Kidzworld is with Harry and Hermione (Dan Radcliffe and Emma Watson) to talk “Deathly Hallows” and life after “Harry”. Emma is already studying at Brown University and Dan is headed for a Broadway musical!
Courtesy of Warner Bros
What was saying goodbye to the Potter films like for the duo and what’s up with their crazy dance and lip-lock in “Deathly Hallows-Part 1”? We’ve got that scoop and much more!
Kidzworld: Okay, let’s dish. Emma, Dan has said that you’re quite a fiery kisser.
- Emma:: [laughing] So I hear. The scene obviously had to be something that would really disturb Ron and make him really jealous and upset so I think the kiss had to be passionate from Hermione’s end. I guess I should just take it as a compliment. I read “animal” somewhere. I said to him last night, “you’ve been telling everyone I pounced on you”. He said “I didn’t use those words”. I’m like “whatever, Dan”. He’s like “no, no! I gave you a ten for kissing”. All right, as long as it’s positive.
Kidzworld: These two guys are like your brothers at this point. It must have been awkward to have this more intimate thing going on in this film.
- Emma: Yeah. It was horrible! [laughter]. I felt incredibly awkward. I don’t know but it looked good. I somehow managed to make it look realistic. I was proud of myself that I managed to power through and be professional.
Kidzworld: Dan, it’s your turn. You and Emma really shake some booty in the dance sequence. What’s your take on that?
- Daniel: It was good! It was a very sweet scene. It was funny though because when I watched the film for the first time, I watched it with a friend of mine and when the Nick Cave song came on I went, “That is the coolest Harry Potter will ever be”. Then she said, “Yeah, but that's not”, when I started doing disco dancing. It was one that [director] David [Yates] sort of made up on the spot, pretty much, and then Emma is quite an actually good dancer. So it was for me to sort of muddle through but Harry shouldn't be a good dancer. He should be kind of c**p which I was. But next year on Broadway I hope to see a large improvement in that [Dan is starring in the musical How to Succeed in Business.]
- Emma: As much as I love Dan, he’s not a naturally-gifted dancer [we laugh]. I think he knows but it was perfect for the scene. It was meant to look silly and spontaneous.
Courtesy of Warner Bros
Kidzworld: You are really good!
- Emma: Thanks! I love to dance.
Kidzworld: Emma, how has your experience living in America for school been? Do you feel more like an American now?
- Emma: It has become a second home for me and I do really love it. I’m very happy. I could very easily see myself splitting my time between New York and London.
Kidzworld: Why did you choose the states over an English education?
- Emma:: A friend of mine when to University in the states and when he was telling me that he was able to study more than one subject at a time and it was much more open and broad, that really appealed to me and also, I’m much more anonymous in the states. I needed a change and a fresh start where I felt like I could go and really reinvent myself. That’s what Brown has been for me.
Kidzworld: Shooting the last scene in the Potter series, how emotional for you both? [We’ve since learned that the two plus Rupert will have to go back for a re-shoot of one scene in the last film].
- Daniel: There was lots of crying by Emma, Rupert and I and the crew because a lot of them have been there for ten years as well. So there were lots of tears from everybody really. It was very sad and I remember at the time being quite sort of inconsolable for like two hours. And then four hours later I was on a plane and I was reading a script for a new movie I’m now filming [The Woman in Black].//So we move on.
- Emma: I’m still processing it. I have days when I feel relieved and days when I feel very sad because this took up my life, my home, all of my time.My life revolved around Harry Potter. That was the focal point of my existence. It’s exciting now that I have this time. I can accept other things. There were moments when I was making this that I was like “Gosh I wish I could go and do that” or something would come up and now I have time to go and do different things. I swing like a pendulum back and forth between these different emotions.
Kidzworld: Emma, your beginning scene with Hermione’s parents was so emotional. Was that a challenge for you?
- Emma: It was a challenge. Being from a family that’s been split up, I know what it’s like to walk away from coming in between two different families. It’s hard so I guess I used some of that.
Kidzworld: When you see Hermione’s baby pictures in the scene, were those really your own baby pictures?
- Emma:: [she laughs] They were actually my baby pictures. There’s one with me with my favorite thing. I had this towel with bunny rabbit ears on it and there’s a picture of that. I didn’t know which ones they were going to use. They just asked my dad if they could have some pictures of me when I was a kid and he handed some over. It’s weird to see those pictures mixed in with these fake parents.
Courtesy of Warner Bros
Kidzworld: This Harry film is very character-driven. Did you feel that you really understood your characters completely by the end? Did you always say the dialogue you were given?
- Emma: Well, by the end, Dan, Rupert and I were rewriting our dialogue. I would read something and immediately say “She wouldn’t say that”. And, luckily enough, after having played her for ten years, [the filmmakers] trusted in me enough to give me the freedom to do that. I don’t think I’ll ever have that chance again so it was nice.
- Daniel: If we had tried to condense the book into one movie, that on the road section would've suffered dramatically. So for us to have all that time to explore the characters was great, and what's great about it is that it's character exploration but it's actually really interesting as well. It never crosses that line into being indulgent because there's always something going on. You're never more than five scenes away from a massive fight or something.
Kidzworld: The camping scenes with Harry, Hermione and Ron stand out since it’s just the three of you. How was working on the camping stuff?
- Daniel: It’s interesting because we didn't film it in sequence. We'd film a scene with just the two of us for maybe two days and then we'd be doing a wedding scene with loads of people or something. So it was broken up in such a way that we never really felt as isolated as the characters did. But yeah, I think it gives it a much more interesting feel [when compared with] the first film because we've never seen these characters without Hogwarts and without all these sort of familiar and standard characters that you always see around them. So it gave it I think a much fresher feel and made it a bit more interesting.
By: Lynn Barker
