Alas, the HARRY POTTER series is slowly coming to an end, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a look back on some of our memorable Mag Harry Potter moments! Here’s what we learned in 2009 when we interviewed Jessie Cave ( Lavender Brown), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley), and Dave Legeno (Fenrir Greyback), celebrating the Blu-Ray release of HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE.
Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown)
Was it strange coming into an established series where the actors have grown up together?
Yeah! It was incredibly strange given that I’ve watched them onscreen and read the books since I was young…. You can’t help but just observe them as these creatures, you know? But I was really free to meet them and realize that actually, they’re very normal. As normal as you can be, really, growing up in that kind of environment, but they all loved me. Very welcoming. It was a brilliant experience.
How was it kissing Ron?
It was very weird…. It was my third day of shooting and I really plunged straight into the deep end. There were so many people in the room as well. So it can be quite scary, because of the people and the sets and everything. It’s quite easy to pretend you’re in that world for a minute, so it was quite fun.
When you were reading the HARRY POTTER books, did you ever think of yourself as the character?
Not at all — the opposite! I read HALF-BLOOD PRINCE literally six months, maybe, before I got the call to an audition. When I first read the book, I didn’t like Lavender at all. I found her really annoying. To actually read it again with me in mind playing her… I suddenly realized that she’s just got this huge crush on a boy and she’s kind of young and in love and got these hormones raging. She does get heartbroken as well, so I do have a lot more empathy for her as opposed to kind of really disliking her.
Have you ever snagged a crush?
No, but I tried to! I wasn’t quite as successful as Lavender. I remember getting these huge crushes on boys at school. I remember finding a timetable of one of the boys I fancied and me and my friend would just literally follow him around…. I used to walk past the windows thinking that it’d make a difference during lessons so he would see! It was really pathetic! I shouldn’t be repeating it now.
What did you feel like when you found out you got the part?
It really was like winning the lottery or something.
Are you involved in the battle scene?
I think so. I’m not sure I can say very much about what’s going on in the final film, but I’m definitely filming. I’m really looking forward to how they do the battle.
What was it like to meet J.K.?
To be honest, I haven’t actually met her. I saw her at the script read through, which was at a table like this…. I would love to meet her one day. I hope I did Lavender justice. But a butterfly flew into the room, and it landed on her script, then it came and landed on mine and I thought (gasps). So yeah, I’m just in awe of her. I’m really excited to see the special features thing on the DVD about when she was writing DEATHLY HALLOWS.
Do you ever go online and look at the stuff people write?
I have, unfortunately. I type my name and all these headshots come up of me just doing the same pose! It’s just really embarrassing. I don’t know how they got there… so I’m not going to do that again. Ever. But my family has; it’s really embarrassing.
What’s the strangest thing you have read online about yourself?
That I’m a baton twirler. And a gymnast. Clearly not a gymnast. It’s quite funny.
Tom Felton and Bonnie Wright (Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley)
Do people ever confuse you with Draco in real life?
Tom: Yes! I don’t want to be horrible, but there have been a few people that have not seen the difference between reality and the film…. I had a gentleman who legally changed his name to Lucius Malfoyand wanted to adopt me. He sent me the adoption form and wanted to change my name to Draco, and we could all live…
Bonnie: Happily ever after.
T: Thankfully, my mother declined his offer and I’m still at home. So there’s the odd one, but generally everyone’s cool.
Have you read anything about you that was untrue?
B: I think there are lots of untrue things, not in a bad way.
T: I was in TWILIGHT last week and I’m doing a Burberry campaign next week. So both of those are untrue, as far as I know.
B: I think once you read things about people, when you see things [that] you know are just not true, you really see all the flaws in a magazine. If you can’t believe something about yourself and then you start reading something about Brad Pitt, what can I believe anymore?
What’s your earliest HP memory?
T: One of my earliest memories was of the auditions. My very, very first audition, where we were all brought in, lines of tens and twenties of children…. Emma was standing next to me. We did the audition, not together, and she had been cast and it was kind of very thrilling. I always remember thinking, if you’d told me then and there you’d still know each other in ten years time and you [were] going to still be working together, I wouldn’t have believed it….
What have you heard about the HP amusement park?
T: We’re going in May?
B: We’re looking forward very much to seeing what that’s all about…. They’re making it so, as a fan of the book, I’m intrigued to go down and see it…. I think it’s the idea that it’s not like when you go to Disney and you can get Mickey Mouse…. They’re just having wizards and dragons and more of the generic experience.
James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley)
Do you guys find a big difference between North American fans and British fans?
Oliver: All the Harry Potter fans are pretty much the same… but a difference with the North American fans is probably [that] they’re more outgoing…. I haven’t had any bad experiences with any of them.
Have you managed to take any souvenirs from the joke shop?
James: Yeah, well, a few may have found their way into my bag. We were on tour for the HALF-BLOOD PRINCE around Europe and I was going through one airport, and I take my laptop out of my bag and I found a Puking Pastie and the guy who was working there’s like, “What’s that…. Why have you got that?” So I say, “You’re not gonna believe me if I told you…”, but he obviously thought that something was lost in translation. He was still looking blank when I said it.
Your haircuts have changed a lot during the films. Which ones did you like best?
O: It was probably really an accident, especially how they got longer between the third and fourth film. That was totally coincidental. And looking back at the photos now, I’m thinking, how… did I think that looked good? But at the time, I thought I looked really cool…. Our natural hair colour is brown and they had to dye it back recently, and it took four or five hours to get it back to the orange…. So I think I’ll be quite happy when I’m not having to fill my hair with dye every three weeks.
J: If there’s something that we’ve learned form the movie, it’s hair dyeing.
Which Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans do you like best?
J: I remember when they had those, and it’s always like a Russian Roulette. You take one and you might like it. And I don’t know which ones I like and which ones I dislike.
O: I think there’s a red pepper or a chili in there once, a really spicy thing, and I have to say, I felt revolting after eating that.
Do you find it hard to watch yourself in the earlier films?
J: A little bit. The first two certainly. They always seem to be on the television on Christmas day. We’ll finish eating dinner and I’ll get a text saying, “Hahaha, how cute are you?”
Dave Legeno (Fenrir Greyback)
Your character is pretty scary. What scares you?
(Chuckles) Spiders, I suppose spiders. And I do remember watching THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, and that kind of scared me. I was pretty young…. The movie was very poorly done at the time, but a big tarantula comes on and fills the screen and you can see the lines where they’ve cut it out.
Is it strange to see a toy of yourself?
A little bit, especially when I know it’s pretty much anatomically correct when they use some laser cast out…. I think, are my legs really that shape? They obviously are… but I wasn’t so happy when I saw it. I didn’t think they had done the face quite right.
Which young actor most surprised you?
Everyone, but probably I was most surprised with Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy). Well, let me say, all the kids have really, really surprised me, ‘cause I tell you, they are really nice kids. I mean, they’re really good, they’re not putting on an act, they’re really grounded kids, they’re the biggest money-making children there’s ever been, and they’re decent, happy, well-adjusted people with no attitudes, which is so pleasantly surprising, because they all could’ve come out of this and never had a life, ‘cause it could have spoiled it for them. But they’re really good.
Thank you, Jessie Cave , Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright, James and Oliver Phelps, and Dave Legeno!