This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending Dallas Comic Con. James and Oliver Phelps, or sometimes more well known as Fred and George Weasley, have attended Dallas Cons quite frequently in the past few years. Two years ago, I was actually fortunate enough to meet them. This year, however, I only got to see them from afar as they took the stage for a Q&A session. Along with their Q&A session, they had a couple photo ops and were out on the floor for autographs in their down time.
When I met James and Oliver, they were both very kind and inviting. I got a photo op and an autograph with them both. As the line in front of me progressed and I finally made it into the photo op room, I was struck by how happy they both looked. It was one of the very first times I got to meet people at Comic Con, back when I was still treating them like gods instead of humans and acted like the human disaster I am when I met them. Despite my awkwardness, they greeted me with grins and didn’t force me to be too sociable as they placed their arms around me and we took the photo. The autograph was much the same except I had a little more time to greet them and ask them how they liked Texas.
Here’s the aforementioned photo from two years ago:
This Con’s Q&A was particularly entertaining. The Phelps Twins are always entertaining. I was quite impressed by the fact that they chose to stand the entire time, I definitely do not have the energy to stand for 40 minutes while being interrogated by fans of varying degrees of craziness. No offense, I do believe I have quite a high degree of craziness myself.
They ran onstage after the interviewer announced them, greeting the cheering crowd, but then ran off again with a quick “hang on.” They came back a few seconds later, James wearing a Texas Rangers baseball cap and Oliver in a ridiculous cowboy hat. The crowd loved it.
As I mentioned before, James and Oliver are very polite people. Right off the bat, they thanked everyone for being so kind to them and pointed out how glad they were that no one had collapsed at their signing table yet.
Just to clarify for the crowd, the interviewer tried to name which twin was which, but he ended up getting them wrong the first time! To be honest, the only way I could tell is I knew that James was standing on the left and Oliver on the right…
Now, since it was a forty-minute long panel, I’m not going to write about the entire thing. I will, however, put the video that a friend of mine took at the end!
To start, I’d like to kill a rumor that circulates through the fandom quite a bit. “I heard that y’all would sometimes switch roles, sometimes, on set. I was wondering, what is the longest stretch of time that y’all went without getting caught.” This question has come up at both of their panels that I’ve been too. Sorry to burst your bubble, but they never switched roles. They knew that, if they had done, it would have taken a lot of time and money to refilm those scenes and they didn’t want to be a nuisance to the other people working on the film. They did admit to doing it during rehearsal though.
Fan questions at Q&A panels aren’t always the most entertaining. They can be very repetitive and, sometimes, a bit stupid. But occasionally you get that fan who has thought long and hard about their question before asking it, making sure it was unique and interesting.
“If you could do anything besides acting in the film industry, what would it be?” This is a question I had never heard before! And since I am a film student I was very curious to hear their answers. There are hundreds of people with hundreds of different jobs that work on a single movie. Cameramen, video editors, sound editors, directors and assistant directors, producers, etc. You have an encyclopedia of options for working in the film industry. James said that he’d want to be “Grip”, or a person who mounts and moves the camera on a track. Oliver, on the other hand, seemed quite content with acting, but did say he was interested in the makeup department.
“What one scene from the books do you wish they would have put in the movies?” As fans, we all have several different scenes from the books that we were quite upset weren’t put in the movies. Not only scenes, but characters as well. The actors had to put up with the differences without complaint but they must have had opinions too, right? Well, James and Oliver both agreed that they wanted the swamp scene from the fourth book to appear in the movie, but they knew there was a chance it wouldn’t show up.
“What was your favorite book and movie?” I always feel that a persons favorite Harry Potter installment can tell you a lot about their personality. That and I am a very nosy person and just like to know these things about people. James knew immediately that his favorite book was the Prisoner of Azkaban. He informed the crowd that it was the book he was reading when they were cast as the twins. He seemed to add as an after thought that his favorite film was the Goblet of Fire and Oliver picked it up there saying that was his favorite book. James and Oliver like to tease each other quite a bit, which is evident when Oliver informs the crowd that his favorite film is The Deathly Hallows Part 2.
I guess I should stop boring you with my perspective on their panel. But watch the video of the full thing below! You don’t want to miss any of their bickering or stories of pranks they pulled on and off set!
The red carpet event celebrating yesterday’s grand opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Hollywood took place on the 5th April. Leaky fans were on the ground covering the event, which you can read about here, but of course there are more interviews with the Potter cast than we can count!
Here are some of the best below:
Entertainment Weekly sought after the actor’s questions for J.K. Rowling since the series finished filming.
James and Oliver Phelps wanted to know what happened to George after Fred’s death:
OLIVER: I think with George, it would probably be what does he do with the company. Like, does he expand it? Or does he just keep it as homage to his brother? Or does he go, we’re going to open it up elsewhere?
JAMES: Did he franchise it?
Oliver Phelps came up with a great theory regarding Fred’s ultimate fate, which he told Seventeen:
“I think he’d dive into the family business even more and try to make it even better in Fred’s memory, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Fred was a ghost in the shop.”
Tom Felton told Entertainment Weekly that he missed Draco, and had endless compliments for J.K. Rowling regarding the character:
“There’s a beautiful understanding between him and I, I think. I miss him. I miss him a lot. But Jo has such a wonderful way of making these characters so rich and full anyway. I suppose all the things that I don’t know are assumed. But I also know that Jo is an endless wealth of knowledge so if I ever have anything that was puzzling me, I know she’d be more than happy for me to ask her. You’ve got me picking my brains now. I’ll have to message her tomorrow.”
Evanna Lynch obviously had the most questions about Luna – being a huge fan of the books, she wanted to know more about Luna’s family:
“I think the big blank is her mom. I’ve always wondered what she’s like. We’ve just been told her name is Pandora and that she died doing an experiment, and I just wonder, I really am curious what was her relationship with Luna? Because obviously she’s so close to her dad, and I find that there’s always one parent that you have more in common with or that you confide in more, and I wonder … was that her mom? Or just what kind of person she was.”
Make sure you catch the full article from Entertainment Weekly here.
You can also read a hilarious exclusive interview with Tom Felton playing ‘Marry, Snog, Stupefy’ with Bustle here, and a snippet from the interview below:
“When given three names of Harry Potter characters, Felton must choose which he’d most like to marry, snog (kiss), and stupefy, which, according to Harry Potter wiki, to stupefy someone means to “render a victim unconscious and/or halt moving objects.” So basically, it’s a less morbid version of the “kill” option most muggles are accustom to.
But before I can give him three options, Felton declares: “I’d snog Bellatrix.” …. I remind him of the rules — I give you the three options, Tom — and we begin.”
MSN also spoke to Evanna Lynch, about the roles she is currently looking for, which appear to steer away from ‘darker’ roles in shows such as The Walking Dead:
“I really just want to do characters a I really love,” Lynch told AAP on the red carpet at the grand opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in California.
“There are other scripts that come along and I see them but I don’t really have the passion unless I connect with the character.
“I am sick of zombie movies, all these things about undead people. I want things that make the world lighter rather than scarier.
“Everyone says it’s so good but I hate zombies and that kind of violence.”
She also commented on J.K. Rowling’s constant development of the wizarding world – which we know she is excited about and understandably wanting to be involved in! Evanna spoke about what she’d like to see from any sequels involving Luna:
“She (Rowling) has created another world and made it so rich and varied and interesting and I feel like it will never end,” Lynch said.
“I’d love if she did a sequel, I would love to know more about Luna and I feel like there is a lot more to explore.
“I would love a wildlife show with Luna and a documentary series.”
Read the MSN interview in full here.
She revealed her thoughts on whether she thought the pairing of Neville and Luna should have gone any further to Movie Pilot:
“Definitely not. I think he’s very much a homebody, a stay-at-home dad. And Luna wants to go out and explore the world and different creatures, and I think she wants to have several different relationships and not be committed forever. Neville would want a good sturdy wife who cooks, and that’s not her.”
Evanna also gave Extra a VIP tour along with James and Oliver Phelps, which you can view below:
Warwick Davis also attended the event, and spoke to Hollywood Life about the how he’d feel about appearing in Cursed Child. Of course, he’d be more than thrilled:
“To be back in something that has been created by J.K. Rowling and something that goes on to have a life beyond that is exceptional and it would be lovely to do that!”
“I love performing, I am an actor. This is what I love doing So however I manage that and have that manifest itself is a great pleasure!”
He also revealed his aspirations for TV:
“It would be to have a chat show, I mean that is my last bucket list to take on”
“I have done everything else in my career that I have wanted to take on and what I want to do but the chat show still remains elusively something that I would still love to do and a thing that I think I could do very well!”
Read the full interview at Hollywood Life here.
SnitchSeeker also caught up with James and Oliver Phelps to ask them about the theme parks, and about the newest ventures into the wizarding world (Fantastic Beasts and Cursed Child). They posted a video of the interview (below), and you can catch their transcript here.
Make sure you catch our full coverage of the event at this link!
Yesterday, 1st December, Leaky attended the Blu-ray and DVD release event at Harrods, where 300 fans had their copies of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" signed by Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick and Griphook), James Phelps (Fred Weasley), Oliver Phelps (George Weasley), Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley) and Jessie Cave (Lavendar Brown). Attendees at the launch event received goody bags stuffed with
t-shirts, scarves, the film's soundtrack, stickers, keyrings and more! Leaky was given the opportunity to ask the actors questions in a press roundtable shortly before the signing and you can find the full transcript of that interview below, with the audio and photographs from the event to follow later this evening.
Update: Full audio of the interview can be heard right here!
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is (finally!) out on Blu-Ray and DVD in the UK from today, 2nd December.
Interview with Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick and Griphook), James Phelps (Fred
Weasley), Oliver Phelps (George Weasley), Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley)
and Jessie Cave (Lavendar Brown) at Harrods, London on the 1st December 2011.
What was the last scene you filmed on the very last film?
Warwick Davis: I think it was something to do with the dwarf and whats-his-face…
Bogrod?
WD: Yeah! Don't quote me on whats-his-face! [Sorry Warwick!] That was my
last day on what was officially the last day, that was my last day.
Oliver Phelps: Mine was filming with James on the battlement sequence
when Fred and George see Voldemort's army coming in. That was all done
ad lib and that was quite cool.
James Phelps: Same!
Jessie Cave: Mine was my death scene. Which is quite fitting, really.
Mark Williams: Mine was the Great Hall, the big Great Hall scene, mine
was the same day as Alan Rickman's and Thewlis' and a lot of other
people, a lot of us wrapped at the same time.
Rosi for Leaky: Because [James and Jessie] had big death scenes, or seen death
scenes, do you feel that meant you had more of a final end to your time
on the films than maybe other people will have had?
WD: Clever!
MW: See, you don't get away with anything with this lot.
JC: I definitely -- it was really nice kind of ending even though I was--
MW: Nice?!
JC: Not nice! Sort of…
MW: Nice as in precise.
JC: Yes, precise! Precise ending, full stop.
JP: For me it kind of seemed like a normal scene because I didn't do
anything but it was the fact that because it was in the great hall--
MW: Did you fall asleep?
JP: I did in rehearsals yeah. Because we've filmed in the great hall for
like ten years, we've shot so many things there so it just seemed like
another great hall scene to be honest with you, but on reflection I
guess it was a fitting end. Luckily it was in the last movie and not the
first.
WD: I died and then I was alive again. It's funny because when you do
these death things you want to look good and I said to David Yates, I
could be death like this [twists self] I gave him a few options, but he
went for the most contorted one, you see, which was really uncomfortable
and I just lay there for six hours watching Voldemort strut up and
down. But it was quite funny because on one occasion they put so much
blood everywhere, you can't really see in the film, but there was
gallons of this fake blood all round--
MW: --it was really slippery--
WD: and Ralph slipped on it at one p
Another fun cast interview has surfaced, this time with James and Oliver Phelps on Scholastic.com. The actors responsible for portraying Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter films reminisce about the auditions for their parts, speaking in unison and souvenirs smuggled from the set. Quotage:
Q: In the films you guys speak in unison. Does that ever happen in real life?
James: It kind of came
...
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James and Oliver Phelps are featured today in the continuing series of articles from the LA Times. Today they speak to the two brothers who portray Fred and George Weasley in the series. Of interest are new comments about the beloved twins and their new joke shop that we see in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Quotage:
MG: What was your favorite experience working on “Half-Blood Prince?”
...
Read the rest of this post
