A Conversation between JK Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe

that's exactly what that is that Hagri would never be in danger um and as I say lopin when I first created Lupine uh I had no intention of killing him and then I realized that Lupine had to die which is horrible yeah, I mean. That's horrible, he had to leave and the reason he had to leave was what if ultimately I mean in the final book you're seeing a war, you're not and what's horrible about it? war? Well, one of the horrible things is to leave children without father, without mother, etc., and I got to a point where I thought I was going to have to prove it again and the most powerful way to prove it is to kill the parents who we know and leave another. another baby is orphaned, you know it happened in the first war and Harry was that child and now it happens again, but you know I gave Harry as a godfather and I and I hear about him in the epilogue and you know he's Okay, in As far as possible, who was your favorite character to write about?

Oh well, I loved writing for Ron. I loved. I love writing dialogues. I miss, I miss Dumbledore especially because he came from a me. I always feel like he comes from somewhere here. He felt quite automatic when writing when I wrote to Dumalo, he was telling me things that he needed to hear sometimes. I really liked him. Yeah, that's amazing, yeah. The strange thing, you know, for people watching this, there's a It's a very cynical way of looking at this, the way we're talking about these characters, if they're real people and people, I think I just need to understand that for you they have I've spent almost 20 years with these characters at this point, 20 years, yeah, you know, and for me 10, so not only do you get attached to the ACT, but also the notion of them as the beginnings of those characters and a very continue with them and think of them as if they were real people and simply live with them.

They're in your life, they're in your life like real people are, yeah, well, I was going to ask. I feel like I have some duty on a personal level too because I've always had my own suspicions about this. Dumbledore is gay Oh I thought you were going to ask something completely about Dumbledore being gay, yeah well it was something that was just thrown out to the American press to stir them up a bit no, although he did, which is obviously very funny , but Yeah, but I found people's reaction really interesting and I'll tell you why when I said I'd been working on these characters for 17 years, not many writers have ever been with the same set of characters for that.

For a long time, I feel like I can speak for all of us to say that it becomes a very intense experience and you're inevitably going to know things about the characters and I'm plural characters that, um, they're not, in some cases they will be. relevant and you'll think, oh yeah, yeah, this is the moment it becomes relevant and I'll say that or I'll show that, for example, Professor McGonagal, she had a whole story worked out for her and I guess I thought that at some point it would become relevant that she She'd had a love affair with a muggle and she'd had this pretty tortured part and then she'd created absolute chaos in the world and created Havoc for him, so that was my idea of ​​Dumbledore's tragic backstory, now I liked leaving it. open so that maybe a more worldly reader will see that there was something that could have been in that relationship and maybe a 9 year old would think that he was a great friend and that he trusted his ex, you know, so I agreed with that throughout all the books, but in the context of how he was writing about him, in other words, he's clearly giving that it's John the Baptist to Harry's Christ, isn't he, is he the man who almost ran, the man who could almost have had the Hallows? but he was too hungry for power, that's what interested me in Dumbledore, so in the book he clearly uses himself as the F for all worldly wisdom and he teaches Harry what he needs to teach Harry because he recognizes that Harry is going to be he's going to be the one or Galahad for Lance a lot or whatever you want he's the flaw he's the most flawed he was everything he was the one who almost ran that for me was the interesting thing about Dumbledore um do you remember in the first draft from the script by um huffa Prince Right, Harry, when Harry is at the station and Dumbledore comes to meet the station and in an early draft of that script, Dumbledore said to Harry, um, he said, I remember a young woman with eyes of whatever Raven shines. head and I read this and scribbled on my copy of the script Steve Dumbledore is gay I pushed it on the table and it happened oh so that line that's why that line didn't make the movie okay it's actually interesting when you start to think for a moment it's not about these characters being characters, but if you think about the characters, the lives that the characters actually have within the books and the fact that, to some level, because they exist in the collective consciousness of a generation , they exist because they always I think one of the wonderful things about Potter and the Potter fan base is that, whereas if you think about the other big costume that he wears and all that kind of stuff that goes with it, it's things like Star Wars and Star Trek, yes, absolutely, but the interesting thing is that Potter, because it started as a literary thing, has created a generation with the same kind of geek thoroughness mentality but with an appetite for reading and literature, which is kind of surprising, it was wonderful to hear, it was just the most wonderful thing and in the last release because obviously I'm not meeting a huge number of readers at the moment because you know, I finished the books and to find them again through the movies is really great.

I can't deny that it's charming. really lovely even before the books were picked up, yeah, until you know, sitting in this hotel room, you know what some of the surreal and strange things are. I mean, where did you start? I guess, but because for me, the last premiere was mental, it was mental. Wasn't it mental and felt more extreme than any of them? I think I was in a place of FAL safety in the sense that I felt like the books were finished so the excitement will really subside, yeah I once did because I went out and it was like the noise of an airplane engine right ?, it was scary if there were more people there, it felt like that, it felt like that because there was a moment when I looked to the side and there were hundreds of people, a kind of riot of people. moving forward like something sodden and if there had ever been a time when I could have formed a dictator exactly correctly, I could have just said let's march to the palace and everyone would have joined me in that terrifying moment.

Feeling like I've had that feeling, in fact, the reading I did to launch Phoenix, which was at the Albert Hall, was it at the Albert Hall? I think it was at the Albert Hall and they had all these graphics behind me. It was like Nurburg, it's crazy, I'm looking up, think who designed this, yeah, you have these moments where you think well. Harry Potter fans, leave us Mar, you think some of them would. Oh, they would be very lucky. I don't have any of those. I don't have dictatorial impulses now, but no, I mean, the only thing you can do is laugh at it and it's hilarious and it's very funny, I mean, it's strange, I mean, when someone, I mean, tries, for example, to we know when someone.

You once tried to jump into the front seat of the car with us, did anyone try to follow us afterward? You have two reactions to that situation: you can be terrified and think, "Oh, people are going to try to break into my car," or you. I might think it's funny that she tried to do that. I'm fine now I'm safe and everything's fine and that's pretty funny, but no, those, I don't want people getting in your car, you see, that makes me tired. Okay, I'm sorry, look, this is what always bothers me a lot less than who I date, yeah, but that's true for me too, when creepy things happen to me, it's a lot easier when you're the target.

Think that you know what happened, that's fine, while the people around you are completely scared and say that you shouldn't, that you should never be alone in a car again, yes, exactly you did because you've been subject to a sort of rumors on the internet and things the crazy things that come with it make you laugh I have a sort of um top top at least a top four I think about this telling the stories I've heard about myself is that I was getting the SAS guards walk my dogs, well, it's better that Dan actually let me defend that.

He was getting how many dogs do you have, uh, two, you actually have dogs because he wouldn't surprise me if there weren't any dogs, no. exactly no no God my dogs are quite famous they are my dogs dog my dogs get as many gifts as I do a lot I have no idea Clearly I've also been out of the loop no no no I don't mean they don't appear but they're just people who know their names on the internet and I mentioned them once in an interview, so as dog walkers, I was drinking for a while a special Brier Brier beer brewed in a monastery in Belgium by Belgian Monks, Dr., you had your own personal monks and dog walkers and SAS dogs.

There wasn't one that grew, I think um 8 in about 6 weeks or something that would be extremely concerning, which as anyone who knows me can. Tell me, you know it hasn't happened, um and um, and one of my favorites was the rumor that they were going to make a statue of myself for my living room. I think they obviously think I live like that. The Roman emperor like Kigia just builds statues for me everywhere, you know, scattering them all over the studio he could make himself made in chocolate, yeah he could absolutely do that, he could lock himself in it and eat his way out, that's actually that's how it would be.

Pretty good, I really enjoy doing that. I'll just give you a quick list of what Grint management is like right now. um in terms of cars, I think he has, he just sold, he has the ice cream band, he's still around. I still have the ice cream really think about it on hovercraft now also hovercraft and uh we had a bright orange Range Rover with blacked out windows and I told him and he said I'm selling it. I told him why he said that's the color, which is presumably why I bought it in the first place, but he has um and now he has amazing pets and he has llamas and peacocks and he's basically done, you know, with his money what the rest of us would have done with our money when we said we would all do it when we were seven years old you know and we only have the house.

I'm very happy. We always make jokes about Rup because he's always living the dream and we always tell him to get out of bed. right in the water, down to the breakfast table, that's how you travel around your house, but, like we were saying before, one of my favorite moments, in a strange way, because you know, when you offend some people, I know something you must be doing right, well, there was my favorite, one of my favorite photos of Potter was um, I think it appeared on the front page of the Times or some proper big newspaper, and it was a big bomb fire in some state.

In America, I think, someone had thrown a calendar and in the air, smiling, was Rupert's smiling face thrown into the flames and it was one of the permanent images I've ever had. Always remember that it's a lot more fun if it was Ruper, yes, exactly, yes, it was quite serene, like going to the fire and it was lovely, but does that bother you or do you think no, it doesn't, it never bothered me because Um, I felt like those particular reviews were completely wrong. I don't have any trace of those kinds of opinions, so if you want to burn my books, feel free, yeah, okay, presumably you'll have to buy copies to burn them that well.

You know, even that didn't particularly bother me. You know, I've occasionally come face to face with people like that, they can be quite aggressive, really. I remember on one of my promo tours we had um, we had PL clo. The police check the place for bombs because there had been a bomb threat, yes, so it was real and I and I look back and remember it and I mean that has largely calmed down, but certainly there are states in the United States. United where not. I don't think I would be particularly welcome no um, it is what it is, you know, I remember when I was 11, I was at a party, just no, don't tell me someone went for you, you didn't go for me, but some like the mother of someone who lived on our street, you know, was like, oh, I'm not sure, I'm not sure if kids would be able to tell the difference between black magic.

It's magic, so what's the problem? It's a book, you know? I have a real problem with anyone who tries to protect children from their own imagination and I think a lot of this happens and if we can't recognize and accept the fact that we all have a certain degree of Darkness within us. more than others maybe and you know, bringing it to light and examining it and talking about this part of the human condition, then I think we're going to live in a pretty dangerous climate and I think that's much more harmful to children. I'm, you know, I think truth and openness is exactly the way to address EXA danger, yes, but it made me sad at times.

I remember going back to my old primary school and a child had been excluded from reading.He was sitting alone because his parents didn't want him to be subject to my evil influence and I, how are you? I mean, are you thinking about how you're going to feel when it's over because it's been so steady, it hasn't always been filming? in the same place always the same people, which was wonderful, which is wonderful, but equally it feels strange that you know it's coming or you don't really focus on it recently we all started thinking about it more because you know, It was funny, the moment when I was actually talking to Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomlin, who do hair and makeup.

Amanda has done my makeup every day for 10 years and she is an amazing makeup artist. Do you remember that day I came to visit the set and she painted. You know, you looked pretty beat up and I'm walking you, Rupert and me. room and you said what happened to you and you said well, if you don't know, oh yeah, it's pretending, yeah, I was, I was, God, I was already dripping at that point, I was like excellent, um and um, but I was Talking with them. the other day and they were talking about another job they might have chosen next and it was the first moment where it wasn't actually sadness or jealousy.

I was jealous that another actor was going to get those. two because Lisa did my hair for the sixth and seventh movie, but she was also in the second and she's been in and out, and someone who I've gotten to know very, very well as well, um, and the fact that another actor I'm going to to get there, imagine, it's really something, it's something very peculiar and I mean it will also be strange because you know I have worked with the Potter team in such a way that I am actually. I feel much closer to the crew than to a lot of the cast.

No, I really understand it. I think a lot of people certainly included me before I got involved in these movies, but people maybe wouldn't understand how important it is. the team is them every day, day in and day out, they are the people you see and work with and joke with, and I've come to understand that too because recently I've worked particularly on this movie, that, that, that. If that success on a film set depends in some way on the ability to concentrate very intensely for very short periods of time, it is exactly the opposite of writing, yes, of course, yes, and then you have to learn to disconnect in the moments when those you can, because you can.

Don't stay at that energy level all day, although I am quite hyperactive. You know, my mom and dad have often told me that they were lucky when they got someone with the kind of boundless energy that you have and have always had. It's always been so obvious, even when you were very little, it was like you had four espressos ahead of everyone else, it was okay, it was okay, that's why I don't drink coffee, because you can't imagine me after that, um, uh, no, because I remember the first day we met, I think it was when you walked in and all the kids were there, I think, and you know Tom Fon had his Dia had his Diablo because he was yeah, he showed my son when he was very little how I use him and I always had a soft spot for Tom after that and it was so ironic that we have this Arch badie and he's the nicest.

I mean, we keep saying that everyone is nice, but the fact is, they are there. where there were never any brats, there was never anyone who objected, they were all just really nice people, but Tom is a, I've got Tom, Tom is so lovely, he's a bit older than the rest of us too and he was when he was. younger and had worked a little more, he had made quite a few movies and in his demeanor you could tell that he was quite comfortable with being there, right?, but yeah, he was so sweet. I remember everything that day. of you in the cantina looking around was creepy, it's incredible.

He participated. I remember Devon, who plays Sheamus very vividly from that day because he really looks like I imagined him, really yeah, he was one of the ones that really kicked someone out that the way I imagine the other person I definitely talk about because I think even if you realize what he does, he's the unsung hero of these movies Stuart Craig, oh God, because his sets are, he's a genius, I mean just. a genius, yes, yes, because it is the details of everything that is because he is CU. I think that's what has allowed us to survive as a successful franchise at CU.

You know, because we kind of have it because we started at the same time as a lot of others. Fantasy movies for kids SE, but the reason I think we've managed to do it so well and keep the story going to the end and keep people interested is largely due to the sets and the fact that the details that go into in her. the world is such a whole world and I, again, as someone you don't know, I've been involved in the movie business and I came to this completely new to be able to walk into the Gryffindor common room and pick up the comics and read them.

It's so real, it's so fabulous that children who visit the set are impressed, right? They can go into all these rooms and play with all these things. Now we've lost the Gryffindor common room. No, it's gone. I don't know what my favorite set is. I don't know where it is anymore. I don't think maybe it's probably. I don't think it's because it was everyone's favorite set, so I guess they weren't set up in someone's backyard. oh no I'm sure that's not the case but you told me everyone is putting dibs on various accessories yeah well I mean I'm really looking at my glasses that's what I want I want and I don't want no be what you see with your wand.

I think I'd like my wand to see. The thing is that the wand for me is a little less constant because it changed after the second movie and it's different. I got it good and um because in Alonso's words he said that he thought the other one looked too soft and like it was from Ikea um and then he gave me this kind of stick you know and um and it was cool but um that whole cutting thing and change with the ones from the last book that we are, I can explain it to you Dan, could you please?

We're fighting so hard on this set. I have to say I'll get my water and who is this mom who really belongs to this is and is we have and and and Then, I try to explain it to Rafe, when Raef appears as Voldemort and I look at him with his Voldemort makeup and he asks me about those I'm completely panicking. I really have to find the most succinctly I can explain this to you in 2 minutes, but I don't know if that's possible because I remember having to reread the ending of seven several times. I talked about the end of seven.

The epilogue changed when because what CU. some people like it a lot, but others had a problem, they hate it. a version of what was written literally 17 years before the book. a version was written, but like I told you before, you know there were some people there that didn't appear in the Final Cut and so on um, yeah, I didn't. I wanted to give a snapshot. I think what a lot of people felt about the tone of the epilogue was that this is it, so it's over, so he's not a hero. He's already kind of a middle-aged man.

Seeing him felt like a disappointment, but I've said this before. To me, absolutely heroism is rebuilding after that kind of trauma and I can't think of anything more noble than him acting like a fool. He preached but he did not live, you see, the fool or he preached, these are the values ​​that help us overcome love and those types of human bonds. Harry is actually living it, so to me he was always the guy who got it imposed on, him and that's what it was supposed to be. To sum it up, go back to the fact that he had the opportunity to have his finger on the nuclear button, so to speak, he had the opportunity to possess this, the most powerful, and he said I don't want, I want, I want that. . one, I want mine and yes, I want to break the chain and go back to what it was like at the time when you, I mean, how strong is the ending of writing the book, I mean, do you give up and then it's done or year ?

This time it was public relations. It felt really solid. I mean, I know I had to edit. But it was after it was published that it really hit me. Now that I had been prepared, it's a horrible thing to say, but in some ways. it was like knowing someone was going to die I had a lot of time to prepare I always said seven books that's all um that's what I planned from the beginning but it still hit me like a train um on my birthday which was the same month's release as well It's Harry's birthday, which I wasn't particularly thinking about, but I was, I cried because I haven't cried since my mother died, honestly, yeah, it really hit me and I mean, my husband was why, what's wrong, what?

It happens, you know? and I said I can't go there anymore, I can't go there anymore and you know it had been a place I could escape to for 17 years and I and I knew the door had closed and it was um, yeah, that, but it was very cathartic and after that day passed I became a lot lighter and there were aspects that you know are liberating obviously now I feel like I've done that work and that's always a good feeling thanks Dan you know that's done but Yes, it was difficult, it was difficult, I'm not going to pretend that I couldn't.

I cared a lot about the characters. I loved writing the books most of the time. I loved to write. the books yeah, but tell me how you feel about the ending because no, I mean, there's um, I feel like a therapist, it's going to be, it's going to be very strange and very disturbing, but it's the Little Things that you'll miss the most, I mean, and it's also the fact that you know, I mean, I'm going to walk into that studio for one day for the next few months and I'm going to sit in front of that makeup mirror and it's going to be the last time I film that day because then I'm going to leave and hopefully I'm going to do other things and, as you say, it will be liberating because I will no longer have to know when they send me an incredible script.

I'm sorry I'm not available for the next seven years, you know, I mean or whatever, but I'm very excited about the opportunity to live that kind of acting life of getting a job and going out and doing it and you know, that kind of Things excite me a lot, but there's also an awareness that it will never be the same, that it will never have that period of time, and that it's not just me. I mean, I look at this more, you know, in terms of a milestone, more than my 18th birthday, this is me becoming an adult now, this is me leaving the nest now, you know, but no, it's been um, It's been a good 10. years for me so thank you very much oh Dan, good to hear.