Harry Potter is one of the best-known sagas worldwide for both young and old. There have been 8 films projected on the big screen, without counting the prequel to Fantastic Animals, which tell the story of this young magician. But of course, all that time is more than enough to accumulate enough anecdotes and curiosities that are hidden behind the cameras of these films. Today we tell you the 15 best secrets behind the Harry Potter saga .
The secrets behind the scenes in the Harry Potter saga
Whether you are a true fan of the young wizard or just want to know some interesting details about the saga , we are sure that the selection of curiosities that we bring you today will catch your attention.
How many times did the lightning strike Harry’s forehead? Was there an accident during filming? Could there have been changes to the cast? You will find all these unknowns if you continue reading this article.
JK Rowling personally chose several actors
Something quite curious among the actors who give life to the characters in this story is that JK Rowling, creator of Harry Potter, personally took care of her choice.
The first actor hired to play his role was, oddly enough, Rubeus Hagrid, the keeper of the keys and grounds at Hogwarts. Robbie Coltrane is the actor in charge of bringing this character to life and, according to the writer, he did not imagine another person playing this role.
Following up with other cast members, Richard Harris portrayed Albus Dumbledore during the first two films before he passed away in 2002. He was another of JK Rowling’s choices, who initially rejected the role as looking too old to represent him. at 70 years old. But, at the insistence of his granddaughter, he ended up accepting it shortly after. Something curious about the role of this actor in the first two films is that, because he was older, he had trouble memorizing his phrases. For this reason, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) rehearsed with him constantly, so they ended up creating a very close relationship.
Alan Rickman was another of the writer’s choices. This actor, who was a great acquaintance in theaters in England but not too much on the big screen, played Severus Snape throughout the saga. If you are a follower of this, you will know the true feelings that this teacher had with Harry Potter. For this reason, and despite the fact that the last two books were not yet published, JK Rowling told Rickman about the intentions of his character so that, knowing them, he could make the best possible interpretation.
Hogwarts Castle was not what they expected
Hogwarts Castle was not as originally intended. Cinematographers in charge of choosing the “real” locations to record the scenes of the film, wanted to use Canterbury Cathedral as the image of the school of magic and sorcery. The problem came when the dean of this institution refused this because it seemed sacrilege to use the image of a Christian temple for a pagan representation.
However, a short time later they received an offer to use Gloucester Cathedral for the site. Who do you think sent it? Well, nothing more and nothing less than the reverend Nicholas Bury, who was a fan of the books produced by the writer JK Rowling.
Robin Williams was turned down for the cast
The decisions of this writer were not limited to choosing part of the cast, but also rejected other actors. Robin Williams offered to participate in the first film of this installment representing the role of Hagrid totally free since, as he himself admitted, he was a big fan of the Harry Potter books. Actress Rosie O’Donnell also offered to play the role of Molly Weasley, and was once again turned down.
As Rowling acknowledged, the decision not to have these great actors in the cast was because he only wanted actors from the British Isles.
Lived in isolation with a cat for 1 month
As you may already know, many actors who must represent characters whose feelings escape the “usual” in their lives, decide to embody them for a time to internalize their feelings.
David Bradley, in charge of representing Argus Filch , the Hogwarts College warden, is a clear example of this. This actor decided to shut himself up for a whole month in an isolated country house with what, soon after, would be the cat that represented Mrs. Norris. And, a curious fact about this animal is that, during filming, it disappeared and nothing was heard of it until two weeks later.
But this was not the only actor who had to “suffer” to get into the skin of his character. Jason Isaacs, who played the role of Lucius Malfoy , wanted to test what a villain felt by stealing a copy of “the Prophet” on the set itself. This he confessed to the director, who made him return the copy to its place.
Prosthetics are nothing magical
If you went through the Harry Potter book series before watching the movies, you will know that two of the three protagonists of this story had characteristic details that did not fit with the actors who later represented them. On the one hand, Hermione Granger had fairly prominent incisors, and on the other hand, Harry Potter had green eyes . To try to make the films get as close to the story as possible, Emma Watson was fitted with dental prosthetics and Daniel Radcliffe with green lenses.
The problem with this was that neither Emma knew how to speak correctly with these false teeth and, in the case of Daniel, she suffered an infection from these lenses. So it was decided that these little details were not as relevant to the story.
Draco or Potter?
Did you know that Draco Malfoy could be Harry Potter? Let’s see, we refer to the actor who played this role. At the auditions, Tom Felton, charged with bringing Draco to life, actually showed up to play Harry Potter. But his path was diverted like the body of a snake to the Slytherin house.
Chris Columbus, the director of the films, wanted to supervise the castings in person. At the time of audition for the role of Harry, he always asked all the candidates the same question: “What is the moment of the book that you like the most for the character?” Tom was the only one who hadn’t read anything from the saga, so he decided to quickly copy the story of the previous candidate. The director noted that he had no idea what he was talking about but, he liked the young actor’s brashness. So he quickly signed him up for the role of Draco Malfoy.
The dates coincide
Something tremendously curious about this story is that, if we follow the writings of JK Rowling, Harry Potter was born on July 31, 1980 , so he would currently be 40 years old. But the striking thing about all this is that this date is the writer’s own birthday.
Another curious detail related to the numbers in this story we saw in the scene in which Arthur Weasley and Harry Potter are in the phone booth that takes them to the Ministry of Magic and Wizardry. Arthur types the number “62442” which, according to the order of letters of the numerical keyboard, form the word “Magic”, that is, “Magic”.
Harry Potter glasses
Do you think Harry only wore a single pair of glasses during the entire saga? Not at all. There were a total of 160 lenses that Daniel Radcliffe used during all the filming when embodying his character. Ah! And between 60 and 70 different wands .
The origin of Harry Potter
The origin of this young magician’s character was not magic as some believe. This occurred to JK Rowling in 1990, while awaiting the arrival of a train at King’s Cross station in England. Place they later took in the movies to house the station where the magicians took the magic train on the way to Hogwarts.
The scar that left a mark
Another curious detail is that, the lightning-shaped scar was drawn on the forehead of the actor Daniel Radcliffe more than 5,800 times during the 8 films in this saga. It would have been easier to tattoo it, don’t you think? Although of course, then there is the problem that it is something for life.
Demolition due to fans
The world of fandom is a very good thing, but at the same time, it can also become totally horrible. If not tell the people in charge of building Hagrid’s cabin over and over again , which, to prevent fans from taking “souvenirs” after each filming, was demolished at the end of the recordings of each film and rebuilt in The next.
The teacher who rejuvenated
There is a character within the cast who has changed his aesthetic up to 3 times in the movies. This is Warwick Davis , who played the incantation professor Flitwick. This character begins as a bald dwarf man, with a white beard and dressed in an academic robe, that is, a rather outdated aesthetic. But, upon reaching the third installment of the films, Flitwick magically becomes a younger, tanned man in a tuxedo.
“The switch between The Chamber of Secrets and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the question most fans ask me,” Davis said in an interview. His character did not appear as such in the third film, so they decided to “place” Davis as the choir director seen at the beginning of the film. The director liked the change so much that, in the next installment, he decided to keep it to play the role of the enchantment teacher.
But the thing does not stop there, Warwick was also in charge of giving life, with a few more hours of makeup, to the goblin teller of the Gringotts bank in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” and was the voice of Griphook in this same film . This actor covered everything in the saga.
14 cars destroyed for a single scene
Do you remember the scene where the boxing willow first appears? Ron and Harry fly into Arthur Weasley’s car, landing by mistake against this magic tree that ends up hitting the car again and again. The funny thing about this scene is that 14 Ford Anglias , the car model they used, were destroyed during the filming of the scene.
An examination of their characters
During the filming of the films, the director asked the three main actors to write an essay about their characters. The surprise was that they all turned out to have identical personalities to the role they played: Emma (Hermione) turned in 16 pages, Daniel (Harry) only wrote one and Rupert (Ron), let’s say he claimed that “Ron wouldn’t have done his homework either.”
45 hours inside the black lake
One of the most difficult parts of recording was the scenes inside the black lake from the movie “the Goblet of Fire”. Daniel Radcliffe spent a total of 45 hours underwater to complete all the shots, which led to several ear infections.
Shooting accident left him paralyzed
This is the most tragic anecdote of this compilation and, of course, we would all have preferred that it had not happened. As in practically all cinema films, the risky scenes are represented by specialists rather than by the main actors. Daniel Radcliffe had 2 doubles doing these scenes for him.
In one of the latest “Deathly Hallows” recordings, while testing the scene of Harry flying through the air after an explosion, David Holmes, his double, suffered a serious accident. One of the cables the actor was to pull back made him too strong, hitting him against a wall and leaving him paralyzed on the spot . Holmes recovered from that accident although the paralysis was decisive. Today, Holmes, who has always been supported by his filming partners, has overcome all this and is now a successful businessman, drives cars on circuits and keeps in touch with several of his colleagues.
These are some of the best secrets behind the scenes in the Harry Potter saga . If you liked them, leave us a comment in this article. And, if you want more curiosities like these, let us know also for future articles.
