Emma Watson Branded with the Dark Mark: WB Posts “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Behind-the-Scenes DVD Feature to YouTube
Throughout the last month, Warner Bros. has been keeping the magic alive on its YouTube channel using the hashtag #WizardingWednesdays. Every Wednesday since April 7, Warner Bros. has been posting special behind-the-scenes videos originally featured on the DVDs for the Harry Potter films. After posting the first four parts of the Creating the World of Harry Potter documentary, WB has decided to take a brief intermission from the documentary by uploading a video called “Close-up with the Cast of Harry Potter,” which was a special behind-the-scenes featurette that was originally attached to special-edition DVDs of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The clip begins with a conversation between Daniel Radcliffe and editor Mark Day, who worked on the last four Harry Potter movies as well as the Fantastic Beasts franchise, discussing Day’s approach to cutting various scenes, including action sequences and dialogue. However, prior to their technical discussion, Daniel requests to see a blooper in which Emma Watson overzealously slaps Daniel’s head with a piece of parchment a little harder than she intends. Daniel quips that he doesn’t remember the moment since he was “concussed.”
Moving forward, we soon discover that the feature is being hosted by Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) and Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas) as they provide humorous commentary throughout. The next segment focuses on Rupert Grint as he prepares for some stunts as the new Keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He seems to be having quite a bit of fun bouncing on a trampoline catching a Quaffle, all while Lewis and Enoch provide color commentary.
The last segment featured in the clip involves Emma heading to see Amanda Knight, who was the makeup artist on all eight Harry Potter films. In the clip, we learn that the Dark Marks we see in the films are actually temporary tattoos that are transferred onto the actors’ arms using damp sponges. Then, Knight does the unthinkable and brands Emma with the Dark Mark. It was a sight that nobody ever expected to see. Lastly, in the most wholesome moment of the clip, Emma shows us the beautiful gift that Knight made for Emma’s 18th birthday. It almost made up for egregiously tainting Emma’s skin with such an evil mark.
The clip is cut short from its original length featured on the DVD. Instead, the video uploaded to YouTube only features the segments involving the actors who played the golden trio. The behind-the-scenes featurette originally had many more segments, which were hosted by James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley). If you’d like to see the entire behind-the-scenes featurette, you can find it on the Half-Blood Prince DVD.
It seems the last big update to the Potter films’ home media releases was back in 2017 when the movies were rereleased on 4K Ultra HD. Unfortunately, we discovered then that there were no new features added. At that point, the Potter films had ended about six years prior, so it seemed that WB was no longer producing any new material for Potter. Now with older extra features being uploaded to YouTube for #WizardingWednesdays, we can safely assume that there was definitely no new material produced at the time of the 4K rerelease.
Have you seen this behind-the-scenes featurette before? What was your favorite part of it? Which actor do you think sported the Dark Mark best? Let us know in the comments.
