Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Press Conference - Part 4

Friday, June 22nd, 2007

Media: Can you talk a bit about the audience and how it may have changed over the years, or grown? I know in America the books and the films seem to appeal to girls as much as boys. But over the years, what kind of audience have you heard from and what do they tell you they're responding to in the films?

Rupert: Ummm, I don't know really. I think it's quite a varied audience, I suppose. Quite the younger ones, particularly, and also it's - they've probably grown up by now.

Dan: Yeah. [laughs] Let's hope!

Rupert: I've always had a, quite a - people have always - when I get recognized, I've always heard, sort of taken things about the films, and I've had a good feedback from the film.

Dan: I mean, yeah. It's quite unique, in a way, because it does attract a huge range of people. And that's what's great about it, because you know that Potter, in a way, is one of the few films that - I mean, obviously, the market thing, and all that, it's targeting certain groups of people, but really it doesn't just appeal to one demographic of people.

Emma: No.

Dan: It appeals to a huge range of them. And then - we get response from a lot of people of different ages, and all around the world. And also, I mean, as you say, the people that were - the amazing thing about it is that the people who were ten when the first film came out, and, indeed - what? Seven when the first book came out. Then, you know, they've grown up, and they're now our age, and the nature of Potter and the fantastic storytelling means that younger kids are still coming to it, so it's got this sort of, this audience that regenerates itself through generations.

Emma: What I love is that, I'll be out and about and one day I'll have a seven or eight year-old come up and ask for a autotograph and say, "Oh my god, I'm a really big fan, love the films," and the next day, 30? 40?

[Audience laughs]

Dan: Yeah.

Emma: Like, literally, it ranges from like, grandmas to young kids. It's amazing, the way it's absolutely universal. I really like that. I really like that there's adults and there's four year-olds, I mean, I think they're definitely thicker along, they're getting a lot darker, and they're getting a lot more mature. And I think we've all grown with that initial audience we first had in the beginning. We've sort of - we're taking them on a journey. I don't think anyone would be - I don't know, "Harry Potter's too young for me," or anything like that.

Dan: No, not this time around.

Emma: No.

Dan: Certainly...

Emma: ...it's really not. You know, I think it's still bloody scary. I think it's still, you know? I don't think - it's amazing, it really does manage to give every type of audience what they want, I think. So, yeah. It's good.

Media: [Poses inaudible question]

Dan: Let me go first.

[Everyone laughs]

Dan: Whoa, good luck. No, I think Harry does have bad aspects and I think everybody has, in a way. I think he can be - when he lashes out in the film, he lashes out at his two best friends, and I think that's something a lot of people do simply because they know that, ultimately, they'll be okay. You know, so I think there's sort of, I think he can be possibly - I think he can be selfish, because he does have this desire to, you know, he feels he has to live up to this image of himself that all these people have of being, you know, this sort of great defender of rights and magical things.

[Everyone laughs]

Dan: And this is - yeah. Yeah, no particular way of saying it. I think he does feel he has to be a hero and so he has to go it alone, so he does try to cut himself off from people. So, I think those would be a few of them. And also, possibly in the third film, when Snape infers that he's like his father and he's arrogant, I think there's possibly some truth in that that we're possibly going to see more of. I don't know. I don't know, but possibly. And there you go - be very diplomatic. [laughs]

Emma: Yeah, well, you have to consider, and you have to remember that this is a boy who has never met his parents, who is living with the Dursleys, which I think is anyone's worst nightmare. He's been completely isolated from everything and everyone, he's probably quite lonely - no one in the world will ever understand what it's like to be him, or go through what he's gone through. He's just lost his Godfather, which was the only other family member he's had. He's world famous, everyone know who he is, and looks at him as he walks down the street. Considering all of that, you know, it's a job that he's actually sane, and that he is a really nice guy, and that he isn't more, kind of, screwed up, or self-centered, or - you know, not completely gone off the rails.

Dan: Yeah.

Emma: Or not completely - I mean, he's a survivor. He's a fighter. He's pretty strong.

Dan: J.K. Rowling did say - at one point, I remember her saying that if you - because a lot of people had a problem with the fifth book, because they said that it was, you know, they didn't like Harry's anger in it. They felt he was too angry, and somebody did say - and, J.K. Rowling did just say, if you haven't understood Harry's anger in the fifth book, then you haven't understood the four book previous to it, because if you did, then you would see that he has a right to be this angry.

Emma: Yeah.

Dan: Yeah.

Media: Daniel, I just saw December Boys, and it was a great performance, but there are some similar themes to Harry Potter - the loneliness and being an orphan. Tell us a little bit about that and about the film you're going to be doing in August.

Dan: Oh, right. Okay, ye. December Boys is a film I did in Australia in 2005. It's about four boys who grow up in a Catholic orphanage in the outback of Australia, and who are, due to a generous donation to the orphanage, are all sent on holiday for their birthday month, which is December - hence why they are the December Boys. And it's about - they all have their various rights of passage stories while they are away. And I think it's a really sweet, genuinely warm and heartfelt film, and hopefully other people will like it, too. As you said, there are similar themes in that, now, the tally is now up to three orphans.

[Everyone laughs]

Dan: Harry, David, and Maps. And, yeah. That - so there are similar things, there. But it is a very different film, and it's a very different character from Harry, because Maps is much more sort of restrained than Harry. Harry lets a lot out and Maps doesn't at all. And with - and later in the year I'll be doing My Boy Jack, which is about Rudyard Kipling and his son who was sent off - who wanted to go and was sent to war, despite having failed numerous army medical tests because of his eyesight was so bad. And so, very, very sad story - and yeah. I mean, you can get that that one doesn't end happily. And it's an absolutely beautiful, beautiful script written by David Haig, who is also playing Rudyard Kipling. So, it's very touching, yeah.

Ben: Ben Schoen from MuggleNet. What do you think is your favourite scene to film, and why?

Dan: I like the scene after the kiss with Cho Chang, because [laughs] we're all just in hysterics.

Emma: Yeah.

Dan: And I think a lot of that was genuine. I think that day we were just in quite a giggly mood. And if you watch it, you can watch me - and well, all of us, actually, trying to keep it together. It's like the scene in The Usual Suspects.

[Everyone laughs]

Dan: Well, not that scene, but there is a scene in The Usual Suspects, at the beginning, where they're doing the lineups, when all of the men are just - they're doing the scene, and they're just laughing hysterically, and they can't keep it together, at all. And the director was getting really angry about it because he can't keep them under control, and in the end, actually, it really works that they're all laughing, because they all know each other, and in that way it's a very sweet thing that they're all in hysterics with each other. But I also loved doing anything with Sirius. Yeah, and all that. What you talking about?

[Everyone laughs]

Emma: Yeah, that was my favourite one as well, just because I have such good memories about filming it. I mean, I genuinely was - I don't know if you remember, but...

Dan: ...oranges...

Emma: ...oranges? I honestly don't know why. Dan did something before the third or fourth take, and, literally, David - I remember, just filmed me just laughing. Dan and Rupert just stopped, and I was still going. I was on the floor, just laughing. And he just filmed all of it, and carried on right until I stopped. Which was ages. And so my laugh is really genuine. Which was really - I know. I just think it feels like it's a scene that kind of brings together our real friendship and...

Dan: Yeah.

Emma: ...our characters' friendship. It's just like [whispers reverently] it all comes together. It all comes together beautifully.

Dan: Part of life's rich tapestry.

Emma: Yes. Exactly. So that's one of the things. I'm really fond of that scene. I really like it.

Rupert: Ummm, I don't konw, really. There's loads of scenes that are really fun. I think - one of the funnest ones to sort of do and watch back was the Hall of Prophecies. Because that was like...

Dan: Oh, yeah!

Rupert: ...there was nothing there. There was no set at all; it was all a green screen.

Dan: The whole thing.

Rupert: Nothing. And then looking back watching it, it's really weird. But, um - no, that was pretty cool.

Dan: But I think it's fair to say we had a - we enjoyed most of the scenes.

Rupert: Yeah.

Dan: The only ones I don't particularly warm to are anything on a broomstick, really.

[Everyone laughs]

Dan: Erm, for obvious reasons. You know, I think - generally speaking, we have lots of fun all the time.

Media: Emma, you mentioned that it was difficult being world famous, and I wonder how the three of you deal with things?

Emma: It's really - I guess, well it's difficult for Harry, because of the fact that he's lived all of his life just this normal boy. And then suddenly he came into really - and then suddenly he just found out that he was a wizard and that he's famous, and in a way it feels kind of easier for me, because it almost feels like I've never known anything different. I was so young when I first started doing this that - and it kind of builds up quite gradually, as well. But I've kind of learned other strengths along the way, just from experience, and just sort of built up my confidence, in myself, and being able to deal with it. And I've also just been really well looked after, I have to say, Warner Bros. and in particular Vanessa Davies - just from the very, very beginning they've really just taken care of us. Not just as the kids from Harry Potter, but as individuals and people that she's really fond of. Stuff like we've had that kind of family idea, like we've - they really, genuinely care about us as people. And we're not just,I don't know, vehicles, or...

Dan: Yeah. Exactly.

Emma: I don't know. It's really - no, it's really helped. And, I guess, me and Dan and Rupert all really have very strong families around us, as well, who have taken care of us, and I think that's what keeps all three of us sane. There's that, and having a really strong base - a really strong identity outside of ourselves. All of us know that we're worth something, apart from what everyone thinks of us, like in what - we have stronger identities than what people write in the press, or what people think, or I don't know. You just have to be...

Rupert: Oh, absolutely.

Emma: ...sort of beyond it and above it.

Rupert: Yeah.

Emma: I think we - we're strong enough that we'll - I mean, we can laugh about it...

Dan: Yeah.

Emma: ...but some of it's frustrating, some of it's annoying. Some of it's freaky, some of it scares us. But, uhhh...

Dan: But you do have to laugh, at the end of the day. You...

Emma: You just laugh.

Dan: Because it is - you know, it's bizarre. But it's funny. It is funny. And, actually, you know, for - obviously there will always be certain things that some people will be able to do that we can't do, and that's fine, but we also have a load of opportunities that have been extended to us, and that's amazing. We're all so very fortunate. I mean, it is obviously a very strange experience, but I think what Emma said about not being thought of or treated as, you know, entities, and that will either sell a film or not sell a film, is - to actually have been treated like, you know, really just fantastically.

Emma: Mhm.

Dan: It's - you know, we're very, very lucky in that respect.

Emma: Mmm.

Dan: And...

Emma: And I think, to be fair, we've been treated pretty well by...

Dan: Yeah.

Emma: ...the press.

Dan: Yeah. No, actually - no, actually, we have been.

Emma: I mean...

Dan: Absolutely, yeah.

[Everyone laughs]

Emma: That's really...

Media: On that note we have more question.

Media: Do you read what's in the paper about you?

Media: Sorry, we have one question here, outside...

Dan: Don't jump the queue...

[Everyone laughs]

Media: And I assume you didn't know each other before this whole thing started, but what are one or two things that you've learned from each other?

Emma: That we've learned from each other?

Media: From. Learned from each other.

Dan: Oh. All right. I've learned that I probably want an ice cream van.

[Everyone laughs]

Dan: Ah, no. These guys have probably learned nothing but trivia from me, really. Because that's sort of what I'm full of, really. [laughs]

Emma: Ummm...

Rupert: I don't know, really. I mean...

Dan: To be honest, I don't think we've ever - because we're all the same, pretty much the same age, we've never really deigned to give each other advice. I don't know, it's - it will be very odd for me to, say, turn around to Rupert and say, "Rupert! Now, then..."

[Emma laughs]

Dan: Because it's just not...

Rupert: No.

Dan: Because we're all the same age, it's likeadvice is something you get from people that are older than you, really.

Emma: I don't think I've really learned anything. Because I think it's more like we're friends, you know.

Dan: Yeah.

Emma: Like, um - if I'm having boy troubles I'll occassionally go and track Dan or Rupert and say, "What's going in here?"

Dan: Don't...

Emma: "I do not understand!"

Dan: Don't ask what she means by "boy troubles."

[Everyone laughs]

Emma: Yeah. It's just sort of friendly banter, and friendly advice, and just sort of - just generally supporting each other, I guess.

[Dan laughs]

Emm Sorry, I can't, you know, give a very deep answer. [laughs]

Dan: [laughs] No.

Emma: It doesn't exist.

Dan: No. But what she's trying to say is...

Dan, Rupert and Emma: ...we've learned nothing from each other!

[Everyone laughs]

Media: Okay, thank you all very much. Thank you.

Dan: Thanks very much, indeed, everybody.

Emma: Thank you!

Thanks to Haley, Jessica, Christina, Shelly, Luke, Eloise, Karen, Matt, Leah, Laura B, Rebeca, and Briana!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

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