Interview: James and Oliver Phelps
Having worked on all the films for so long, and having felt so at home in so many of the sets, it must have been a strangely emotive thing seeing them all destroyed. How was that in the great hall or the courtyard?
James: Well, we're in the great hall and that's
on B stage, and it always has been on B stage, on A stage has been
the common room. We went in and the common room was gone
because it wasn't needed. It kinda hit home that this is
gonna be the last film. Then we were going into the great hall and
half of that was knocked down. There are holes in the walls
and rubble everywhere.
It really hit home just how much this is coming to an end, but
also how much Hogwarts as a school takes a battering, like the
poster, pretty much half of it is all burned down. It's not
as if a little battle goes on in one little section, it goes on for
the whole thing.
Over the course of films Fred and George are characterized
largely as jokesters, but there's a particularly harrowing scene in
the last film, a dramatic death scene. What was it like to
shoot such a disturbing moment?
Oliver: It was really strange for me to watch
James lay there like that, knowing we had to get into character and
try and to have George react to it, but to see your own brother
there pretty much like a dead person was really weird and quite
hard to film. We did about six versions of it. The hall
was actually packed with people. Sometimes you do a crying
scene and it's a closed set. But this time there were loads
of people everywhere; so we pretty much just had to go full force
on to it.
James: There were 400 people on that.
Oliver: About 400 people on the set, yeah.
But I wasn't the only one crying. Rupert was crying as well,
but apparently he cried on the last day of filming, which I didn't
do.
"It really hit home just how much this is coming to an end."
The final film has been loved by fans all around the
world. What scene in particular do think blows audience
away?
James: I think there's quite a few to be honest
with you. Obviously, the ultimate scene, where you see Voldemort
and Harry squaring up to each other. That'll be something
that will live in memories forever. It'll be like a "Luke,
I'm your father" episode that everyone will remember.
Oliver: There's also when you see Voldemort turn
about school, because you hear that he's this nasty guy.
You've seen him take on older the wizards, but it's when you see
him attacking innocent children who can't defend themselves.
You see that this is a bad guy who doesn't care. He'll kill
anything to get what's his; not even what's his, to get what he
wants. I think that's one thing that everyone's really
looking forward to seeing that portrayal on camera.
If you could each take a souvenir from Leavesden with you
what would you choose and why?
Oliver: I think mine would be my wand. They
were very close knit on taking that as soon as we finished.
Each wand for each character is totally different. I'd take
my wand. I've dropped it twice, it's broken twice. I
know which one's mine because it's gotta big glue around the middle
of it.
James: I think mine would be the Weasley and
Weasley brief cases, which they describe as snap boxes.
Although you never really see it opened, it's proper laid out in a
special way presenting everything. That was really
cool. Just a kind of sentimental value, this is our kind of
thing. So I'd take that.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.
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