July 2009 | blackfilm.com | HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE | A Press Conference Interviews with Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)

July 2009

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE |Press Conference Interviews with Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)

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HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE
Press Conference Interviews with Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy)
Posted by Samantha Friedman

July 9, 2009

Are you able to go back and watch the earlier films, seeing yourself at that age with cringing or critiquing? How do you deal with that?

Grint: I haven't watched one all the way through for a long time. They're on TV occasionally. It is quite surreal, kind of seeing that because it just doesn't really feel like me. I feel quite detached from it. It's quite weird. It always brings back good memories because it was quite an exciting time in life. It was nice.

Watson: Really I find it easier to watch the earlier films which might surprise you where I had the whole bushy hair and chipmunk face thing going on. It wasn't a great look for me. But actually I find that easier to watch because I can completely disconnect myself from it. It feels like such a long time ago and I don't really identify myself with that girl whereas if it's one from one or two years ago, it's a little bit close but I'm a couple of years younger. I find that much, much harder to watch. It's not a very nice experience. I think a lot of actors and actresses don't watch their work.

Radcliffe: I haven't watched any of the films after they've been done. No. I think it would be an entirely destructive experience for me if I was to actually watch. I would be far too critical. I remember we had a conversation on the fourth film and I said to them, something like, 'God, I can't believe it. I saw a clip from the first film. I can't believe how bad I was –' or whatever. I think I said something to the effect of, 'Why on earth did they cast me?' The only reason that I remember it was the fourth one where we had this conversation is because Mike Newell's massively booming voice came from the other side of the set and I had to lean to back and heard, 'Because you were absolutely bloody charming!' (Laughs) But to your original question, no. I don't watch the older movies.

I want to go back to the sexual tension. These kids are expert wizards that can control their magic, but can't control their feelings. How do you intend to reconcile those things going forward?

Radcliffe: I think it's kind of a wonderful thing in the film, the fact that these guys are all…I find it particularly endearing with Harry that he's this kind of very, very acclaimed wizard and he's crap with women. I think it's a wonderfully endearing quality that he has. In terms of this film, I think there are basically two types of teenage relationships. One (mine and Bonnies) which is that kind of teenage thing where you're in love and it's pure and it's innocent and it's all that matters in your life, when you're fourteen or fifteen and you fall in love with somebody. That's all there is. Then there's the other kind which is kind of much more carnal and energetic which is the one that Rupert was lucky enough to have. So those are my thoughts on the relationships in this Harry Potter film. You kind of slightly lost me, to be perfectly honest, with the reconciling. I'm not sure I quite got what you meant on that.

It's that you guys can control magic, but not yourselves.

Radcliffe: Yes, and I believe that's probably quite true of most teenagers, that complete inability to control hormones or desire.

Watson: I think that particularly with Hermione she's such a control freak. She wants to control everything about her life. Her destiny, her work, everything. Suddenly she just falls apart in this one. She's just a wreck because she can't control the way that she feels. I think in her head, if she could've chosen who to fall in love with it certainly wouldn't have been Ron, in the nicest possible way. She would've chased someone much more serious and much smarter and much more suited to her. You can't help who you fall in love with.

How did you get into character for when you had to take Professor Slughorn's portion and go into this altered state of mind?

Radcliffe: To be honest I just let the more manic side of myself that I suppress for twenty three hours of everyday loose for a while on set and just became a kind of uncontrollable, vaguely irritating but sort of vaguely amusing person that I keep hidden. I just let him out and went mad for a few days. It was great fun to do. Actually, it is a kind of side to the character that hasn't really been seen before and David Heyman leaned over to me, he was sitting next to me at the premiere, and said, 'That's my favorite piece of acting that you do in this film.' So maybe I should've been playing slightly more maniacal all along.

Watson: I know that Dan won't mind me saying, but I think that drugged Harry is closer to Dan's real personality [laughs].

Radcliffe: I do think people probably…if you spent like a proper amount of time with me you would probably wonder if I was on drugs. I'm not. I'm just incredibly hyperactive. Manic. I can be quiet and serious at the same time, but like at the premiere in England the other night, my God, I was just this kind of beast that had been unleashed onto the red carpet.

Can you talk about the process of reading these books and knowing what these characters will be doing in books six and seven?

Watson: To be honest, I'm such a geeky 'Harry Potter' fan, genuinely, I know the books inside and out and have read each of them at least three times and could probably answer any question you come up with and any plot detail you might care to ask, and so when I read the books I just read from the perspective of someone who's dying to know what happens generally before I even think about Hermione. I'm just not thinking of it like that. I'm just desperate to get to the end of it and am very excited to read it. That kind of comes second for me.

Felton: I'm quite the opposite. I read it and I revel at the page whenever I see Draco's name I think, 'Oh, my God, this is it! This is cool. This is what I get to do.' When the second one came out I think that I read it within probably twelve hours of it coming out. I didn't actually cue up outside, but I had a friend who was doing it for me. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Wright: I think that also the relationship from my perspective with Ginny is also knowing that, reading the epilogue in the final section, in order to make the relationship work in the sixth film, you have to block that section out if you're playing the character. I think that you have to forget what happens in the final one, assuming that you've all read it and know what happens.

Radcliffe: My reading of the books was always like, 'God. Another one of us is dead. Another death scene. Oh, God.' I always would be very much able to enjoy them when they came out, but I would also get nervous when I read them about whether I would be able to do justice to certain aspects of them which is probably not the healthiest mindset to be in when you read them. I couldn't help it.

So, Emma, you have college in the fall. Have you thought about the idea of living with a complete stranger?

Watson: I'm a little bit nervous. I figure if I'm going to do this experience I'm going to do it properly and I'm going to do it like everyone else. If I want to be treated like everyone else I have to do it like everyone else.

Radcliffe: Haven't you been listening, she's dating a stalker.

Watson: What kind of roommate will I be?

Radcliffe: Clean?

Watson: Yeah, clean. Cleanliness is good. Gosh. I don't know. Hopefully I'll be reasonably okay to live with. You should really ask this question to my family.

Radcliffe: I really hope there are massive Harry Potter fan's. (Laughs) I hope when you walk in and the first thing you see is your face on a doorway. (Laughs)

Watson: I will be fine. I will be happy. We'll see.

Have you ever been to a premiere, Emma, seen somebody in a great sweater and I said, 'I wish that was my date to the premiere tonight'?

Radcliffe: I'm having that moment now. (Laughs)

Have there been any childhood experiences you've put off, ones that you're looking forward to getting to do now that you're almost done with the seventh film?

Radcliffe: Childhood experiences that we've been putting off?

Felton: School trips.

Radcliffe: Yeah.

Felton: I don't think youmissed out on much there. We gained more than we lost. It's a little late to go to Lego Land now. We missed out on that.

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