Action! Magic! Romance! Fantasy! Intrigue! Voldemort! It’s all here, in the fifth Potter outing, Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. Once again, Daniel Radcliffe (who recently gave fans a full and frank account of himself on stage in London), Emma Watson (safely in the fold, following a recent outburst of petulance that left her future participation in the Potter franchise in question) and Rupert Grint (still Rupert Grint) don the school uniforms and pick up their wands for another year at Hogwarts.
As usual, there are some problems beyond the realms of teenage crushes, exams and team sports to vex Harry and chums. Probably the re-emergence of the hardest-working dark lord in showbusiness, Mr Voldemort himself, as a very clear and present danger tops the list. And if that’s not enough, the craven types at the Ministry of Magic refuse to help, instead attempting to undermine and discredit kindly headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
This big, dark and action-packed outing should be a rich thrill indeed for Pottermaniacs everywhere. And if you want to find out more, who better to talk to than leading man (or is it boy?) Daniel Radcliffe?
In the new movie, what are the challenges for Harry?
Well, at the beginning of this one we see Harry right after the death of Cedric. He’s had time to let that sink into his mind. So I think that there’s a lot of, I suppose what we would call survivor’s guilt – that he survived and Cedric died. He felt it should be the other way around because Cedric really, if you think about it, had no reason to be in the maze. Also, in the fourth film Harry convinces Cedric to take the cup with him and so it’s actually through Harry that Cedric was even in the graveyard in the first place. So I think that’s one of the main challenges for Harry. The main thing for me I think is Harry finding out what kind of person his father really was because that’s quite hard for anyone to actually fully comprehend. In James Potter’s case, he wasn’t always the nicest of human beings.
How did you prepare for this one?
Well the fifth one isn’t actually quite as physical as the fourth one, so there wasn’t as much physical preparation. We had meetings with a bereavement counsellor and talked about some of the reactions to death in different people, and how Harry might cope with the death of Cedric and then later Sirius.
Does J. K. Rowling ever get involved with the film-making process and criticise the way you do things?
Oh no, not at all. I think she views the films as being very separate from the books, which is great because it takes a lot of pressure off us. If she viewed them as practically one and the same thing, you’d end up with five-hour-long films because we’d have to get so much in. So I think that it’s fantastic that she trusts us.
You’ve made five Harry Potter films now, and we’ve watched you grow up on screen. How do you think you’ve changed?
I’ve gotten a lot more confident. There’s not really a scale to measure how much, though. I haven’t actually been back and watched the first ones. Once we’re done filming and after all the premieres, I don’t then go back and watch them at all. It’s all too close for comfort at the moment. On the first film I was sort of a young kid on a film set and just loved the experience, but not really taking it seriously. Not as much as I do now. I know now that I want to be an actor, so I take it incredibly seriously. It used to be just fun, but now it’s about focus.
How much has being Harry Potter changed your life?
A lot of people don’t believe this, but it hasn’t actually changed my life that much. Obviously people come up to me on the street, but that’s never really a problem. They’re not nasty. They’re not horrible. They’re often incredibly complimentary about the whole thing, the films. When you film something for 11 months, to have someone come up to you and say, ‘Oh, we really liked it.’ That’s actually quite gratifying. It’s not actually changed my life a huge amount, though. I’m very happy to say that too. I sort of only feel famous for two days a year really, which is at the premieres.
How have your look and interests changed over the years?
Well, I don’t think that the piercing thing would look good on me. It can look great on girls, but on men, unless you’re one of those biker guys with a massive beard it’s hard to make it look tough. I wouldn’t get a piercing. I certainly don’t think that I’d be able to get a huge facial tattoo either. I don’t think that would be a great idea for the films, but I got my hair cut which is great. I’m still obsessed with music. I was never obsessed with heavy metal per se, and so I never got on with, like, Slipknot or Limp Bizkit. I’m really into guitar music. And I’m much more into reading now than I was before I did Harry Potter. My favourite book is one by Kazuo Ishiguro called Never Let Me Go. It’s brilliant.
Do you ever worry about what goes on in the world – terrorism or politics?
Completely. I mean, I think that at the moment it’s very, very scary. If you look at the Harry Potter films, there’s a theme there – the loss of innocence. Waking up to the fact that bad things and bad people don’t just exist in books and in stories. They are in the real world as well, and I think, hopefully, that Harry Potter can help kids sort out their fears.
Are you planning to do all of the films in the series?
That’s an interesting question. There are two considerations really. One is my own career as an actor and one of them is the films themselves. It all boils down to a number of things – whether there’s a really interesting director, whether the script is good, whether it’s a challenging part for me. Another thing would be whether or not I’m doing enough stuff on my own outside of these films as I’m starting to do this year, whether that continues enough for me or not so that I don’t get too typecast and that sort of thing. I confess that when I was reading the sixth book, you try and read it very impartially, but I was reading it and saying, ‘There’s actually some stuff here that would be really cool to do.’ At the moment I’m totally enjoying myself, and that ultimately is what it comes down to.
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix is released in cinemas this month.
