Interview with Matthew Vines

Ben: What about when Dumbledore announces Harry Potter, you know, when like...

Matt: [Gasps] Oh yeah!

Ben: When Harry Potter... When Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire. Like we see their reaction to some extent, but do you go like more in-depth, like further after it happens, like does Snape go off and all that?

Matt: Yeah. That’s another thing that I didn’t like about Dumbledore’s character. They made him untrusting. Like in the book, he knows Harry didn’t put his name in and he doesn’t even question that, you know? Because he can read his mind, he just looks into it and he knows Harry is just as bewildered as him. But in the movie, you know, you see him in the trailer and he’s like screaming [high-pitched] "Harry Potter, Harry Potter." And then you get to the scene, you know, after that where Harry walks into the room where the champions are. And then, Dumbledore like comes in, runs at him, like lunges at him and grasps his shoulders and is like screaming in his face, "Did you put your name into the Goblet of Fire?" Yeah, that was a little strange. But, they... Oh, they did add this. Okay must say, the adult actors in this are incredible. Like the ones we’ve already seen, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, Richard Harris...they’re all, those...they get more screen time this time, the adult actors and the new ones are...

Andrew: Richard Harris?

Ben: You mean Michael Gambon.

Matt: Did I say Richard Harris?

Ben: Yes.

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: Yeah, Richard Harris gets a lot of screen time.

Andrew: You said Michael Gambon then Richard Harris.

Ben: See you don’t deserve...oh my gosh! You don’t deserve to be seeing the movie.

[Andrew laughs]

Matt: Well, no they do have this nice, this nice time where they go to the... No, that would be mean. Okay, not going there.

[Andrew laughs]

Matt: Uhm, let’s see, let’s see, where was I? Oh yeah, adult actors rock. Anyway, yeah they have this lovely... The movie has really great foreshadowing, like not even, not just foreshadowing things that comes at the end of the movie, but things that come in like Books 5 and 6, which I don’t know how they did the Book 6 stuff because they filmed this all before Book 6 came out. Maybe he’s just a good...with theories.

Ben: Like what foreshadows something that happens?

Matt: Oh, the one thing I loved was there’s this scene where Dumbledore...it's just Dumbledore, Mad-Eye Moody, McGonagall and Snape in Dumbledore’s office. This is soon after Harry gets selected for the Tournament. And Dumbledore is standing by his Pensieve and looks pretty weak actually like he’s not a powerful figure there, which I don’t like. But, and you know, he’s trying to decide what to do, trying to figure out what’s going on and so he asks Mad-Eye Moody to keep an eye on him. And Mad-Eye was like, "That I can do." And you know, he kind of has this weird glint in his eyes. But then, and then Maggie Smith, McGonagall, she tells, you know, she tells Dumbledore that she really doesn’t think Harry should be able to play. It's really dangerous and obviously he didn’t put his name in and someone’s trying to mess with him. And then she, you know, she was just like, "Screw Barty Crouch and his rules," and then, but then Snape was like, "You know, I think we should let him play." And it was, you know, just this you know, conflict between McGonagall and Snape and then Dumbledore goes "I agree!" And then, right after McGonagall had said something, so like she’s happy but then he goes "I agree...Severus." You know and that’s the whole Dumbledore trusting Snape thing, maybe too much, we’ll see in Book 7, but, so that was nice. You know they did a little too much Moody foreshadowing. Like it was so obvious. Because you know the scene where you see someone walking outside of Hogwarts? Well, that’s Moody.

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: And then he comes in...

Ben: Is it obvious it’s him?

Andrew: I think it’s obvious.

Matt: Yeah. Fairly. I mean who else would...

Andrew: In the trailer? Yeah.

Matt: And then he comes into the Great Hall, like during the Halloween Feast. Not Halloween, during the, you know, Opening Night Feast.

Ben: Opening Feast, yeah.

Matt: And then right when he comes in, like the ceiling crashes and it turns from its nice starry night thing and it starts pouring and thunderstorms. I mean it's, come on, that’s a little much, that’s a little much. And then, you know, Moody goes over to Dumbledore and is like, "Stupid ceiling." But uhm...

[Ben laughs]

Matt: Yes, and then he’s always drinking out of his flask and Harry was always like to Ron "I wonder what he’s drinking." And then like Moaning Myrtle goes to Harry, "Someone’s been having Polyjuice Potion." And then Snape goes to Harry, "Someone’s been stealing my Polyjuice Potion." You know, it’s a little, just a little overdone there. But Snape, Snape has some nice scenes. The one where he just shoves the Veritaserum in Harry’s face and it’s like, "This! Is Veritaserum!" And I was like "Wooo!"

Andrew: Dot com.

Matt: Yeah!

Ben: Dot com!

Andrew: Product placement. So, what about Sirius’ appearance. Was it disappointing?

Matt: Oh, well.

Andrew: It sure looks disappointing.

Matt: Well, you know he actually has more than you think he does because he’s got a nice voiceover too when he sends a letter to Harry. He says: "Hey Harry, your mom wanted me to let you know that she wants you to come home for Christmas this year. Just kidding, she’s dead, ha ha, love Sirius."

[All laugh]

Andrew: Seriously?

Matt: No, I made that up! But he does have a voice-over, when he sends a letter to Harry which is nice. And like...

Andrew: And the voice-over says that?

Matt: No, I made that up!

Andrew: Am I missing out?

Matt: I don’t even remember what the voice-over says, because I was taking a lot of notes during this, especially the second time around. So, I don’t remember what he said, it wasn’t that important. It was just like, "Ah! Be careful, be careful!" Ah, let’s see. Yeah, but then, and then you got him in the fireplace which worked out better than I thought it did. They cut out his really cheesy line which is one of the TV spots, where he goes, "But you can’t, you’re the Boy Who Lived." They cut that out and I was like, "Thank goodness!"

Andrew: Oh. That’s good.

[Ben laughs]

Matt: It wasn’t quite as cheesy as it seems to be in all the spots and stuff. So, that was good.

Andrew: I don’t know, I was just disappointed by how he looked in the fire.

Matt: Oh. Well...

Andrew: He looks like molten lava.

Matt: Yeah.

Ben: Yeah.

Matt: Well, I don’t know, it was an interesting approach. It was different than what I thought it was and you know if they had me make the movie I would, it would just be like someone stuck their head through a piece of cardboard or something and it would look dumb. Of course this is why they don’t have me make the movies.

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: And also because I don’t know how to make the movies, but that’s a completely different topic. Oh, by the way, who is it who plays Barty Crouch Senior, Roger Lloyd-Pack? You know, he really sucks.

Ben: Whoa, whoa, why?

Andrew: I hear... Oh, you told me that the other day.

Matt: Yeah, no offense to him or anything. Okay, well he can take offense if he wants to, but it’s just like...you know, I was happy when they found his body in the woods. You’re not supposed to be happy at that.

[All laugh]

Ben: Like was it that he sucked at acting? Or was it that he was like you’re mad that he...

Matt: He mentioned in interviews, he’ll be like, "Yeah, this is one of my first movies. I hope it gives me more opportunities in the future." He just sounds a little desperate. But, like I expected Barty Crouch Senior to have like a deep booming voice, you know to be very authoritative.

Ben: Mhm.

Matt: But, he wasn’t, like... He sounded like he just swallowed a vat of helium or something. The entire movie.

Ben: Really?

Matt: And it was just like, "Okay, don’t like this guy." And his acting was a little...

[Ben laughs]

Matt: But, there was one part, there was one scene that I liked his acting in, just one. And that was when he kind of looks at Moody and he just looks at him really strangely, like, you know like...because he sees his son in him. It’s this part where, because they added in this quirk that Barty Crouch Jr. has this quirk where he keeps sticking out his tongue. Not like, na-na-na-na-nah, but like, he just kind of sticks it out to the left side of his mouth a little bit, occasionally. And there’s this part where Moody does that too when he’s talking to Barty Crouch Sr. and that’s when Barty Crouch Sr. just gets like really creeped out. And then Moody can tell that he detected something. That’s the scene right before you find his dead body. And you know, it was kind of scary to see his dead body, but I was happy. He was the only actor I didn’t care for though. And, that’s saying a lot.

Ben: Interesting. What about, what about Katie Leung? What do you think?

Matt: She just had a couple of lines too. But, and she has a really thick Scottish accent, as you’ve heard. Yeah. Like that one clip that was released where she’s like, "Watch yourself. It’s a bit icy on the stairs." Which is strange. "It’s a bit icy at the top" because he’s already at the top. But yeah, that’s her only scene in the movie. She gets some other looking at him all provocatively, but that’s her only real scene where she has lines in the movie. Well, there is this one part where, you know when Cedric dies and she’s all devastated, but don’t think anyone feels of her after reading Order of the Phoenix.

[Matt coughs]

Andrew: Yeah.

[Andrew and Ben laugh]

Ben: Oh jeez. Okay, so.

Matt: She was good though.

Ben: Like if you were to compare this movie to the other three, where would you rank it?

Matt: Ah, well definitely a whole lot better than the first two and I liked it better than the third one too. Which is saying a lot.

Ben: Interesting.

Matt: Because I always go on and on about how much I love the third one. But...

Andrew: Is it very artsy like Prisoner of Azkaban?

Matt: I was just going to mention that. What I liked a lot about that third movie was that Alfonso Cuaron really like, he changed everything around, about the Hogwarts grounds, but it looked a lot better. You know? It just looked much more artistic and gorgeous.

Ben: Realistic. Yeah.

Matt: And Mike Newell kept that, but he added on to it. Like, because Mike Newell you know, let’s be honest, he doesn’t get that much new scenery to work with, you know? Because Hogwarts is all laid out. But he does get the Owlery. That’s new. And so he made that his own. He made it like a lighthouse type thing. It’s disconnected from all of Hogwarts. But it looks really cool and it looks, you know, it’s like another tower, but it’s not connected to anything. I like the way they did that though. It looked neat.

[Sirens in the background]

Andrew: Is WB coming to get you?

Matt: Oh, can you hear them? Well I’m out on my trampoline right now. So...

Andrew: We heard!

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: That is so Matthew Vines of you.

Ben: Yeah.

Matt: I’m not bouncing though.

Andrew: This is Matthew Vines podcast!

Ben: That would be weird.

Andrew: Yeah!

Ben: Podcasting live from my trampoline in Wichita, Kansas.

Andrew: That is a new standard. We’re always setting new standards.

Matt: Yeah. Uhm...let’s see.

Ben: So now, I think we’ve covered the movie, like if we have any questions a little bit later we can go back to it. But! Andrew participated in the junket. Matt was at the junket. I was the only one not worthy enough to be there. Well I had a debate tournament so I couldn’t so, poo on me.

Andrew: Worthy, that’s for sure!

Ben: But... Hey! You be quiet.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: But, what did you think like...Andrew, he heard their voices, but he wasn’t able to see the reaction of the questions and stuff.

Matt: Oh yeah.

Ben: And, like what do you think about the actual like, the actors...like Emma Watson, Clémence Poésy.

Matt: Ahh, let’s see. I don’t want to be too honest about some of them.

Andrew: [Laughs] No, you do want to be honest.

Matt: Okay, let’s see.

Andrew: This is podcasting, there’s no rules.

Matt: Let’s see. Mike Newell, I really liked him. He had a lot of these big hearty laughs and they made me laugh because it’s like no one else was laughing at them. It was all these inside jokes and he thought they were the funniest thing ever. Which, I found that funny. Like when he was talking about the script pages, they came like six days ago, he just cracked up and no one else was laughing, which made it a lot funnier. No, but he was, he was really nice. He was genial and welcoming and he was, he was nice. David Heyman, open as always, willing to talk about whatever, which I like. He always has [noise like airplane/alien spacecraft landing in background] you know, even if the question sucks, he makes a good answer.

Andrew: What is going on over there? It sounds like World War II, there’s like planes flying and sirens going off.

Matt: Yeah.

Andrew: Matthew Vines is sitting on his trampoline. Sorry, go ahead.

Ben: Go on, tell us.

Matt: See that was press conference No. 1, then we go to press conference No. 2. Stan, he was Krum-ish.

Ben: Was he Krumy?

[Andrew laughs]

Matt: No. Well, I guess you could say crummy, but you know, I just sort of got a feeling that he was like his character. Which is, you know that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But you know, he wasn’t quite as charismatic as some of the other people. He was just kind of more...I don’t know what word to use. I mean he seems nice, but he seemed like someone that you would have to get to know better before you could have like long conversations with them. Do you get what I’m saying?

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: Then we go to Clémence Poésy. She speaks English really well, I was surprised because all of her lines in the movie are in French. She only has a couple though.

Andrew: Really? Really?

Matt: She only has like two lines in the movie. And I think one of them is her [Screams in high-pitched voice] "Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!" when she just...

Andrew: Ow! Okay, my ears just started to bleed, thanks for that.

Matt: Yeah, that was when she finds out what happened to Cedric. I would have done it louder but it’s...you know, some people might be sleeping.

[Andrew laughs]

Matt: She was really nice, I liked her a lot. I liked her a lot and she was nice when I talked to her afterwards. And then Katie...Katie...I don’t know how to pronounce her last name. The WB guy there who was introducing them all…oh completely butchered all of their names, so I can’t…it was just like, "...and Clemence Posy." That’s not French. "Katie Lung." I don’t think it's "Lung." I mean, yeah, "I’m Matthew Heart." Uhm, anyway. She was pretty nice. She wasn’t quite as talkative as Robert, who is whoa, talkative! But, you know she was nice.

Ben: Interesting. Okay well...

Andrew: And then the third group?

Matt: I think I said this in my report actually, because I talked about them for a bit. But Rupert. I don’t know, I don’t know where his mind was throughout the entire thing. He only answered a few questions.

[Ben laughs]

Andrew: He forgot what one of the questions was.

Matt: We got off topic there.

Andrew: Yeah, that was really...I don’t know.

Matt: He answered the question, but just... Well no, he answered a question that was asked like two questions earlier.

Andrew: Yeah.

Matt: And it was funny because when he did that, Emma leaned over to Dan and was just like, "He’s answering the wrong question!"

Ben: So, okay. So, I think that’s probably, that will probably suffice for our special episode here.

Andrew: That was good we learned a lot.

Ben: Well... Yeah, we did. If you guys, all you listeners want to trek over to Matt’s site that’s Veritaserum.com (v, e, i, r, t, a, s, r, i, m, t, dot com).

Andrew: What?

Ben: Just kidding.

Andrew: You’re killing it!

Ben: V, e, r, i, t, a, s... Ohhh, whoops. Matt, you spell it.

Matt: Okay, it's v, e, r, i, t, a, s, e, r, u, m. It takes a bit to learn how to spell.

Ben: Dot com.

Matt: But you know, my goal was that people would finally spell that word right.

Ben: I was just messing with him. I knew how to spell it.

Andrew: In the early days I used to have a problem spelling it too. And then I finally learned it.

Matt: I did too. I almost mistyped it when I was buying the domain name a couple of years ago. [Laughs]

Ben: So, yeah. Matt has his own Harry Potter site. It’s a pretty big site, and yeah, go trek on over there, take a look, take a look-see at it. So with all that, I think this has been quite fun. Thanks to Matt for joining us here today and telling us what’s up with this movie. All you can go see it, November 18th. Just to remind you, we will be doing a podcast live from New York City following the premiere. Matt, aren’t you going to be in New York City?

Andrew: Oh yeah, are you going to be at the podcast?

Matt: Oh, yeah.

Andrew: Or do you have better things to do?

Matt: Do you want me to?

Ben: Come to the podcast.

Andrew: Well your bud Aris is going to be here.

Ben: Yeah, Aris is going to be there, so come to the podcast.

Andrew: He’s going to be reporting for VTM On-Air.

Matt: Oh that’s cool. I didn’t know that!

Ben: So yeah, looks like Matt’s going to be there now. I’m going to make sure you are.

[Andrew laughs]

Ben: Looks like that wraps up this MuggleMiniCast. Stay tuned for two more shows as well as Episode 14, all coming within the next 10 days. Goodnight everybody!

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Written by: Micah and Jess