By Alex Harries & Will Goodchild
One of Claridges' more, how shall we say, ample rooms is filled with the world's press. Everyone sat under this absurdly high Victorian ceiling has seen the latest (and quite possibly the greatest) film about a certain boy wizard. The atmosphere is charged with electricity because we all know how good the film is and are hungry to hear more about it. And this is no minor flick, it's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Sat on the dais are the film's three principals, Rupert Grint (Ron), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry). Such a situation for anyone (let alone a teenager) is intense; the austere surroundings, all eyes on you, everything you say is recorded. It can't be the most comfortable position to be in. Understandably, Rupert says very little, Emma is cogent but rather shy, but Daniel Radcliffe is a publicist's dream. Far more eloquent than your average sixteen year-old, he fields questions with confidence, charm and wit. His work on screen has clearly matured just as he has.
"People grow extra emotions which is partly to do with hormones and all the trouble that they cause. It's fun playing that in Harry as he grows older", he says. And on the subject of filming a successful franchise,
"There's so much pressure on the films now to get better and better. Especially after the third one there was an awareness that we had to work really hard to go further."
Director, Mike Newell has evidently pushed things further, capturing the essence of J K Rowling's increasingly complex saga. It's something of a departure for Newell, the man behind Dance With A Stranger and Donnie Brasco, but he has clearly not diluted his directing technique, working with these young actors. Emma Watson says of him,
"He really treated us like adults. He was expecting us to be professional the whole time. Alfonso [Cuaron, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban] put a lot of trust in us. It was so nice that he wanted to hear what we had to say but Mike took it to a new level. I'd be saying to him I can't get this right just tell me how you want me to do it' and he'd just say I can't tell you how to do it, I'm not going to tell you how to do it'. He'd just say Think about it'. While he guided us really well, we felt a responsibility for ourselves, for our roles, how we came across." Of the interesting choices of recent Potter directors, David Heyman (Producer) told us,
"They're not cookie cutters". Indeed they aren't, and there can only be something interesting ahead when David Yates directs Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Daniel Radcliffe describes how intensely Newell went through "an inch and a half of dialogue", spending two hours rehearsing that small segment,
"Mike was fantastic about going into detail. He realised we were old enough to appreciate really going into detail in the scenes."
When asked about their favourite actors and whom they'd like to work with, Rupert told us he was a big fan of comedy, Jim Carrey and Mike Myers in particular. Emma mentioned Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, and Renee Zellweger. Daniel cited Gael Garcia Bernal and Daniel Bruhl (from The Edukators and Goodbye Lenin) as people he'd like to work with, before going on to say how lucky they've been already having, "worked with the best British actors of their generation - David Thewlis, Gary Oldman, now Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson, Michael Gambon". As Rupert Grint told us later of acting, "It's a good job." Well, who can argue with that?
When asked which of the adult characters in the series they might wish to play were they older, Rupert Grint said Hagrid,
"He's pretty cool. Probably him, I don't know why."
Emma Watson said Rita Skeeter (the fiendish Daily Prophet reporter),
"Because she's so deliciously evil. She's such a personality and she'd be so much fun to play". She went on to say,
"There's something so real about her", before getting nudged by Daniel Radcliffe who reminded her she was "in a room full of journalists". A lovely moment, as Emma turned red with embarrassment and all of us journalists chuckled, completely unoffended and charmed by her innocence. Moving on swiftly to Daniel Radcliffe, he said,
"Sirius, mainly because Gary Oldman played him. So maybe when they do the remake in fifty years time I'll be lining up to play that one."
When quizzed about likenesses between themselves and the characters Emma Watson said
"I'm hugely attached to Hermione's character. There's so much of me that goes into her", and she said how Mike Newell,
"made me think about it not as acting but as regurgitating my own experiences and applying them to what Hermione was going through." Of Harry, Daniel Radcliffe told us,
"I can't help but feel attached to him. It's very hard to separate yourself from him in some ways. Ultimately, you go home at night and it's not like you stay in character all the time. It would be very hard to be a method actor on Harry Potter because then you'd have to try and find a figure of ultimate evil somewhere." A remark that made a room full of cynical hacks genuinely crack up with up with laughter.
Goblet of Fire has an odd dichotomy of scary and funny, with some very intense shocks juxtaposed against some amusing juvenile behaviour. In the film, a rift occurs between good friends Harry and Ron. Daniel Radcliffe explains,
"It's funny to someone looking in on it but to them it's absolutely serious and they're REALLY angry at each other."
Emma Watson adds,
"I loved all the arguing I though it was really juicy. We've always got along perfectly and I think it's more realistic that they would argue and there would be problems." Regarding the darkness and light of Goblet of Fire, Daniel Radcliffe had this to say,
"The humour's actually essential to the darkness. If you had that darkness running the whole way through the film, by the end you'd be tired and it would be completely ineffective. You've got that dark opening BUT it then goes into this feel that's almost like the first film again, at the Quidditch World Cup it's all wide-eyed and full of wonder."
The film is all about a loss of innocence. Daniel Radcliffe describes how originally,
"[Harry] thinks because it's a magical world it's going to be better than where he's come from when in actual fact it's not. There are further extremes. It can have further extremes of joy than in the normal human world but also the depths that man can sink to in people like Voldemort. In this film he starts to wake up to that fact even more than in the last one. He comes to the realisation that if he's going to make it in life he's going to be making it alone."
Daniel Radcliffe made clear his enthusiasm for a film career beyond Potter. He suggested that he wouldn't mind having a go directing "at some point in the future" and is clearly committed to furthering himself within the industry. With this head start no doubt he'll do well, and it couldn't happen to a nicer chap.
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