Discover 6 manufacturing secrets of the film “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of its release.
Discover the deepest secrets of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which pits the young wizard and his friends against the fearsome Heir of Slytherin. What form does it take? Does it have a relationship with the One whose name we must not pronounce? How to fight it and defeat it? So many questions that make the film a perfect sequel to its predecessor, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Who was to play Hugh Grant?
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With his natural charisma and seductive gaze, there is no doubt that Hugh Grant was a perfect candidate to play Gilderoy Lockart, Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts replacing Professor Quirrell after his little “incident” in the first film. The Guardian had reported this crazy rumor, but Grant ended up filming Love Without Notice with Sandra Bullock instead and it was Kenneth Branagh who took on the role of this narcissist wizard.
A flying car…stolen!
Warner Bros.
If you think that only one 1962 Ford Anglia was used for the filming, you are far from the truth since 16 were needed for the landing scene alone, 14 of which were destroyed! One of the two survivors was kept in a studio before being stolen in October 2005. She will be found months later not far from the studios, on May 17, 2006. No one knows what exactly happened to her.
For the record, this Anglia model is the one that the author of the novels JK Rowling and her friend used when they were young.
Raised ? At his age ?!
Warner Bros.
Mimi Whining is a 14-year-old student of Ravenclaw house, killed at Hogwarts by the gaze of the Basilisk hiding in the Chamber of Secrets. She haunts the girls’ toilets and meets Harry and Ron and goes by this nickname because she is often heard crying. This character is interpreted by actress Shirley Henderson, 37, which makes her the oldest actress to have played a student of the school of wizards.
Daniel Radcliffe, the king of improv!
Warner Bros.
At the end of the film, Lucius Malfoy unexpectedly goes to Headmaster Dumbledore’s office. In the scene as planned, his interpreter, Jason Isaacs, had to leave without saying anything but, with the approval of director Chris Columbus, he was able to add a sentence. He then improvised the line: “Let’s hope Mr. Potter will still be there to save the day”. To which Daniel Radcliffe added, bouncing off the improvisation: “Don’t worry. I’ll be there.” We find the sequence to the word in the film.
grow too fast
Warner Bros.
At the end of the filming of The Chamber of Secrets, Daniel Radcliffe’s voice began to change! It is therefore difficult to maintain consistency between the scenes put in boxes months ago and the news, with a different voice for the main hero of the saga. The solution was for the studio to hire another actor with a voice very close to “the old Daniel” so to speak! It was Joe Sowerbutts, 13, who was chosen and who therefore doubled Radcliffe for the problematic scenes. And that’s how another actor played Harry Potter.
A very awkward hug
Warner Bros.
At the end of the film, Hermione, saved from death, runs across the Great Hall to hug Harry, but for her interpreter Emma Watson, it did not come to mind, as director Chris recalls. Columbus:
“That was the day she was the most nervous on set. She was like, ‘I don’t want to hug him, no, I don’t.’ And I was like, ‘You’ve been petrified, he’s one of your best friends, if not your best, you have to hug him. But, you won’t hug Ron because he’s there. [qu’on veut] that the tension lies (…).”
“So basically she was in front of all her friends, all the actors and actresses, she had to hug him in front of 350 actors, and as a kid she was terrified [par cette perspective]. She then hugged him and I had to stretch [la durée de cette séquence] mounting. [Sinon] she was hugging him and, the next image, it was over”.