Voicemail - Tom Felton as Draco

[Audio]: Hey MuggleCast! This is Jackie from Chicago. After listening to your thoughts on how Hermione is portrayed in the movies versus the books, I was wondering if any other characters are the same way - such as Draco? In the books he seems a little more threatening and has a little more dignity, but in the movies he's more of just comic relief. How do you think this will affect how he is portrayed, especially in Movie 5? Thanks, and Happy Holidays! Bye!

Jamie: I think up until sort of Book 4, you know beginning of Book 5, that wouldn't have been a problem, but I can't see Tom Felton portraying Draco in The Half-Blood Prince. You know? I just, I don't know. I can't see him crying in the toilet and being so scared of Voldemort that he sort of turns white and stuff like that and attempting to kill Dumbledore. I don't know. I mean, in terms of looks I think he's a good Draco. And, you know, his hair is extremely Draco-esque.

Eric: I don't know. You basically said that he can't act.

Jamie: No, I didn't say that. No, because, I mean...

Kevin: Well...

Jamie: There are some actors that can't pull off certain things. Like let me think, let me think.

Kevin: Well the one thing that really annoyed me...

Eric: Well he hasn't...

Kevin: The one thing that really annoyed me was Prisoner of Azkaban with Hermione and the wand, where he almost started crying from her holding the wand to him.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: Yeah, that was...

Kevin: That was completely against his character.

Eric: Well, luckily that was Alfonso's take on things and not everybody else's.

Kevin: Yeah.

Eric: But at the same time, no. I think that kind of goes along with what I wanted to say, which was that the movies are how what the plot of the movies calls for. In other words, if they need Draco to be serious and picked on, they are going to show a lot more of that in the movie. But if they just need him for one or two scenes, the important parts of him being a jerk and insulting Buckbeak, then that’s all that’s really going to be in the movie so they have him to come off as more comical.

Jamie: But, Eric, he isn’t just a jerk though...

Eric: What I’m trying to say is...

Jamie: He isn’t just a jerk. You know, that’s just such a small word to call him in Book 6 when...

Kevin: Yeah, he was a more diverse character.

Jamie: When he kills Katie and...

Eric: Oh, I know. I’m saying just only the jerk part of him showed and that‘s really all the time they had to fit into the movie. I think they’re going to make more of an effort to fit more of it because they’re going to have to...

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: If they don’t, it’ll be disappointing.

Jamie: See...yeah.

Eric: It’s just a matter of showing the character a little bit more and where the people who write the script decide to do that with the movie.

Jamie: Can I just clear something up, then? I think he’s a good guy, seriously. I think what he does he’s a very good actor, but it takes somebody of a lot of, you know, you have to really put your heart into it and I don’t know if he has enough experience to do that yet. But, I’d rather, to be honest, seeing Draco in the films, I’d rather see him being quiet and moody throughout the first five at least first four.

Kevin: Yeah, me too.

Jamie: And also, then he’d just suddenly come out of his shell and be evil like he does in, I say evil but that’s a whole different story. But you know, acting evil. I don’t know. It’ll be very interesting to see.

Kevin: It seems like, so far it seems like they sort of missed the mark with Draco when it comes to his character in the movies. They tend to...

Jamie: Perhaps.

Andrew: Ehhh.

Eric: You know what?

Kevin: They get down his evil side pretty well, but I don’t think they fully develop him the way they should.

Jamie: He’s not evil, though. It looks to me like banter, boyish banter in the first three.

Eric: Yeah, I know.

Kevin: Yeah, yeah less evil.

Jamie: But they have to have a huge step up to killing, attempting and trying to kill people in Book 6.

Eric: And you know what, guys? They cut out the scene in Chamber of Secrets, it was Chris Columbus who cut out the deleted scene with Lucius and Draco in Borgin and Burkes, you know, the extended scene anyway. And in that you see a little bit more of how Draco acts with his father around him. You didn’t really see that in Goblet of Fire either.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: They’re just cutting it out and delaying it, and it’s interesting.

Kevin: I think they’re waiting for 6 to actually show him a lot. I mean, if you’ve noticed, he really doesn’t play that large of a role in any of the movies so far.

Eric: They’re keeping...they are keeping the story though.

Kevin: Yeah, his character, his appearance keeps being reduced and reduced as movies go on.

Eric: But they still...

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Because he’s not very significant, you know...

Eric: The two things that they emphasize...

Andrew: To the final plot of the movie, well yeah.

Eric: The two things they emphasize on are the connection that Draco is a jerk and that he has a father who’s very powerful. That’s in all the movies, sequentially.

Jamie: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: He’s a jerk in all the movies and ever since Chamber of Secrets, they mention his father. Like when Hagrid mentions about Buckbeak, and in Goblet of Fire with “We have a bet that you won’t last ten minutes or five" or whatever. So, we were reminded that. I think Movie 5, when they show Lucius giving money to Fudge, or something like that, I think they’re going to start building the Draco character.

Jamie: Yeah, they’re going to have to. Because also, if you compare Prisoner of Azkaban to Half-Blood Prince. In Prisoner of Azkaban, you’ve got Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. I think it was those three, pretending to scare Harry at the Quidditch match by dressing up as dementors and that’s just a child’s game, you know?

Kevin: Yep.

Jamie: How can he make a massive jump from doing that, to sending poisoned drinks and...

Eric: Well, he can’t. That’s the whole thing. He can’t, though. He has...

Jamie: He’s going to have to.

Eric: Yeah, but it’s all been talk and that‘s the problem with Draco. It has all been talk. He’s been raised but can he really go through with it? And he can’t.

Laura: I think part of the problem with this is starting the movies before the books are finished.

Andrew: Yeah.

Laura: Because there are always going to be little inconsistencies. We don’t know how far Jo went when she was telling Steve Kloves about the plot of the story. I mean, if I were her...

Ben: Well, she had to tell them...

Andrew: I don’t think she ever goes very far.

Laura: If I were her...

Ben: She had to tell him enough so he didn’t leave anything out in the movies.

Eric: Well, she tells the actors the important things. You got to keep in mind, she does tell the actors the important things. Like, if they absolutely need to know it, she usually tells them. Like Hagrid.

Laura: But you have to keep in mind that there’s certain things that if I were her, I would be afraid of leaking out - for instance: Draco being the one trying to kill Dumbledore in Half-blood Prince. Do you think she would actually tell them that was going to happen?

Eric: Not on the first day.

Ben: Right.

Eric: Not like, “You’re playing Draco. Well, one day you grow up and kill..."

Laura: Not necessarily, not Tom Felton. I’m talking Steve Kloves and the director.

Kevin: Yeah, but I think they take that pretty seriously.

Eric: Yeah.

Kevin: They would never say a word about that.

Ben: Steve Kloves and...

Laura: Yeah.

Ben: I’m pretty sure they’re on a contract too.

Laura: I’m sure, I’m sure. But there seems that there would always be a limit that you would want to take with how far you went telling people involved with the movie where the books were going.

Eric: Yeah.

Jamie: Does this show though, that since Draco does have to make the jump up to killing people and seeing him crying in the bathroom with Moaning Myrtle, does this show that he can’t do things like this? He can’t kill so he isn’t really evil. So, you know, going from childhood games to being made to kill somebody, he just can’t do it.

Eric: And you know what’s interesting, Moaning Myrtle feels for him.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: I mean she feels for him. She was defending him against Harry.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: She was defending him with Harry, and here’s a girl who was picked on her entire life...

Jamie: By people like him.

Eric: ...by people like Draco, precisely. And Draco, all he does is pick on Harry up until Book 6.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: So, for Moaning Myrtle to like him has got to be a testament to something, because she was picked on and he’s a bully.

Andrew: Do you think that if Book 6 had came out prior to even Goblet of Fire, or even say Prisoner of Azkaban being adapted into a movie, do you think there would be any difference in Draco? Draco’s role on screen?

Laura: I think there would be a huge difference if all the books were published prior to the movies even starting.

Jamie: Yeah, they’d have to.

Andrew: Yeah, in the first place, yeah.

Kevin: Yeah.

Laura: Honestly, I’ve never thought it was a good idea to start filming movies half way through a series. I always thought that was kind of not the most swift move you could make.

Andrew: Then with that said, could we be seeing remakes of all the movies down the road?

Kevin: No, oh jeez.

Jamie: No, no.

Andrew: That seems a little far-fetched but I mean...

Jamie: No, no way.

Kevin: Although, you say no, Jamie, and then you were telling me about Narnia, where Narnia has been done how many times?

Laura: Yeah.

Kevin: So...

Laura: Look at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka.

Jamie: Charlie and the...yeah but there...

Andrew: It’s not like the plot changed with that movie.

Jamie: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Andrew: And plus there’s seven of them.

Jamie: Exactly, the thing about...

Andrew: That was a good movie.

Laura: It was.

Andrew: I love those Oompa Loompas.

Jamie: The thing about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the first one’s a musical. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the first film was a musical where the second film was an actual film. So it really isn’t a remake.

Andrew: Well, the second one has music too. It’s got a lot of songs in it.

Eric: Well, the second one focused a lot more on Willy as a character, as an abused child, you know?

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: And...

Jamie: It is completely different.

Andrew: Yeah.

Eric: The thing that I find interesting is that Roald Dahl was incredibly disappointed with Gene Wilder’s movie, the Willy Wonka version.

Laura: I didn’t like it. [laughs]

Eric: I thought it was weird how he flipped out at the end and they never explained why he flipped out on Charlie. But apparently, Gene Wilder...

Andrew: Yeah, we could go on about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory because we all love that movie.

Laura: But this is Harry Potter. [laughs]

Andrew: Let’s start a Wonka Podcast.

[Laughing]

Ben: Go to WonkaCast if you want to talk about Wonka.

Jamie: WonkaCast.

Andrew: Seriously though. Everything about those books and movies rocked, but moving on.

Eric: Ok but...

Jamie: Moving on.

Kevin: The thing is, they can’t be remade.

Andrew: I dunno, I can see the movies...

Laura: I don’t know.

Andrew: If Book 7 gives...

Jamie: Why?

Andrew: What? Okay, maybe not all 7.

Jamie: The alienation risk...

Laura: But then again, think about the money potential.

Jamie: You could alienate so many people.

Laura: But think about the money potential.

Andrew: Yeah.

Jamie: But there are so many problems with it as well. If you make the first three, you can’t go back and say, “This has been a failure." You can’t make three and be like we aren’t going to make the further four.

Andrew: Yeah.

Kevin: You'd have to finish them all then, yeah.

Jamie: And you'd risk alienating so many people.

Kevin: Yeah, you'd have to finish them all then.

Jamie: You have to pick three new characters, you’d have to pick new characters for everyone. And things couldn’t be exactly the same, you’d have to change them.

Ben: What about making it a mini-series?

Jamie: No way, uh. That’s sickening.

Andrew: If you make it a mini-series, then you’d have to get all these rights and...

Jamie: That’s a sickening thought.

Eric: That goes with...

Andrew: I don’t know, I could see...Go.

Laura: But what might happen is more of a compilation type movie of all the different plots.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s what I was just going to say. What if they try and combine but then I thought...

Laura: I mean...

Andrew: That’s a really long movie.

Laura: As a movie it might be good because there would be certain things cut but as being faithful to the book, it’d be...

Jamie: It would be a twenty-hour long movie.

Laura: No, no, no. I’m saying they take main plot points from each of the books and...

Jamie: Oh, ok cool.

Laura: Put them together in one movie, and where they might make a really great action film, it wouldn’t be faithful to the books at all, and you’d have Harry Potter fans all over the world screaming.

Kevin: But do you think, seventy, eighty years down the road, it’s possible they would remake the movies?

Jamie: I don’t think so.

Laura: I think it’s possible.

Andrew: It’s completely possible.

Kevin: When all of us are old and close to death.

Laura: I think seventy to eighty years down the road we’re going to be dead.

Eric: [In an old man voice] Welcome to MuggleCast. Episode...ughhh. [Laura laughing]

Andrew: [Also in an old man voice] Welcome to MuggleCast. Let me get my dentures and we will begin.

[All laugh and Eric making noises as if he had no teeth]

Andrew: [Still in old man voice] This is the show where we bring you the latest in Harry Potter dentures and wheelchairs and...

Eric: [Old man voice] Viagra treatment.

Jamie: Uhhh.

Laura: This is MuggleCast for December 1st, 2057.

Kevin: Yeah. [laughs]

Eric: Andrew, can you see yourself editing the show every week from now until you‘re seventy?

[All laugh]

Ben: That would be funny.

Eric: I can see Andrew doing that.

Andrew: That’s a painful thought.

Voicemail - Missing Links

[Audio]: Hey guys, my name is Courtney. I’m twenty and from Omaha, Nebraska. I was wondering what all you guys thought about the things JK mentioned in Book 5 but didn’t mention in Book 6. Like the mirror Sirius gave Harry and the veil in the Department of Mysteries. Do you think that she didn’t mention them in Book 6 for a reason to keep us hanging? What’s the deal with that? Thank you.

Eric: Yes.

Laura: Yes. [laughs]

Eric: She totally didn’t mention the Department of Mysteries at all which I thought was incredibly uncharacteristic of Harry. I mean, he goes around school depressed about Tonks, who he thinks is depressed about Sirius, but he doesn’t at all mention how unfair it was that he went through the veil and he doesn’t look at the mirror again. We don’t see him catching a glimpse at the mirror to see if it still works or Reparo-ing it. It just doesn’t happen and I really think we’ll be back at the Department of Mysteries for Book 7.

Jamie: Yeah.

Kevin: Oh, I don’t have a doubt.

Jamie: Definitely.

Laura: Yea.

Kevin: Especially that door. That one door.

Eric: Yeah, that door, the love door.

Kevin: It has to...

[All laugh]

Laura: The love door. [laughs]

Kevin: It has to open.

Eric: You know that was brought up in Book 6. That was the only part of the Department of Mysteries that was brought up in Book 6. When Dumbledore tells Harry that it’s love behind the door. [sings] The love door is really cool place where...

[Jamie laughs]

Jamie: The veil though, the veil is such an interesting thing...

Eric: Oh it is.

Jamie: There has to be something beyond it.

Kevin: Yeah, but do you ever think she’ll explain it?

Jamie: Yeah, she’s...

Laura: She has to.

Jamie: She can’t leave like that hanging.

Kevin: I think she might in one of those, you know charity books, but I don’t think it’s going to go in the...

Eric: But she killed off a main character with that thing.

Laura: I think it’s...

Eric: She killed off Sirius with that.

Laura: It’s got to. We have to find out if that’s where people go, if that’s ...

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: What happens to them, I mean.

Jamie: This is reaching very, very dangerous territory to come to a discussion about "Is Sirius dead?"

Kevin: Yeah, that’s...

Jamie: We should stop before we start killing each other.

Laura: Not to mention what Luna said at the end of the Order of the Phoenix. You know...

Jamie: Yeah.

Laura: "Didn’t you hear them?" And all that other stuff. You can’t just leave that hanging.

Jamie: Yeah.

Eric: You know what, guys? Didn’t JK Rowling say that she was really going to elaborate on the ghosts and what it takes to become a ghost and all that stuff?

Jamie: Yeah, she did.

Laura: Yes.

Eric: And she hasn’t yet. So, if death is going to be explored you’d think they’d touch the veil a little bit.

Andrew: Next v-mail.

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