Sep 10, 2007 - Daniel Radcliffe had to know there was absolutely no way he was going to escape the Los Angeles press day for the independent drama December Boys without being peppered with a few Harry Potter questions. The final book of the series – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – hit stores after Radcliffe was done with the publicity tour promoting movie number five of the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and so the press day for December Boys was really the first opportunity to hound the Harry Potter star about his thoughts on J K Rowling’s last Harry Potter novel.
Asked his opinion of the final Harry Potter book, Radcliffe was more than happy to share his feelings. But, unfortunately, that word for word quote would spoil the ending for Harry Potter fans who haven’t had a chance to read Deathly Hallows all the way through. Suffice it to say Radcliffe’s really looking forward to being able to work on that final movie after having read the book. However, before Radcliffe, Rupert Grint (‘Ron’) and Emma Watson (‘Hermione’) can tackle Deathly Hallows, they still have Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to film. That movie will start in late September, according to Radcliffe.
What can be revealed without risking the ire of Harry Potter fans who haven’t finished Deathly Hallows is what Radcliffe said he felt while reading the final book. “There’s a quote, I’m not going to take this into too pretentious a route though this next bit but there’s a quote from Chekhov when he wrote to the woman who was the final love of his life, who he later married and I think died with - not that she died but he was with her when he died,” explained Radcliffe. “And he addresses a letter to her and he says, ‘Hello, the last page of my life,’ which seemed very appropriate to me reading this book, because he has been such a part of my life now. I’ve been with him through all my teen years and you were suddenly aware that – I started reading it, it was, ‘Wow, this is the last time I will take a journey with this character.’ It was quite a special moment. And actually while reading the final chapters I was listening to Sigur Ros, which was very, very appropriate actually. It really, really was. God I’d love them to do a song for one of the films. They’d be absolutely fantastic.”
Unlike a lot of Harry Potter fans, Radcliffe didn’t feel pressured into reading the final book quickly. “Weirdly, I didn’t. I was at a cricket match when it came out, so I didn’t really start reading it properly. I read the first 30 pages one night and then said, ‘Right, I’m not going to pick it up again until I’ve got proper time to really have a go at this book.’ And, actually, no one spoiled the ending for me. I thought they would. I thought someone was going to shout it out, what happened. But the brilliant thing about it actually – she sort of made it spoiler proof. Because even though if someone does say what state Harry ends up in, you don’t know the half of it, which is pretty impressive. When I finally did get to read it I did read it in about a day and a half, just because I didn’t put it down.”
As he was reading Deathly Hallows Radcliffe said he was thinking, “How are we going to make it into a movie? It’s going to be tough, but that’s why someone cleverer than me adapts them. I think if we get it right, which I’m confident we will, it should be amazing.”
And speaking of scripts, Radcliffe has read the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince script. As with all of the Harry Potter screenplays, parts of the book have been left out. “They have to,” said Radcliffe. “Obviously things have been taken out, but everything that drives the story forward is very much in place.”
Director David Yates is returning for the sixth movie of the franchise, and Radcliffe made a point of telling the media back during the press tour how happy he was working with Yates on Order of the Phoenix. But there have been suggestions and rumors circulating that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban director Alfonso Cuaron would be interested in returning to the director’s chair for film number seven. Would Radcliffe want him back? “It’s a very interesting question,” replied Radcliffe. “I loved working with Alfonso, so I don’t want this to be misinterpreted in the slightest, but I really love working with David Yates. Who knows if he’ll do book seven. But, also, I think to be honest it’s really nice to have new directors come on board. Who knows? It’s a long way off, book seven. It depends if David is willing to do it. I don’t know if he will be. It’s a long way off so I don’t know at the moment. But I would love to work with him (Alfonso) again in the future. I don’t know if Potter will be the place where that happens.”
