It’s been two decades since author J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s for American audiences) was adapted into film, and star Daniel Radcliffe is looking back on his work.
Seven more films followed, culminating in one of the biggest pop culture franchises of all time. All eight Harry Potter films became box office hits, with a majority of them grossing over $900Mi. The final film of the series, Deathly Hallows Part 2, grossed more than a billion worldwide in July 2011.
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The movies inspired a generation of young audiences to become more interested in reading in general, as inspired a bunch of studios to turn YA novels into movie franchises – including The Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Twilight, and many more. Harry Potter even got its own theme park, located in Universal Studios. However, this massive success may not have been achieved if it wasn’t for Harry Potter himself: Daniel Radcliffe.
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In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight while filming Season 3 of Miracle Workers, Daniel Radcliffe reflected on the 20th Anniversary of the first film and his time portraying the Boy Who Lived. Radcliffe explained that “no plans at the moment” to do a special reunion to celebrate the event, explaining:
“I’m in the Dominican Republic at the moment filming and then I’m going to be busy, kind of working on bits and pieces until the end of the year”. Daniel Radcliffe added, “So yeah, I don’t know. I’m sure there will be some sort of celebration but I don’t know if we will be getting together or anything. I’m sorry if that’s a bit of a disappointment to anyone.”
While Daniel Radcliffe has not re-watched any of his Potter films after they came out, he shared some of the memorable experiences while working on Potter.
“I’ve seen bits on TV for seconds before I go, ‘Uh!’ Or if it’s a scene that someone else is in I’ll go, ‘Oh, cool,'” he shares, before reflecting on some of his best memories on the set. “But yeah, I have really, really fond memories of all my scenes with Gary Oldman and David Thewlis. They were some of the first scenes on the third and the fifth film where I started to feel like I was a young man who was just starting to figure out what acting was, and they were pretty cool people to be around.”
Daniel Radcliffe did explain that the fourth Potter film Goblet Of Fire was one of his favorites due to the stunts, and he described the experience.
“They let me do the craziest stunt I was ever able to do. It was like a 40 foot fall down on a roof. I was on a wire, but I was properly in free fall. It was only there to catch me at the end. And I was absolutely terrified,” . Radcliffe recalled “I worked a lot with the stunt department by then, and they were like, ‘You can do this. Do you want to try it?’ And I said yes. But then I got up there and was absolutely terrified.”
He also recalled, “That was one of the things and we did it like two or three times, but it was for the fourth film… I’ve realized since that that was very special circumstances in that set and I will never be allowed to do something like that again.”
The popularity of Harry Potter is still high and fans even reenact scenes from the movies, specifically the memorable wizard chess scene in the first film. Radcliffe commented, “That’s a really hard one to reenact. That’s like one of the craziest sets we had! That’s great,.” As fans know Radcliffe does not use social media to maintain his privacy, but he state that “[But] I will try and see some of them then. That’s good.“
The Harry Potter movie series is general will forever be one of the greatest pop culture franchises in recent history. Even though the ended in 2011, it’s still as popular today as it was 20 years ago. Harry Potter enchanted audiences across the world and its impact will be forever felt in mainstream media and in pop culture. Happy Anniversary 20th to the films that introduced The Boy Who Lived to our magical world.
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Source: Entertainment Tonight
