I get a bit distressed, I really do. I really like, I remember doing this interview – and I’ve always been convinced that Hermione’s going to make it – and apparently this hacker has been claiming that she’s going to die. In this interview, she sat down and she’s like, well, there’s this hacker that’s claiming that this is what’s going to happen and she’s not going to make it. And she’s the one [who dies]. And I was just like “No, no, no, no, no. You don’t understand, she’s meant to be with Ron and she’s meant to—“ I just had all these bees in my head about what was going to happen and it was all just ruined. It was horrible. But I guess from an acting point of view it would be good to have a death scene. If I had to die it would be a new challenge, I guess. I mean ,we obviously have like hugely invested interests, but I think mostly we’re like really big fans ourselves.
DR: Exactly. We’re all looking forward to finding out with the rest of the world. We certainly don’t get any inside information. That would, I did when I saw Jo [Rowling] at the premiere the other day I just said “How many people worldwide have read the book?” And you know, considering that at this point it’s under two weeks before it’s released and under 10 people have read it still, which is pretty incredible. But can you imagine being one of those people? How fantastic would that be? My God.
On life after the end of the Harry Potter saga:
DR: Potter is never something I would want to distance myself from because I’m incredibly proud of it and it’s given me the most amazing opportunities and I’ve met some of the most fantastic people and got to work with these brilliant actors. But I certainly, obviously, want to establish myself as an actor in my own right rather than being just the actor who plays Harry Potter. It’s just as much, if not more, to prove to myself that I can do it than to be able to prove it to the audience. Because there will always be people who see us as our respective characters no matter what we do. But ultimately that’s more their problem than ours, because they are not the people who are going to be stopping us from doing other different things.
