At this weekend’s DVD/Blu-Ray premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida, we took the rare opportunity to speak to the cast and crew of the hit series about the series. So much had to be cut from the books in the transition to the screen that we knew they had to have some favorites.. Here’s what we found out. And read our own list of favorite cut scenes right here!
JAMES AND OLIVER PHELPS (THE WEASLEY TWINS)
James Phelps: For me, personally, I guess it was the actual death of Fred. That was a bit disappointing, but I guess it kind of worked more into Oliver [Phelps] and Rupert [Grint], seeing their emotion in that way. So a lot of the fans saw it in that sense, when they hadn’t thought about it before.
Oliver Phelps: I think the de-gnoming of the garden in the second film. That would have been brilliant.
James Phelps: It isn’t PC, is it?
Oliver Phelps: I was really looking forward to being able to do that. Shame.
EVANNA LYNCH (LUNA LOVEGOOD)
[Evanna Lynch had already revealed her favorite lost scene – when Luna Lovegood announced the Quidditch match in ‘The Half-Blood Prince’ – the day prior, so we asked her for more details.]
Evanna Lynch: It was never filmed. It was in the script and I got so psyched about it, because it was done really well. I find sport incredibly boring, so I would like to see Luna’s take on it. I got invited to the Quidditch World Cup, to commentate, and sadly it conflicted with this. It’s going on in New York at this moment. But one day I will get there and I will commentate that match.
DAVID BRADLEY (ARGUS FILCH)
David Bradley: There was a story where he encountered them trying to hide a baby dragon up in the tower in the first book. When I saw the script, I said I’m sorry they missed… Because I had this wonderful line that was in the book. When we came to do the second movie, when Filch is waiting at the top of the stairs with Mrs. Norris, and the two kids come in having been demolished by the Whomping Willow in the car and they come up the stairs, I said to Chris Columbus, I said, “There was a line in the first book. Can I use it here?” And he said, “Yeah, go for it.” So I said the line, “Oh dear, we are in trouble.” And it got a laugh in the theater when it was playing, and I thought that’s good, because they let me say a line from the first book, but transposed it into the second movie. That was a line that I really wanted to say in the first film but I got to say it eventually.
JESSIE CAVE (LAVENDER BROWN)
Jessie Cave: Oh gosh, not necessarily in the books, but at my screen test they had placed biscuits there for Lavender to play with, and I just got such a kick out of that. I had such fun with Rupert, just kind of dangling biscuits in front of his face and making him feel so uncomfortable. So I wish that had been in the film. And I thought that it would be! I thought I’d done the biscuits so well! Obviously scripts take months to write.
CraveOnline: At some point they realized the biscuits were getting in the way.
Jessie Cave: It was going to overtake the film. Yeah, exactly.
ALFIE ENOCH (DEAN THOMAS)
Alfie Enoch: It was actually my last day of shooting on the last film. I was up on the battlements with the Weasley Twins, and we were defending the castle from some of those spells. You know, you saw that fantastic scene where all the Death Eaters were sending in those spells and breaking down the wall, and then they go and they’re actually attacking the stone of the castle. That’s something. We’re up against a green screen, and I thought, this the first time I’ve actually got a wand in my hand [and can] let loose. I was having a brilliant time. I got so into it I actually fell off the podium, which was quite embarrassing. That was such a sort of fun finale. I was sorry that didn’t make it in.
DAVID YATES (DIRECTOR)
CraveOnline: A lot of people who didn’t read the books were confused by the sixth film. Snape says he’s the Half-Blood Prince, but you don’t tell us what that means. Did you ever shoot any of that?
David Yates: No, we didn’t. That’s basically it. We had that one haunting moment on the hillside. And you’re right, maybe that’s something we should have tried to weave a little bit more into it. […] The movie’s called The Half-Blood Prince and we just find out… Yeah. We wrestled with that so much.
DAVID BARRON (PRODUCER)
David Barron: We were saved, always, by Jo [Rowling], because what would happen… We developed the scripts, and when we were happy with them, when we thought we got to a good place, but while there was still time to make changes if she wanted them, or to polish the scripts, we’d send each script to her. And she’d often have a conversation with Steve Kloves at the beginning, and when there was a new director she’d have a conversation with the director at the beginning. But generally speaking she was an incredible collaborator and she’d just leave us to make the translation from book to film. But there were two times actually, I’m jut trying to think which film it was now… Six, Dumbledore’s death? We cut the funeral, the big funeral, because it felt like there was another ending, another big ending, that the film couldn’t really support. Actually no, I’m just going to back to something else. Even in the fourth film, actually, we were going to take out the Mer-people. And she said, “Oh, well, they have a part to play in the future.” Of course that was in the big funeral scene. We didn’t know that. We were going to take Kreacher out [of the fifth film] because… it was a big story in the book, because actually you learn that Kreacher is a horrible person, partly because Sirius treated him really badly. That’s why he hates Sirius so much, and because Sirius treated him so badly, he hates him and he lures him to his death. We didn’t really have time to tell that whole Kreacher story, and so we found another way of getting Sirius to the Ministry of Magic. We sent her the script, she said, “Oh, I see you’ve taken Kreacher out.” “Well, yeah…” She said, “Hmm… You might want to reconsider that. He has a part to play in the future.” So then we had to find away of just putting enough Kreacher in to allow people to know who he was, so that he was there for the final segment.
[But what did he wish had stayed in?]
DAVID BARRON: Well, actually I think Dumbledore’s funeral was something we all really wanted to have. But it just felt like an ending too many, so we had to leave it out. And I’m thinking of S.P.E.W…
CraveOnline: Because S.P.E.W. became important to the big kiss at the end of [The Deathly Hallows]. You had to rewrite it.
DAVID BARRON: Exactly. It was just not necessary for the plot [in Goblet of Fire]. It has marvelous color, marvelous character, but it was not necessary for the plot. Were trying to, from the third film on, was tell the story from Harry’s point of view, because it was the only way to find a clear way through. So unfortunately S.P.E.W. fell by the wayside. But we were all upset. We all wanted to do it.
