There are times when it's a downright nuisance to have your very own ice-cream van, according to Harry Potter actor Rupert Grint.
Trying to park on a sunny day is a particular hazard, he says, because queues of people tend to form in your wake.
The van - bought for no other reason than it had been his childhood dream to possess one - came into its own on the very last day of filming for the Harry Potter films, though.
Pottering around: Daniel Radcliffe has grown up in the public glare since making his acting debut as the star of the films
Pottering around: Daniel Radcliffe has grown up in the public glare since making his acting debut as the star of the films
Rupert took it onto the set, and spent the day handing out classic 99s, turning it into the sort of finale that no one was likely to forget.
Perhaps it was fitting that the end, when it finally came, was so surreal and so wrapped up with childhood nostalgia.
After all, the three leading Harry Potter actors - Grint, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson - entered the world of Harry Potter as children, and grew up in full public view, alongside their characters. Now, after more than a decade, it is over.
The last movie adaptation, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, is released in cinemas this week and the job is done.
Rich beyond their imaginations and recognised the world over, the three - still only in their early 20s - are emerging, blinking, into the real world.
Emma, who plays Hermione, sums up the epic feelings. 'It's been pretty devastating,' says the 21-year-old, with what is clearly genuine emotion. 'When people ask me what I will miss the most, of course I will miss the people, the rest of the cast and the crew, but most of all I will miss just being Hermione.
'I have loved coming into work every day and being this girl who lives in this magical, amazing world and who goes on all these adventures. When people ask me what does Hermione mean to me, I think, what doesn't she mean to me? I think of her like a sister; she feels so real to me.
Battle to the end: He Who Must Not Be Named, otherwise known as the terrifying Lord Voldemort, played by Ralph Fiennes
Battle to the end: He Who Must Not Be Named, otherwise known as the terrifying Lord Voldemort, played by Ralph Fiennes
'She is such an incredible young woman, and growing up alongside her definitely pushed me. I think she has made me a better person, and she made me work harder because I would be comparing myself to her every day. I feel so privileged to have played her.'
The actress admits that her grieving started when she was still making the last movie of the eight-film saga.
Ralph Fiennes who played the baddie admits he has his camper side - thanks to wardrobe problems.
'It was an irritating costume to wear,' says the actor, who played He Who Must Not Be Named.
'I had to wear tights and the gussets kept dropping down. Eventually, I said to my dresser: 'You are going to have to cut these tights and I am going to have to have garters.
'So when the stunt team were getting macho, I would tease them with my inner thighs.'
'I was so emotional about it all ending that some days I was in tears, but that actually helped with the filming. The last film in particular was dealing with loss, and I was going through it myself.'
Emma tried to take her mind off the end of Harry Potter by enrolling at Brown University in the U.S. to read literature and has also taken up modelling and a few other film roles. But she admits that after a few months, she was itching to get back to being Hermione.
‘I am used to having gaps between Potter films, but normally there is the next one to do after five or six months off. Around that point, I started to get this itch; I was ready to go back. And then I realised I wasn’t going back.
‘It was difficult, but on the set of the final film, the director David Yates loved the fact that we were all so much more vulnerable and worn down emotionally.’
She is far from the only emotional member of the cast, who were gathering in London last night for the film’s premiere.
Speaking at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, next door to the station which stands in for King’s Cross in the film — the crossroads between the mundane and the magical — an extraordinary 22 members of cast and crew showed up.
Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, materialised in a pre-recorded interview from New York, where he has been appearing on Broadway, to talk about the ‘family’ (that is what they all call it) who will never be together again.
‘I still don’t think I’ve come to terms with it,’ admits the usually unflappable Rupert, 22, who plays Harry’s best friend Ron Weasley. ‘We finished a year ago, and I have to say, I have felt a bit lost without it; I didn’t know what to do with myself.
Awkward: Rupert Grint and Emma Watson said they worried about filming the kiss they shared in the last movie
Awkward: Rupert Grint and Emma Watson said they worried about filming the kiss they shared in the last movie
‘It has been such a constant part of my life, to suddenly have that go is quite sad. I am genuinely going to miss it. I’ll miss everyone.’
As it turned out, Rupert’s free ice-cream wasn’t the only parting memento. There was a strict ‘no props leaving the set’ policy at Harry Potter, but it seems that rules were broken for the leading actors.
Daniel reveals that he has two pairs of glasses — one from the first film and one from the seventh.
‘The ones from the first film are absolutely tiny now, but they are very sweet. They are all lens-less as well. There was rarely ever any glass in the actual glasses, because of filming problems with reflections.’
POTTED POTTER NO. 1:
Many of the cast had 'wand coaching' from a dancer to help them perfect their different magic wand moves.
Rupert took (‘Well, I kind of stole, I suppose’) the number off the Dursleys’ house — 4 Privet Drive — where the orphaned Harry was brought up by his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
‘That’s quite a nice thing to keep. And they did give me Dumbledore’s Deluminator [the opposite of a torch, it takes away light] at the end.’
The cast had their wands swiftly taken back as soon as filming was over ‘so they didn’t end up on eBay’ according to Warwick Davis who has two roles: Hogwarts’ Professor Filius Flitwick and Griphook the Goblin.
But that did not stop some burrowing away a few of their favourite items. Even producer David Heyman admits he sneaked away the Time-Turner that Hogwarts’ headmaster Albus Dumbledore gave to Hermione.
Now, the whole world wants a little piece of the Harry Potter magic — and the extent to which they might be able to have it has floored Rupert.
Leavesden Studios, near Watford, Hertfordshire, where the films were shot, are opening a Harry Potter museum next year.
‘They said that they were going to make replicas of our dressing rooms, which is quite a weird thought. It’s kind of a special place to us. I’ve spent more time there than in my own home,’ says Rupert. He’s determined to find the positives, though. ‘To know that it is going to live on is great.’
Emotional: Emma Watson said the end of the Harry Potter films was 'devastating'
Emotional: Emma Watson said the end of the Harry Potter films was 'devastating'
So how are they coping post-Potter? All three main characters seem to have bitter-sweet experiences. They have all taken on other acting roles and are busy trying to forge careers away from Harry Potter. But they acknowledge that there is a gaping hole in their lives.
Emma encapsulates their situation succinctly. ‘Some days I feel relieved; some days, sad. I kind of swing like a pendulum between these different emotions. It was always going to be an adjustment. Before, I had people telling me where I needed to be, what they wanted me to do. My whole life was on schedule.’
The three admit they have all coped with fame in different ways.
KISSING HERMOINE? WHAT AN ORDEAL!
Emma Watson calls it the 'most anticipated kiss in history' - the moment when Hermoine gets to snog Ron Weasley after years of flirting.
But it doesn't sound romantic.
'No disrespect to Emma, who is obviously lovely, but I just couldn't imagine it,' says Rupert Grint.
'I got quite nervous about it the more I built it up in my head.
'Because I've known Emma since we were little kids, I thought it would feel weird.'
Emma adds: 'If you've grown up with someone who is literally like a sibling to you and are then put in a situation where you have to kiss them in a romantic sense, it's awkward.'
Director David Yates only told them about the scene the evening before: 'They totally committed to it, and it was charming... absolutely smashing.'
Daniel, 21, revealed last week that alcohol had become so much of a problem for him that he had decided to become teetotal.
‘I became so reliant on the stuff. There were a few years where I was so enamoured with the idea of living a famous person’s lifestyle, and that isn’t suited to me. As much as I would love to be a person who goes to parties, that doesn’t work for me.’
He stopped drinking last August.
Emma — the swot on and off camera — enrolled on a money-management course as soon as the serious cash started to roll in, determined to do things the ‘sensible’ way.
Rupert’s money management might have been more questionable than Emma’s, but you couldn’t exactly accuse him of hell-raising. The ice-cream van was one of his racier purchases. His latest acquisitions are some miniature donkeys to add to a menagerie that contains miniature pigs, hedgehogs and llamas.
Emma, naturally a shy person, has struggled with the attention, but has worked out a way of dealing with it.
‘I hate having bodyguards,’ she admits. ‘When we were younger, we used to hide from the people trying to keep an eye on us. Occasionally now people stop me, but I’d rather deal with that than not go out at all. That’d be tragic.’
Of the three, Daniel — for ever Harry Potter to a generation, whether he likes it or not — reflects with the most bafflement on some of the madness that has surrounded them. It seems he never did quite get used to it.
Expelliarmus: This poster promoted the 2007 film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Expelliarmus: This poster promoted the 2007 film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
‘When I arrived in Japan when I was 13, there were 5,000 people waiting at the airport, screaming. I bumped into a girl and I said, “Oh I’m sorry,” and she just fainted. That’s bizarre.
‘But the advantage of being 5ft 5in is that no one looks twice. If you are just a skinny guy in a crowd, it doesn’t attract too much attention. I don’t naturally have the frame and stature of an action hero, so doing things Harry did — like bursting out of the water surrounded by a ring of fire — was pretty special.
‘And the bond between me, Rupert and Emma will be pretty unbreakable because I don’t think anyone — except us — knows what it is like to go through all the craziness we have done over the past ten years.
‘Yes, I will miss them both very much and, yes, when I look back over the films I miss the old Harry, the little innocent boy he was. But I am so proud of the final film. In special effects, in every way, it has moved on so much.
‘I can’t even attempt to sum up what the role of Harry Potter has meant to me, but I can say I never took the opportunity to play him lightly.
POTTED POTTER NO. 2:
£4bn: Gross profit of series
588: Number of sets made for all the films
£45m: Amount Daniel Radcliffe is said to be worth
‘The fact you have to remember is that it is not because of me people are screaming at the premieres. Anybody who got this role would have had that level of mania surrounding them. I just got lucky with the part I fell into.’
He admits that appreciating the scale is difficult. ‘You don’t have a sense of how big it is when you are right in the centre of it. It’s sort of a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees.’
How astonishing it is that Daniel hadn’t read any of the Harry Potter books himself when he landed the part.
‘It’s something I like to think I’ve made up for in the years since, but I hadn’t read at all then,’ he admits, with a chuckle. ‘My parents read the first two books to me when I was eight or nine. I found reading myself boring, but I enjoyed having a book read to me.’
Nor, when he did read the books himself, did he have a burning desire to be Harry Potter.
His life sounded like a nightmare,’ Daniel recalls. ‘I thought: “God, poor kid.” After I got the part, though, I read them all back to back and became obsessed. I would charge around my room, having wand fights with nobody. It’s a pity I didn’t have a brother.’
Now the whole world seems to be a Harry Potter fan. As an actor, it must be odd to be talking about being part of such a phenomenon when you are only 21.
‘It’s very weird,’ he agrees. ‘I mean, when we were about 16, we all got given Outstanding Contribution to the Film Industry awards.’
Although they are polite about it, there is an acknowledgement that Harry Potter will hang round the necks of these three for years to come. Will it prove to be a poisoned chalice?
‘I think now I have to work twice as hard as most other actors my age to try to separate myself from this character,’ is how Daniel puts it.
But, buoyant with the awards he has won on Broadway, he is like any schoolboy who has walked out the gates for the final time — relishing the freedom.
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