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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Press Conference - Part 1
Friday, June 22nd, 2007
[Background noise, chatter and instructions, as everything is being set up]
Media: Good morning.
Dan: Good morning.
Media: I wanted to ask each of you, what is it like to initiate a new director? Is there anything special to do on the first day, or night...?
Dan: What? Like hazing?
[Emma laughs]
Dan: I don't know, it's great - I think that whenever a new director comes on board theres always a real sense of excitement because you're aware that something new's going to be brought to the table and that's always - I think that can only be an exciting propect. So I don't think we go through an particular ritual, do we? [laughs]
Emma: [laughs] No, there's no step-through ritual that I've - I guess it's just sort of... I guess, I don't know. It's really nice. We have - I mean, we have all the cast and crew that have been on the films since the very beginning, kind of been there for all four or five years. So, there's sort of quite a nice, friendly sort of family. But hopefully it's not, though, too intimidating for newcomers because everyone's kind of really friendly and just sort of everyonee... It's not... It's - yeah.
Rupert: And all the directors have always been quite different as well so it's always quite, sort of exciting to get good ones. We've had some pretty good ones.
[Dan and Emma laugh]
Dan: Yeah, we've done quite well!
Rupert: We're lucky.
Media: We've literally watched the three of you grow up, and we're reminded in this movie - it's sort of shocking in a way. For the three of you, growing up with these characters, have you found that they've influenced you in real life, the way you are today, do you think? And I wanted to ask Emma, you seemed to have a journey of hesitation, I call it, before you commited to doing the next two pictures. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Dan: Do you want to go for that, and then...
Emma: I didn't sign the contract, immediately, because I needed some time to figure out the logistics, as you can imagine, of combining making a Harry Potter film like you've seen a Harry Potter film, and combining that with my school timetable and I really want to go to University and I really want to continue what I was doing. I didn't want to have to give either one up, so I was kind of into this really difficult - it was a really dificult position, and it just took time to work out how I was going to make that work. And Warner Bros. has been extremely supportive of helping me figure out ways to do that. For instance, they've given me Monday mornings off so I can to school and I can see my teachers and I can pick up my work. They've provided all the teachers that I need to get all my work done. They - even though I'm over 16, they're giving me the hours that I need to get all my work done. They have got a book every friday which I can put my work into which goes, then, back to my teachers. They'll mark it and send it back to me. It just took a while just to figure out the logistics of how it was going to work, and it wasn't - I find it quite frustrating, actually, thinking about all the insinuations made about why I was holding off, but I just had to figure out a way to make it work for me and that took a bit of time.
Dan: And it's important to realize that when you commit to a Potter film, it is, on the whole, about a ten month commitment, and so it's never something - and especially if we were thinking about not only the sixth film, but the seventh. That's two years, and so it's never something that should be rushed into lightly, and a lot was made of it that was obviously generated by the media, I suppose. And in terms of growing up with the characters, that's sort of a question that gets asked in different ways a lot and [laughs] you sort of - it's one that I think people always want us to say, "Yes, we couldn't live without them," and while they've been a major part I don't know if they've actually influenced us. I don't know - well, certainly for me. I can only speak for myself, I can't say that Harry, as a character, has influenced my character too much, personally. But I don't know how you guys feel about that. [laughs]
Emma: Yeah, it's really funny, we get asked a lot about growing up and being on camera, and growing up in the limelight and all of that sort of thing. But it's a really funny question to ask us, because we can't see ourselves from the outside, if that make sense. It's a bit like trying to look at it from different perspectives, and it's so funny. But, yeah. I mean, I sometimes - sometime I feel like I barely have to act, because I just - I'm so - I feel so close to my character and I just feel like I know her so well. And I think we're quite similar, in a lot of ways, so it's - my job isn't too hard, really. So, I'm quite lucky like that. So, yeah, it's nice. Yeah, we've kind of grown up together. I think - I'm actually - all of us are a teeny bit older than our characters, so in a way it's nice because we've kind of experienced first what are characters are going through before them, so we kind of have - we kind of know what it's like to have been through that experience and we can apply it to what we're doing in the film. So it works quite well, really.
Rupert:Yeah, for me it's really weird, sort of looking back at all the films, it seems like one long, big film.
Emma: [laughs] Yeah, we can't remember...
Rupert: And it's weird looking back at the early ones, but it's just, sort of, how young I am, and how changed, now. And it is really weird, but no, I've really enjoyed it. It's been a really good part of my life and yeah, I've really enjoyed it.
Dan: I had a hideous reaction at one point, from looking at a screening of Harry Potter 5, and there was a picture of me on screen from - unsurprisingly - and then there was a clip from me in the first film, at one point, is used in the fifth, and I just heard loads of girls go "Awww!"
[Everyone laughs]
Dan: That was just soul destroying.
[Everyone continues to laugh]
Media: Have the three of you preordered your books weeks ago, or does JKR give you a preview?
Dan: No, well we... No, I... None of us get a preview.
[Dan and Emma laugh]
Emma: Unfortunately.
Dan: Only J.K. Rowling's husband has recently found out what happens. I don't think anybody else know
Emma: No.
Dan: No.
Emma: There's security on the books and making sure it's kept pretty tight. So, I think we get one the night that it is released.
Dan: Well yeah, but I...
Emma: But not before.
Dan: Not before, no. [laughs]
Emma and Dan: No.
Media: Signed?
Dan: I should hope so, too!
[Everyone laughs]
Dan: No, I do not think so.
Emma: No. It's really funny, because we kind of - we know Jo.
Dan: Yeah.
Emma: We've known her for ages, and it would feel really awkward asking her for an autograph, now.
Dan: Yeah.
Emma: I would never do that. I bet like in 20 years I will really regret it.
Dan: Yeah.
[Audience laughs]
Rupert: Well, actually, I already did.
[Everyone laughs]
Rupert: She signed my first book.
[Emma laughs]
Media: Hi, with your Potter paycheck, what's been the biggest thing that you treat yourself to when you are not doing the film?
[Pause, then everyone laughs]
Rupert: Ummm. Sorry...
Media: What's been your biggest indulgence?
Rupert: Oh, right. I recently got an ice cream van.
[Everyone laughs uproarously]
Rupert: That's really...
Emma: When you say an ice cream van, it's not just like the shell of an ice cream van.
Dan: No. Chocolate
Emma:It's got the ice cream, treats, topping, stuff like that.
[Dan, Rupert and Emma talk about the van]
Rupert: Brilliant.
Dan: I've not really had... I have... I shouldn't have let you go first then, should I?
Emma: Oh we can't compete with that...
Dan: We can't top that. Ah, no. Nothing particularly exciting. I mean, I'm quite interested in artwork, and things like that, but I'm not going to - I've never sort of been into cars or anything like that, so I don't think I am going to black out into a classic car crash in which I think the people seem to expect me to.
[Everyone laughs]
Dan: And, yeah. So I don't think I'm going to be doing anything particularly exciting. And I would like to point out at this moment in time...
[Emma laughs]
Dan: ...that I have not bought and never plan to buy a Fiat Punto.
[Everyone laughs]
Dan: Which was reported a while ago, I think, in London Lite. And it's completely untrue, and the best that the article said that I was working with Fiat to provide - to get just the right shade of green.
[Audience laughs]
Dan: And I would like to now state that that has never happened.
Emma: [laughs] I again, I haven't, really. I bought myself an Apple Mac - my little laptop, which I love. It's my pride and joy. It's actually, I've used it so much that it hasn't got any memory space on it, anymore.
[Dan laughs]
Emma: [laughs] But, yeah, that was my... But I'm learning to drive at the moment. I'm taking my lessons, now, so I suppose at some point I'll be wanting to get a car. But as soon as I... I'm finding driving so hard [laughs], and getting in a car is so intimidating, I can't really imagine myself buying myself a big fat sports car, or anything that just has an engine bigger than, I mean, smaller than![laughs]. I want something really small, really safe, and really sort of unintimidating. Because I've already just - I'm really sure, yet, but that's going to be my next biggest...
Dan: Get a Punto.
[Everyone laughs]
Emma: Yeah, yeah. A Punto. Then they really will have something to write about. Yeah. [laughs] What shade of green?
Dan: Yeah. [laughs]
Emma: Yeah. [laughs]
Media: Dan, Harry goes through a great deal of emotional stress and angst in this film. So does Alan Strang in Equus. I'm just wondering do you leave these things at the end of the day or do you take them home with you?
Dan: Yeah, it's very important to leave Alan Strang in the theater.
[Everyone laughs]
Dan: And he... Yeah, no, I know what you mean. Sometimes, I suppose, it could be hard to detach yourself from a certain character. Particularly after - I mean, having done the show for 16 weeks, you do get very attached to him and, in a way, you do miss going out and doing it night after night. But, at the same time, it is essential that you do just now leave it behind and move on, and now it's time for - I'm doing another film in August, and then on to Harry Potter. So, it is time to just keep moving on to other things, now.
Reporter: And the stage experience?
Dan: The stage experience was phenomenal. I mean, I think it came out at exactly the right time for me, in that it was just - I think at that stage it was what I needed to do. And it was great fun. It was fantastic. I met some brilliant people, and got to work with Richard Griffiths in a totally different capacity. Because as Uncle Vernon it's great and we all have a laugh, but he's only - normally around for a week, a week-and-a-half. And, so, to spend 16 weeks or more, doing more with him was - this kind of character was fantastic.
 
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