Interesting tales from the “Harry Potter” set

Alan Rickman (Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films) has revealed that child labor laws in the United Kingdom led to some interesting filming techniques for some portions of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:

[I]f there were any scenes with, say, me and Daniel, Rupert and Emma, of course they’d shoot when it was on them it would be on their faces, and I’d be there, but when we turned [a]round, in would come the very small actors aged 33 with a wig on their head.

This and a few other other tales from the making of the Harry Potter films came out during Rickman’s interview as part of BAFTA’s A Life in Pictures series. The acclaimed actor also touched upon the secrecy of J.K. Rowling regarding character plots during film production:

[S]he just gave me one piece of information, and I promised her I would never share it, and I never will, not that it’s anything that people don’t know now. But she gave me one piece of information that made me know that […], whatever happened, I had to try to drive down two roads at the same time until all the facts emerged. So I knew there was ambiguity.

Since the actors didn’t get much in the way of advanced information, some had to wait alongside fans for the release of each successive book to get the full idea of their character’s progression. Rickman recalls lining up for one of the midnight releases, donning a disguise to avoid the “mayhem” of being recognized by fans as the real-life Snape. Surprised by what appeared to be a three-hour line, Rickman approached a bookshop employee and revealed his identity, snagging a copy of the book without any further questions.

An audio recording of the interview along with a full transcript can be found here. What’s your favorite bit revealed in the interview?

Don’t forget to catch Rickman in his latest directorial and acting role as King Louis XIV in A Little Chaos, now showing in Australian and UK theaters!