As we reported here, yesterday was the press conference for the worldwide Grand Opening of Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter at Leavesden Studios.
Thanks DanRadcliffe.co.uk we now have a video from the press conference.
Thanks SnitchSeeker we also have a video of an interview with Tom.
UPDATE:
Interview by Absolute Radio – Andrew Bailey :
In October, Tom and some of his HP mates did a live webchat at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London (opening on 31th March 2012 – order your tickets here). They were also interviewed by various press agencies (we reported here and here). Now we have still more interviews from that day.
Tom Felton has admitted that the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was “nerve-wracking” for the cast.
Speaking to Digital Spy on set of Hogwarts’ Great Hall, Felton said that everyone involved wanted to do the finale “justice” for the fans.
“I didn’t speak to a man, woman or child who wasn’t over the moon with it,” the Draco Malfoy actor added. Meanwhile, his co-stars Warwick Davis and Natalia Tena echoed Felton’s comments, also teasing what extras fans could expect to see on the DVD.
What memories in particular stand out for you all from your first and last days on set?
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Warwick, Tom and Natalia, how about you?Warwick Davis: My last day was the last day, the official one. I was doing a shot for second unit in the vault as Griphook and I finished and thought, well, that’s me done, but I’ll go to first unit and just say goodbye. Dan, Rupert and Emma were doing a shot where they’re diving over the camera in slow-motion, it was for, you know, when they leave the ministry and they escape by diving into the fireplace.
Then it was called a wrap for the very final time, and it was a bit of a weird moment, nobody really knew what to do. There was no more motivation, because every day obviously when you’d finish there was another day to go but everyone was like, oh.
Tom Felton: It was anti-climactic wasn’t it, on the last day?
WD: Nobody cheered, it was like, right…
TF: That’s your lot everyone, thanks very much, see you.
WD: There were some tears and stuff. It was the end but it wasn’t like a full stop, it was like a comma. The films were done, but were other things to do next.
TF: I had a couple of last days actually, one last day was the Platform 9 ¾ stuff that we did 19 years on with all the make-up, which was very bizarre because it was almost ten years to the month, I think, that we were there as 11-year-olds being put on the train, and now we’re all grown up. But it was a nice way of us to say goodbye to everyone, to Dan and Rupert and Emma.
My actual last day was just a very quick pick-up shot for second unit, a night shot for Dom Fysh, who was the first AD on the second unit, and he gave us a very brief speech and I saluted and off I went before I started blubbing like a five-year-old girl.
Natalia Tena: My first time on set I wasn’t actually filming because I was a new character. They didn’t want to get anything wrong so there was months of going in every day, make-up, hair, make-up, hair and saying to the producer, “No, that’s not quite right”. It was a long process to get right, Luna [Evanna Lynch] had to go through it as well. They didn’t want to make any little mistakes or to anger any of the fans. So I went round the set [mimes jaw dropping] and I couldn’t get over the size of it, it was that sort of [sharp intake of breath], so I wasn’t filming on that day but just on the side lines.
My last day, no one knew it was my last day, not the director. I had been reaching out with Thewlis [David] and it was like, oh okay, is that done? Okay bye. I had no idea it was my last day, I didn’t know it was my last day so I just said “Bye”.
Tom, can I ask you about one particular moment in the final film when Draco crosses the battlements to join the Death Eaters and he hesitates before he goes. What’s your interpretation of that? Is Draco really a Gryffindor at heart?
TF: [laughs] No. Hate to burst that bubble but I don’t think so. I think the nice thing about the book is that she left it to interpretation, it’s not really answered I don’t think, why any of the softer side of the Malfoys do what they do. I like to think of it as because of his mum. I think David Yates explained it as when you hear your Dad’s voice, you’re not really interested, but when you hear your Mum’s you can’t help but go. He’s very close to his mother and very like his mother.
The hug was a weird thing [to Warwick] did you remember that? Voldemort sort of…[mimes an awkward hug].
WD: That was a very cool hug, the way he did it, I noticed it.
TF: He only did it once out of the 50 times we did it, and show that to a UK audience and it’s seen as pure menace, like, what’s he going to do, is he going to [mimes violent stabbing] but in America it was hilarious, like it was a huge joke.
WD: The way his body language was, he did it in a really odd way. The thing about Ralph [Fiennes] was that he never did the same thing twice for a take. As an actor, I tend to try and almost mirror image because I know they’ve got to edit it, but he has the confidence to just… he’d even dance sometimes. You never knew what he was going to do, it was amazing.
TF: Sometimes he’d be halfway through a take and in his head he would just start from the beginning again.
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Have you shared the films with your kids, Warwick?
WD: Absolutely, they were in the last film as well. Annabel was about three when I started on these films and Harrison was born in 2003, so he’s grown up while I’ve been doing this.
Which bit were they in?
WD: In Gringott’s bank, you see a couple of little tiny goblins in the establishing shot of Gringott’s pulling a little cart, they’re the tiniest goblins. Harrison was the shortest goblin with the biggest shoes, literally, if you stood the shoe on end, it was nearly as tall as him, poor guy, I don’t know how he walked. He had skis on!
The Great Hall to them is a bit like Dad’s office really. Annabel had her 13th birthday on set because I had to work. So the producer said to bring Annabel down, we’ll make it special because the Great Hall was filled with people. It was the scene where Snape has just taken over Hogwarts as headmaster and Harry comes back and has a confrontation, so quite a lot of the key cast were in and they all bought out a birthday cake for Annabel and everyone sang Happy Birthday.
Even Alan Rickman?
WD: Seeing Alan singing Happy Birthday was quite an unusual thing to see.
NT: Wow.
TF: That’s a very special thing.
Read the full interview here.
In July there was a Harry Potter Special on TV Guide Network. Now they have uploaded the broadcast to YouTube. You can see Tom during the specials very often, because he performs through the progam.
By the way, on Saturday Nov. 26 at 9 pm, it will be a special with a countdown of the Top 10 moments from the “Harry Potter” films “Most Magical Harry Potter Moments” on TV Guide Network.
2 weeks ago, Tom and some of his HP mates did a live webchat at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London (opening on 31th March 2012 – order your tickets here). They were also interviewed by various press agencies (we reported here). Now we have more interviews from that day.
Which part of the tour are you all most looking forward to sharing with fans?
Tom Felton: The Great Hall has become a bit of a Mecca of Hogwarts really, so much has happened there. It’s one of the only sets which has been constant for the last ten years, they never moved it, it’s the same place, the one that’s there is the exact one.
They’re laying the original flagstones back down as we speak…
TF: It’s really quite special to think how many thousands of children and wonderful actors have walked over those stones over the years and they’ve been preserved, so that’s definitely a place that’s very special.
Natalia Tena: The potions room, because I was never in the Hogwarts part of it so I really just want to get close up and see the weird things in the jars and all the weird cylinders. I think a lot of people are going to be really happy to see those rooms.
Oliver Phelps: The thing I’m looking forward to sharing the most is just how it is a set, as a lot of people will just go on and just think it’s what you see inside it, but you’ll see the scaffolding behind and everything, which I think a lot of people won’t be expecting.
Bonnie Wright: You get the whole story of how it works. Because what’s there at the moment are actually the sets that we know so well, though it’s not yet fully made. I’m sure what they will do very well is the dynamic of the experience, because if you’re just plonked in the middle of the set, it’s quite disorientating and confusing, so what will be the best thing are the stages of description. I think it will be a full experience in which you see a lot of things which are never shown in terms of the production design, in terms of pencil drawings as to how this has come to this.
We heard on the tour that the Hogwarts students were encouraged to graffiti the tables in the great hall to get a more realistic effect, were any of you responsible for that?
TF: Yes, I did several times but I got rather harshly told off for it at the time, so I expect someone’s been busy prising my old work out. But I used to do it in character, just for fun, just a big “Draco” or something of a Slytherinesque nature. It’s many a year ago now but I remember getting told off for it, for influencing others.
Did you get detention?
TF: Exactly, in the dungeon!
James Phelps: Blimey, I didn’t think there was graffiti. I think they might have put wear and tear on them but not carving your names.
BW: Because they obviously bought new tables and they had to look like they were hundreds of years old, so they did things like smacking them with big, thick chains and dropping things on them to scratch it. They had to relay the varnish every year because people would pick away at it.
Julie Walters: Did anyone put their initials on it?
BW: I’m sure people did, but you wouldn’t see it again the next day.
OP: I did actually on a door for the stage out there and when I came back, that stage is now gone, so my legacy is gone. –Sets like the Great Hall must hold a lot of memories for you all…
WD: My first day of filming was actually on the Great Hall set, sat in that chair that I sat in yesterday. I hadn’t sat there for a couple of years. Just sitting there and thinking back to that day, looking down the table at Maggie Smith and Richard Harris, Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane, it was like, wow, I’m amongst some great company here, this is amazing.
Little did I know at that point we were going to continue on and do ten years’ worth and eight movies and it would become an amazing adventure. Sitting in that chair was really special. The cutlery on the table is what we used, and the beauty of it is that everything is custom-made; they weren’t nipping down to the local hardware shop and buying things. All the props were made to be unique and special and people can now really get a close-up look at the detail in everything, things that they don’t see in the films.
I think that’s great, we all get credit on screen for being in the movies, but the people who create all of this don’t necessarily get their moment and I think having the attraction here is a chance for people to come and see their work.
TF: So much effort and love has gone into it. They spent six months doing a bit of jewellery that wouldn’t even be seen on camera. That’s what’s nice is that now people can come along and appreciate all this intricate detail that’s been put in that were probably unnecessary for the films but…
WD: Like the chandeliers in the last film in Gringotts, I just thought, well, they’ve gone and got some chandeliers, but they were handmade. It’s just unbelievable.
TF: Were they even in shot?
NT: Yeah, the dragon gets tangled up in them
WD: Hanging all of those little droplets in there, it’s just stunning. You know in the vault, all the goblets that multiply, you think it’s all computers, but no, they made thousands of these goblets.
Now they’re all locked up in shipping containers in the car park waiting to be put on display?
TF: I’m pretty sure they are.
WD: When people come round the attraction, they slowly fill up the room…
TF: I think there must be a Warner Bros/Leavesden version of Gringotts where they have big vaults of it all.
WD: No, they’ve just got Hermione’s bag and they just put everything in that, everything’s in there [laughs].
Go on then, tell us what would have to be added to the tour so Potter fans can have your personal Leavesden experience of working on the films? Would they have to have a particular coffee from the canteen or sneak out for a fag somewhere?
WD: Yeah, all of that! Sausages as well.
NT: A fry-up!
WD: A sausage roll, a cup of tea… For the authentic actor’s experience you need to get here at four in the morning, then just stand around until about four in the afternoon before you actually go and start having a look round.
TF: In full goblin costume, as well. Then dye your hair blonde, get your roots touched up…
WD: People can walk around behind the set where the scaffolding is and where you would really hang out and you’d see, you know, grips reading a copy of the Sun, though, I don’t think there will be one of those…
TF: But they can visualise it all.
James Phelps: Bacon sarnie in the morning for me.
BW: On any film set, endless tea.
JP: Digestives, custard creams…
OP: The five o’clock doughnut. When you’re starting to flag and then that was a pick-me-up.
JW: Mine would be a bowl of porridge and a cup of green tea…
So that’s the catering sorted then. Can you tell us which props won’t be on display on the tour because they’re on your mantle pieces?
JW: Nothing.
OP: They’re all there.
JP: Everyone wanted a wand, and we were hoping on the last day they’d see “You take that with you”.
OP: We were dropping hints…
JP: But when all the bigwigs from Warner Bros were over we kind of “It’d be nice to have our wands wouldn’t it?” and they were like, “Yeah, it would be good wouldn’t it” but that was it.
JW: That was the end of it.
It’s an outrage. So, which is the prop or set that impressed you the most? Is it the wands?
JW: The Weasley set of course. I wanted to live in it, it was like a home. It didn’t feel like a set, it was gorgeous, you couldn’t be on there long enough, the detail was enormous.
BW: One thing I wonder if they’ll ever show, was in Stuart Craig’s office above his desk he had this great drawing, just plain paper and felt tip pen, the first time that Jo and he met to sit down and discuss, she just did a really simple, simple map, like Hagrid’s house, Hogwarts, lake, Quidditch Pitch. It was literally just her drawing of where she knew in her mind where it was all going to be. It was above his desk throughout the whole film.
The last time we saw you all was at the premiere before the after-party which Natalia’s band played at. What was the mood like that evening?
NT: I stole a hog.
An entire hog?
NT: Basically, there were canapés they were giving everyone and drinks, and I was so nervous, because I was like, “I can’t screw this up,” and I was trying to drink hot water when all I wanted was a glass of champagne.
WD: All you wanted was a hog…
NT: But outside they’d done this massive hog roast, and then there were just hogs for display, not, like for cutting up, and I was like, “Mine!” And after I’d played I got a bottle of champagne because we’d made friends with all the staff at the sound check so I just took loads of bottles of champagne and then I at the end of the night I put a hog in a plastic bag and nobody stopped me.
Have you still got it?
NT: I ate it in a week.
WD: Oh you did eat this hog?
NT: I ate the entire thing. I made sandwiches for all the band.
TF: Wasn’t it a fake hog?
NT: No, it was an actual pig. My dog loved me.
WD: I bet all the dogs in the neighbourhood were following you…
Was the mood a bit like an end-of-term disco? Were people crying on the stairs and hugging each other in toilets?
TF: Everyone was very happy and proud…
WD: [Incredulous] Hugging each other in toilets?! [laughs]
TF: [To Warwick] Come on, we had a little hug in the cubicle [laughter]
WD: I’d say joy, more than sort of sad or missing each other, we were celebrating the ten years of achievement.
TF: I think everyone felt very proud to be there.
BW: It was sad because although it was a celebration of the film and what it’s done, there was a real sense of pride in the project, it was a real pat on the back sort of moment for everyone. About four months after the premiere happened, which is, about now, you feel like “I should be starting again”, like “when’s my costume fitting?” [Everyone agrees]
JP: The after party backed onto the Thames and it had a great view of London and I was looking at the new Shard building out there and I thought, that must just been an idea when we started making the films. It’s like a montage in your head of the last ten years racing by.
BW: I thought, I’m not going to cry, I’m not going to cry in the film and I didn’t so I thought, yup, I’ve made it, then through the party, got in the car, on my way home, I… [mimes crying].
What do you imagine the 2021 ten year reunion party will be like?
NT: If I’m not dead, hopefully I’ll be having a massive party.
TF: I’m actually writing the Harry Potter on Ice adaptation so I’m going to get us all on ice [laughs].
Have we got the scoop on that?
TF: [Still laughing] No, no I’m kidding.
WD: We’ll probably come down here. It’d be a great place to celebrate ten years of Harry Potter.
TF: I hope they have yearly reunions to be honest with you, because it’s not a part of my life I’m looking forward to saying goodbye to for a decade or something, so fingers crossed there’ll be reunions back at Hogwarts for us before then.
JW: Will I still be alive? [Laughing]
JP: They still won’t have given us our wands!
OP: Maybe they’re waiting until the ten-year anniversary to give us our wands. This would certainly be a good place to do reunions and see how they’ve kept the sets here. A big banquet.
BW: Have it here, have a knees up in the Great Hall.
JW: Yes, we should be given the wands shouldn’t we! Oh yes, get the fires going, light the torches, marvellous!