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"I have a big turban and big flowy gown"
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Article by Matt Springer and Cindy Pearlman (December 2001/January 2002)
The minds behind this fall's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone had their work cut out for them in faithfully adapting one of the world's most popular books.
If you've spent any amount of time with seven to 13-year-old kids, there are a few things you know. First, you know that's a little creepy, right? Sure, your friends all say it's "adorable' but what they're really thinking is, "My kids will never go near that freak." Second, you know they're all little monsters. All they do is take, take, take. They're like girfriends with snot-control issues.
Finally, you know that author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books are the hottest thing with kids this side of Pokemon, or Teenage Mutant Whatever-the-Hell-the-Brats-Want-Now. But then, Harry isn't just a phenomenon with kids - chances are you might have picked up the books yourself. They have a way of appearing in your hands when you least expect it, then charming you into obsession with their crack-like addictiveness. Their popularity crosses all generational barriers; they're ageless entertainment.
Which makes the prospect of bringing a Harry Potter movie to the screen all the more daunting. You can get either the best or the worst reaction from nearly every filmgoer in America - kids, adults, and seniors alike will either embrace your work and make it a huge hit, or will reject it and send you to the lockers without so much as an encouraging pep talk. It's an unenviable task.
The man entrusted with that task was director Chris Columbus, helmer of such past kid-friendly blockbusters as Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire. And according to one of his stars, he's about to become the best friend of Potter freaks the world over. He may have pulled off the near-impossible - adapted a well-loved story with a deft and nimble touch, in a way that will please fans and non-fans alike.
I read some concerns that Chris Columbus was directing and maybe it was going to be too much of a kid's movie. But it certainly isn't, I'll say that now," opines Warwick Davis, who portrays the diminutive Professor Flitwick in this fall's Potter film. "Chris is wonderful at working with the kids and bringing a wonderful performance from them, but the movie certainly has an edge as well. It isn't just for children, believe me. It can be viewed on many levels. And it stays true to the book in that sense, because the book also can be read on many levels by children and adults alike."
Columbus ended up with the gig after such diverse and idiosyncratic talents as Steven Spielberg and Terry Gilliam passed on the project. (Let's leave it to the more drug-soaked minds to imagine the director of Brazil and Time Bandits tackling a beloved children's classic.) Working from a screenplay by Steven Kloves, Columbus took his production to England and recruited a mix of experienced pros and newcomers to inhabit the eccentric figures in Harry's world. Esteemed vet Richard Harris portrays Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts Academy, while the ever-smarmy Alan Rickman plays Harry's academic antagonist, Professor Severus Snape. Robbie Coltrane takes on the role of the hoary Hagrid, groundskeeper at Hogwarts, and John Cleese steps in for an extended cameo as Nearly-Headless Nick, a ghost that torments the students.
As for Professor Quirrell, the wormy teacher who dabbles with evil and finds himself in way over his head, Ian Hart fills out his rather large turban. "My job is to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hart says. "He's an innocent guy possessed by the Dark Lord. You talk about ridiculous things that are real - I play this guy teaching kids how to defy the dark forces, but he's terrified of them, too. No one suspects Professor Quirrell of having any darkness, but it turns out I'm the baddie. Kids are going to hate me. They're going to throw rocks."
As for Davis, he's popped up in genre classics from Return of the Jedi to Willow and The Phantom Menace, and now he's teaching charms to first-year wizardry students. "I'd read the book when I heard I had an audition for Professor Flitwick, which is the role I was going for," Davis explains. "I quickly read the first book to get a flavor for what kind of world this was - what Professor Flitwick was like and how he fit into everything. When we were shooting the movie, as I saw each of the characters, I thought, 'Wow, he looks exactly how I imagined he would from reading it.'"
Columbus went with the somewhat controversial decision to cast an unknown in the role of Harry himself; pre-Columbus scuttlebutt had Spielberg potentially tapping Haley Joel Osment for the role. Newcomers were chosen also for the co-starring children's roles of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, but Daniel Radcliffe was the young man chosen to portray the boy who lived.
"He had a hell of a job to do," Hart says of Radcliffe. "He did a good job. It was rough. Let's say he didn't do a good job. How do you go to school with the other kids yelling, 'You're not the Harry I wanted'? Luckily, that's not the case. But so many kids have so much invested. There's a huge pressure on everyone."
At the very least, it definitely sounds like the filmmakers have gotten the FX right. For example, Davis has donned everything from a furry Ewok costume to the slithery green skin of one of Anakin Skywalker's alien buddies over the course of his career. His Harry Potter role is no different - like many of the staff at Hogwarts, Flitwick is far from a "human" character. But this time, the makeup used takes a quantum leap forward from anything we've seen before.
"I wore makeup that took four hours to apply," Davis says. "It was ground breaking because we were using a very new technique, which has been used a few times in America before, of silicon makeup. The pieces that were glued to me were made of silicon, which is a much more realistic-looking flesh material and it moves very well, although it's very heavy to wear. It's got a great look and a translucency to it that your skin would have. As a result, it looks very real.
His makeup job for Flitwick was so good that Davis was able to shed his first skin and take on a second role in the film, that of a goblin bank teller. "For the goblin bank teller, I had contact lenses that were totally black, so when I had them in my eyes were just black voids," he says. "I had no white in my eyes; these contact lenses were just huge. And I also had dentures in as well, so I looked and there was nothing left of me. Not even my eyes was me. That was uncanny to look at, when you can't even see your own eyes. There are eyes there but they're not yours. That's weird."
For Hart, the most electrifying FX sequence is one that Potter fans are drooling to see represented on screen - the thrilling Quidditch games that are such exciting scenes in the books. "The Quidditch game scene is great," he gushes. "It's people flying on broomsticks and playing a variation on baseball. We did it on blue screen. One of the most enjoyable bits is when you get wires attached and you wear a harness. Big guys pull you up. It's genius. Kids are going to want to play Quidditch if they could, but they can't."
Though computer-generated effects will certainly play a role in the film, practical effects have also been employed, especially to recreate the ancient hallways of Hogwarts itself. "The first day we went into the great hall, with the floating candles and 30-foot fires in the fireplace," Hart says. "The scale worked. I tried to get them to put doors in my house. They're sixty feet high. They built the thing; the rooms are 3-D. They built real walls and rooms."
If the FX is powerful enough to charm performers such as Hart and Davis, who watched the nuts and bolts of the trickery as it was produced, it's likely that Potter-philes will have no trouble disappearing into the fantasy world of Harry and his pals. That's the challenge - helping millions of fans to celebrate their favorite books with a film that faithfully and creatively brings it to life on the screen. It's especially pressing since production on the second film in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, begins this fall. There's a lot riding on one little boy and his magical powers, but Davis is confident that sorcery will seize the day.
"It looks great and it's got a great feel, and the score is wonderful from John Williams," he enthuses. "I'm really proud of what I did in it and proud to be involved with this project."
As for Hart, perhaps playing a character possessed by evil has gotten to the actor a bit. "I have a big turban, big flowy gown," he says. "I didn't get to keep my costume so I could sell it on eBay."
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As Unknown