Top 15 Personal Favorite Behind-the-Scenes Trivia for All Eight Harry Potter Movies

by · June 12, 2015

On today, June 12, way back in 2010, filming for Deathly Hallows – Part 2 wrapped up. While the movie wouldn’t be released in theaters more than a month and a year later in the UK and US, this signaled the end of an era. The actors who embodied this seminal series would no longer work on any more Harry Potter movies. They would officially step out of their fictional roles and wholly assume their lives as people who had taken their last look at the world of Hogwarts, the world as created by filmmakers, special effects crew, and above all, J.K. Rowling’s immortal words.

In order to celebrate this special day, let’s wander over to the “Top 15” list of my personal favorite Harry Potter “things you didn’t know about the movie series” trivia because nothing gives me more joy than discovering what happened behind the scenes. This list is in no real order and has been gathered and sorted from the many, many, many articles of the same nature, and credit has been given where it was due.

 

  1. Over 40 kittens were brought in for a “kitten photo shoot” to be featured on the dishes in Professor Umbridge’s office in Order of the Phoenix; after filming, they were all adopted. (Source)
  2. In Harry’s Gryffindor dorm room, props changed from movie to movie. Producers lined bedside tables and walls with things the characters would be interested in, like sports posters and pennants. But the beds were never upgraded. By the time the final movies were filmed, Daniel Radcliffe and the other boys had to curl up in balls to keep from hanging over the edge of the bed during shoots. (Source)
  3. The set for Diagon Alley was built with Charles Dickens’s books in mind, as well as descriptions from the HP series, from JKR herself. (Source)
  4. As Dolores Umbridge gained more power (and became more evil), her wardrobe got progressively more pink. (In the fifth movie, Tonks’s hair was kept purple instead of pink because the filmmakers felt that the color pink was associated with Umbridge.) (Source)
  5. It was Jason Isaacs’s idea to have Lucius Malfoy sport long blond hair, as well as carry a walking stick inside of which he would conceal his wand. The books make no mention of either of these things. Isaacs grew attached to the walking stick and at one point tried to walk off with it, though he was caught. (In order to keep the hair from falling down in front of his face, Isaacs had to keep his head tilted back, which further added to the snobbishness of the character since it made him appear as if he were “looking down his nose at everything.” (Source: IMDb)

 

 

  1. James Phelps, the actor who played Fred Weasley, found out that his character had died while on a train. “I remember I was in the bullet train and the part of what happens to Fred, and literally at that second the ticket guy came around asking for my ticket, and I’m like, ‘I just died, mate; leave me alone!’” (Source)
  2. It took the owls six months to learn how to carry the letters (which had to be remade because the original, painstakingly handwritten prop letters were way too heavy for them). (Source)
  3. During the filming of Order of the Phoenix, Alan Rickman refused to let Rupert Grint and Matthew Lewis anywhere near his new car since during the filming of one of the previous movies, Rupert had spilled a milkshake in his old one. (Source)
  4. The hundreds of glass bottles that lined the walls of the Potions classroom were filled by producers with any strange thing they could find, from tufts of hair to unwanted bones from local butchers. (Source)
  5. Molly Weasley’s line “Not my daughter, you bitch,” is Julie Walters’s favorite line of her career. (Source: IMDb)

 

 

  1. Rupert Grint had to be removed from the set during Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson’s kissing scene in Deathly Hallows – Part 2 because he couldn’t stop laughing. (Source)
  2. While a Platform 9 ¾ sign – and the luggage trolley that looks like it’s forwardly “disappearing” into the wall, by West Anglia Great Northern Trains, the company that owns the platforms – was erected at King’s Cross because so many fans kept visiting the walkway area between platforms 9 and 10, it was filmed on platforms 4 and 5. JKR has admitted that she mixed up the layout of London’s King’s Cross railway station. She meant the location to be in the inter-city part of the station, but 9 and 10 are actually among the rather less grand suburban platforms. (Source: IMDb)
  3. Throughout the course of all eight films, Daniel Radcliffe went through roughly 160 pairs of glasses. His lightning bolt scar has been applied by makeup teams approximately 5,800 times. Additionally, he had at least 40 versions of his wand made because he kept drumming with the props and breaking them (at the time of filming OotP, Radcliffe and Devon Murray, who played Seamus, had the record of most prop wands broken on set). (Source 1) (Source 2)
  4. The visual effects team tried very hard to make the Inferi NOT look like zombies. “A lot of it came down to their movement – they don’t move fast, but they don’t move really slow or groan and moan. We ended going with a very realistic style.” Additionally, Inferi are skinnier than zombies and are waterlogged and gray. (Source: IMDb)
  5. Mike Newell wanted the Dark Mark to “bubble up” out of the skin of the Death Eaters. The make-up department achieved the effect by applying variations of a silicone skull and snake to each actor’s arm, gradually making the look appear more “raised and angry-looking.” (Source: IMDb)