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ENTERTAINMENT
Recorder, Wednesday, July 6, 2011 — 7
‘Potter’ class graduates with no child-actor woes
LOS ANGELES (AP) — If the
young cast of the “Harry Potter”
films received report cards for their
school days at Hogwarts, they’d all
probably earn the notation, “plays
well with others.”
Cast as impressionable children in
Hollywood’s biggest fantasy franchise, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma
Watson, Rupert Grint and their
many young co-stars have maneuvered through 11 years of fame —
and the temptations it brings —
without any whispers of Lindsay
Lohan-style meltdowns that can
derail child actors.
They’ve grown up smart, humble,
polite and professional, eager to
balance modest private lives with
productive acting careers rather
than leap into the party-till-dawn
celebrity lifestyle.
The actors and the headmasters of
the Warner Bros. franchise say it
wasn’t magic that kept the kids on
their best behavior. It was the luck
of the draw when the youngsters
were first cast, good parenting,
mindful shepherding that resembled the rigors and care of the finest
boarding schools, and a sheltered
workplace outside of London, far
from Hollywood’s madding
crowds.
“It’s very different doing it in
England,” said Radcliffe, who was
11 when cast in the title role as the
boy wizard for 2001’s “Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”
and turns 22 the week after the midJuly debut of the final film, “Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
Part 2.”
“In America, you’re treated as an
actor first and a kid second. Here,
you’re very much treated as a kid
first and an actor second. In fact,
you’re not really treated as an actor.
You’re treated as a kid on a film set,
which is how it should be, because
that’s all you are that point. No
one’s an actor at 12.”
And with the performers so
young, their parents were instrumental in steering the children
through busy working lives and the
madness of instant celebrity.
“We couldn’t have done it without
the family support that’s kept all
The Associated Press
In this Nov. 15, 2010 file photo, actors, from left, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint
attend the premiere of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” at Alice Tully Hall in New York.
three of them and the supporting
cast all lovely, lovely people,” said
David Barron, a producer on most
of the “Harry Potter” films.
“They’ve got very strong families
who kept them really strongly
grounded.”
With tens of millions of “Harry
Potter” fans to please and billions
of dollars at stake, Warner Bros.
went to great lengths to protect and
nurture the stars through eight films
and a decade of hard work.
Sets to create author J.K.
Rowling’s Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry and other
Potter locations were built at
Leavesden Studios northwest of
London, giving the filmmakers a
controlled environment where they
could work and essentially help
raise their young charges.
“It’s been a bit of a bubble, and it’s
been very self-contained, and I
think we just have good people
around us,” said Watson, who was
10 when cast as Hermione Granger
and now is 21. “We’ve just been
lucky that we haven’t been exploited in any way.”
Radcliffe, Watson, Grint and such
co-stars as Tom Felton, Bonnie
Wright, Evanna Lynch and
Matthew Lewis had tutors on set,
along with armies of studio publicists to help coach them through the
media circus of almost-annual premieres and press junkets to promote
each film.
“It was a place that was just us,
nobody else,” said David Heyman,
a producer on all of the “Harry
Potter” films. “That has enabled us
to sort of cocoon ourselves in an
environment, in a way, that I think
is a supportive and a safe one.”
“To have children grow up in that
kind of maelstrom of affection and
general applause for everything
they do, it’s not normal, and you
can imagine it very easily could
have ended in somebody going off
the rails somewhere,” producer
Barron said.
“But they were never put under
the microscope of the outside world
whilst they were working. ... If ever
they got a bit bumptious when they
were younger, the bubble was very
quickly burst by someone or other
on the crew, who just said, ‘Oh,
yeah? Come on.”’
The actors developed strong work
ethics, and the filmmakers saw
traits in their stars that mirrored
those of the characters.
Like Harry, Radcliffe assumed a
solicitous leadership role, sort of a
goodwill ambassador on set. Like
Hermione, Watson was studious,
hurling herself into her education.
Like Ron Weasley, Grint had a
playful humor and the support of a
large family.
“You felt people are just kind of
waiting for us to fall into that
stereotype of, I suppose, child
actors,” said Grint, who started on
“Potter” at age 11 and turns 23 a
month after the final film opens.
Director David Yates, who made
the final four “Harry Potter” films,
said he wondered a few years back
whether some of his stars might
turn into a handful as they reached
the rebellious late-teen years.
“Because, they have every right to
kind of get angry or frustrated,”
Yates said. “They carry a lot of
responsibility. They’re under
tremendous pressure. They have
enormous temptations. The world
is at their feet. They get paid enormous amounts of money. But they
haven’t gone over the edge, and I
think it’s the people around them. I
think there’s something ingrained
with them. It’s their family.”
Many child actors have trouble
landing more adult roles once they
outgrow their cute and cuddly
phase and can get sidetracked into
drugs or alcohol, such as Lohan.
So far, the key “Potter” stars have
remained focused. Radcliffe has
done Broadway with “Equus” and
“How to Succeed in Business
Without Really Trying,” and stars
in the upcoming big-screen thriller
“The Woman in Black.” Watson is
studying at Brown University and
has a role in the upcoming Marilyn
Monroe drama “My Week With
Marilyn.” Grint did a couple of
independent movies in between
“Potter” films and stars in the
upcoming war saga “Comrade.”
Radcliffe recalls endless questions over the past decade as people
asked him, “Aren’t you scared
about what’s happened to these
other child stars?”
“Having to answer that so many
times made me go, ‘Jesus, if you’re
asking this so many times, now if I
do go off the deep end, I’m just
never, ever going to hear the end of
that,”’ he said. “By now, I do view
it as sort of a personal mission that
I have. If all of us in this big franchise can then go off and have successful, balanced lives, careers,
whatever, I’m hoping that I paved
the way for the next generation of
child stars in not having to answer
those questions.”
Man arrested outside
Paris Hilton’s home
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors have charged a man arrested
outside Paris Hilton’s coastal home with disobeying a court order to
stay away from the socialite.
Sheriff’s deputies arrested James Rainford on Monday, the thirdtime the 36-year-old has been jailed for trying to meet Hilton.
Rainford is expected to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon on the misdemeanor charge. He is being held on $20,000 bail and jail records do
not indicate whether he has an attorney.
The Associated Press
This May 30, 2008 file photo shows Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller arriving at the 59th
Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.
Charlie Sheen set to be roasted
NEW YORK (AP) — There should be no shortage of material.
Comedy Central said Tuesday that Charlie Sheen
has agreed to be the subject of its next celebrity roast.
It will be taped in Los Angeles and air on Sept. 19.
That also happens to be the same night that
Ashton Kutcher debuts as Sheen’s replacement in
the CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men.” Sheen
was thrown off the show after his hard partying
forced a production shutdown.
Sheen says: “You could say I’ve been providing kindling for this roast for a while. It’s time to light it up.
It’s going to be epic.”
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