By unknown – Flicks and Bits
The final adventure in the Harry Potter film series begins as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) continue their quest of finding and destroying the Dark Lord’s three remaining Horcruxes, the magical items responsible for his immortality. But as the mystical Deathly Hallows are uncovered, and Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) finds out about their mission, the biggest battle begins and life as they know it will never be the same again.
In the Harry Potter film series Helena Bonham Carter has played Bellatrix Lestrange, a paranoid, mentally unstable and fanatically loyal member of Lord Voldemort’s inner circle. Alan Rickman has portrayed Severus Snape, one of the more layered and complex characters in the series, his true loyalties are not revealed until the finale ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.’ Check out what they both had to say about the film below. ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2’ hits cinemas in 3D, 2D and IMAX 3D July 15th.
How was it for you playing Severus Snape over this series, how did the books assist you?
Alan Rickman: J.K. Rowling lays out such a sure road map, there is what is right and what is wrong. You know what he wears sort of, you know what his hair is like, you’re told that he never really raises his voice, he doesn’t shout that much. There are rules to play, once you live inside those rules and you’re as focused as he is, in many ways it plays itself because the situations are so strong. Her grasp of her narrative is so iron clad that it’s not so much what you choose to do, as not disobeying it I think.
Bellatrix Lestrange is such manic character, how was that to play?
Helena Bonham Carter: She’s been really good therapy to do, I get to scream a lot, she’s very physical, very expressed, she’s a big character to play. She’s totally unsubtle, I’ll never get that full body workout screaming therapy thing on any other part again – on film at least, maybe on stage. She takes energy though, she’s quite exhausting, she’s always full on, you can’t really do her half masked, you definitely can’t phone her in.
As the series went on did you have any idea how Snape would develop as a character?
Alan Rickman: I was in the same situation as everybody else, I’d read the books as they came out, I’d think “alright, ok, this is what happens now.” But you always knew there was going to be an agenda, it was a question of what that agenda was going to turn out to be, that meant it’s somebody who’s very concentrated. You know that he lives a solitary kind of existence, your not quite sure of what the details of that are. He doesn’t have much of a social life, and he’s only got one set of clothes clearly (laughs), which last quite well through the series.
You’ve been apart of this huge record breaking series, what has that been like? Also seeing so many of the young actors grow up during the series.
Alan Rickman: It’s been a complete privilege to be apart of this, that’s what we all are, apart of this enormous, brave undertaking of all the directors and Warner Bros to actually dare to do it.
You know that your eye line has shifted, year by year, because I started looking at them like this (looks down), then I’m gradually shrinking or they’re growing (laughs), but you’re not really aware of it until you look back at the whole span of time because what difference is there between 13 and 14, or 15 and 16, you don’t really notice that. You know that they’ve got a little bit taller since a year ago, their voices change a bit, but it isn’t really until you get the shock horror of seeing a clip from the first film that you realise how vulnerable and small these people were, now I’m looking at a situation where, certainly with Emma off at University and Dan dancing his way through a Broadway show 8 times a week, it’s like the world has shifted.
Did you take anything from the set as a souvenir?
Helena Bonham Carter: I only took my teeth, don’t tell the powers that be (laughs). They won’t fit anybody else’s mouth. I’ve loved my costume, I loved all my props, I loved everyone on these films, there were such a collaboration. It’s very rare, our profession is so ephemeral, the most you usually work for is 13 or 14 weeks, to get the stability and predictability, which I love, of this production will never come again. It was so unstressed, brilliantly run, the communication level, you always knew what was going to happen, you had time, which is such a luxury in filmmaking, it’s usually such a kick bollock and scramble (laughs), you’ve got time to get it right. I’ll miss it on so many levels, I’ll miss being a witch as well!
How was it for you working alongside people you looked up to in Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon?
Alan Rickman: As a drama student and a schoolboy I was sitting up in the cheap seats watching Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon at the National Theatre, so to then find yourself working with them, them becoming friends…and of course Michael has the wickedest sense of humour and Maggie is one of the wittiest people alive, I only regret I didn’t have a tape recorder or a notebook or could do short hand, you can’t compete with those too, that was so fun.
