|
|
 |
|
|
Meet another girl/teen in our club who likes the same movie favorites as you do. To write her, click on the link to join the penpal club! Hangin' With Archives
|
Robbie Coltrane:Hagrid in New Yorkby Lynn B.
Check out what the kindly actor had to say to us about the new “Prisoner of Azkaban” film, scenes that were shot but cut and just how his younger co-stars have grown and morphed into teenagers right in front of the wizard’s eyes! AGW: You have so many wonderful pets and magical animals as Hagrid. Do you have any “regular” pets at home? Robbie: I got some fish at home, coldwater fish. And I’ve got two dogs. A very, very clever..humm, he’s 80 percent Border Collie and 20 percent some French hunting dog with a narrow back, a Lurcher, they call it. It’s an incredibly fast, clever dog. I also have a cocker spaniel. They’re cute but they’re dumb as heck. You can’t teach them to do anything. There’s one guinea pig. AGW: What was it like working with a computer-generated Buckbeak creature? Robbie: Well, on a daily basis (while filming) he was a very big horse, the exact size of what the CGI beast was going to be. Also, they did make one but it didn’t look quite right, not a puppet but full size with about 480 hydraulic rams in it and all kinds of stuff. It was beautiful but it didn’t quite work. AGW: So the original idea was for it to be a mechanical thing on set? Robbie: Well, obviously it’s not going to fly and a lot of it is CGI. It’s a combination of all three (mechanical, a live horse and CGI). AGW: Was it as much fun for you to play Hagrid this time around? Robbie: I think it was more fun this time, actually, because the kids are all kind of relaxed now. I’m not saying that they weren’t relaxed before but I just think that they’ve kind of grown into their parts. They know what’s expected of them. They’re getting much more professional. They know how to complain about breakfast and say ‘no. I’m not doing that’. AGW: So, you would say that Emma, Daniel and Rupert have changed a lot? Robbie: Well, physically of course, they’re turning into adolescents you know. The boys are getting bigger and a certain shyness has come over “Madame” (Emma). She’s not quite the same. It’s that wee thing that happens to wee girls. I can’t describe it because I’m not a wee girl but I’m sure the girls here know what I’m saying. It’s not (flirty or hot) exactly but it’s something near it. A sense of privacy and personal space which we (guys) don’t have. Because wee (little) girls always come and sit in your lap. Not any more. AGW: So Emma is growing up. Did you notice other changes in the film or on set? Robbie: That’s why her line “does my hair really look like that from behind?”, gets such a huge laugh because that’s such a transition. A year before, she would have been going ‘do you know, actually, I think you’ll find it’s on page 265’. I love the bit where they (Hermione and Ron) catch hold of each other’s hands. There’s also a scene we shot after the fight when Scabbers is finally handed over, where Hagrid goes ‘Before we go I want you Ron and Hermione to have a big, good hug’. And they come in like ‘ewwww’ and once they do hug and get close there’s this kind of wee, melty moment when they go ‘oooooh’, then they spring apart like crazy. It was absolutely lovely but it just wasn’t working for the scene. It will probably be in the DVD. The way they played it was wonderful. I thought ‘they’re such good actors’. It was interesting watching them. AGW: There are so many great actors in these films. Robbie: I think so. It’s pretty well the who’s who of British actors. AGW: How has Hagrid changed in this film? Robbie: I don’t think his character has changed really but I think his relationship with the children has changed quite definitely. Although, he’s still very protective, they’re kind of independent and starting to have their own lives and that will develop more. The other thing too is they kind of rescue him which is a turn-around from the other films. AGW: Can you tell us some of the differences between Chris Columbus as director and now Alfonso Cuaron with this “Harry” film? Robbie: Cuaron likes to move the camera almost endlessly which, of course, the CGI people so love because they have to match the camera movements and they’re ‘oh, he’s done it again. He’s moved the camera’. AGW: But the characters are more emotional in this one. Robbie: Yeah but that’s the way the story’s written as well. Cuaron asked me a lot about Hagrid which I thought was very humble of him really. ‘How do you think he would do this?’ ‘What do you think he would do there’? And, of course he had long meeting with J.K. Rowling but Chris Columbus is producing so he was there to consult. AGW: As a Scottish actor, how do you feel about Hogwarts seeming much more Scottish in this one? Robbie: (proudly). Hogwarts was always set in Scotland. Jo Rowling said so. AGW: But it didn’t look so much that way in the first two films. Robbie: Yeah but the big railway scenes were always shot in Scotland. All our location shoots were in Scotland. AGW: We heard that it was raining all the time. Was it pretty miserable? Robbie: It’s rotten, really. Statistically, May is their sunniest month and last year, for the first time in, I think, 200 years, it was sunny all of April and rained all of May. And, that’s when we were there. AGW: Are you doing anything yet on “Goblet of Fire”? Robbie: I think they are doing Prep for it somewhere. They’re probably building things. AGW: They haven’t hired Hagrid’s girlfriend yet? Robbie: They haven’t worked that one out. I think it might be Frances de la Tour - I’m not sure. AGW: Have you met with new director Mike Newell? Robbie: I haven’t yet but I don’t think we’ll go till August. AGW: Are you on contract to do all seven movies? Robbie: I’m only contracted for four and, right now, that’s as far as I’m looking. But we’ll take it one film at a time. AGW: Are small kids attracted to you or scared of you as Hagrid? Robbie: More scared. AGW: They don’t bring up their pets and say, ‘can you make him better’? Robbie: Oh, no. Don’t write that or they’ll do it with any encouragement. AGW: Who do you hang out with on set other than the kids? Robbie: Well I hung out with Michael Gambon (the new Dumbledore) a lot because we were up in Inverness for a week and it rained every day so we just sat and talked about engines. He makes these superb pistols, guns and stuff from scratch and I rebuild old motorcars so we could bore the whole table with this talk. People were falling over from sheer boredom. AGW: How do you think he did taking over from Richard Harris? Robbie: I think he did brilliantly. He kept that west coast Irish accent. He’s carried that over which is very nice. AGW: How do you feel about being an action figure, having toys made in your image? Robbie: Not much action involved. He just stands there really but I object to it because the deal was, we didn’t get any residuals so long as they didn’t make the figure look like us. Then they made action figures that look exactly like us but said it wasn’t our images selling the toys but the books and don’t want to give us any money. AGW: When this is over are you looking forward to playing a truly evil character? Robbie: Yeah, a real sleazebag! I did just shoot Oceans Twelve. The boys asked me to come and play in Amsterdam. I thought ‘oh, playing with George Clooney and the boys. Can I be bothered? Oh, I think I will’. (my character) is kind of a Dutch wheeler dealer guy who arranges some stuff. They talk with a kind of American accent. AGW: Hummm, Hagrid on the loose in modern Amsterdam. That we’d like to see. Picture copyright Warner Bros. Inc.
|
 
|
Angela
& Gina's Room |
Brigid
& Kayla's Room |
Christine
& Erika's Room |
Lauren
& Sarada's Room | Circle of Friends PenPal Club | Site Map |
|
Since 1996, your space on the web : written and edited by girls and teens from all over the world. Media Kit Feedback Newsletter Write FOR us Contact Us |
|
Copyright © 2006 A Girl's World Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|
He’s
really tall, kinda furry and takes care of magical critters. Scottish
actor Robbie Coltrane, who plays Hagrid in the “Harry Potter”
films, is shorter in real life, doesn’t have that mane of bushy
hair but he’s funny and sweet and admits that he has his own menagerie
of animals at home to care for.