While at last night’s Variety screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, actress Helena Bonham Carter (who plays Bellatrix) spoke candidly about working on the films and the strict rules of the prop department.
Carter jokingly vented her frustrations and used a scene shot with Gary Oldman (Sirius) for Order of the Phoenix, which ended up being rejected, as an example.
Helena Bonham Carter: I always shoot incredibly long sequences for Potter, and 5% is preserved. [laughter] Me and Julie – we did that fight. But it was much longer. We had so many moves. In fact, I had a really huge fight with Gary Oldman [in Order of the Phoenix] – do you remember that?
David Yates: Oh there’s a brilliant fight.
Carter: None of that. Yeah. [laughter] Three weeks of fencing for that – nothing.
Yates: DVD extras!
David Heyman: Are you saying your best stuff is on the cutting room floor?
Carter: Absolutely! Well not my best stuff, but a lot of stuff. I trust I’m in the hands of — but anyway. Me and Julia, we actually threw our backs out. Because it’s quite strenuous doing all the wand stuff. I died that day. I’ve died so many times in films. You usually die in the middle of shooting a film, or in the beginning. But this time I actually finished – it was on my last day of shooting. They killed me. And then they went, “…Bye!” [laughter] I kept my teeth. They wouldn’t fit anyone else. I got them at home. I’ve got my wand. But not THE wand. That’s part of what I loved about the whole Harry Potter experience – it was completely surreal. And I loved every minute of it. But every time I was on set, at the end they’d say, “Give us back your wand.” I’m an unconscious kleptomaniac, I take everything. [laughter] But they’d always take your wand and put it under lock and key. And I thought, “Don’t they realize they don’t work?” You know. [laughter] The wand I’ve got, it’s not my wand.
I’ve got a few posters actually [from the set]. They don’t know about that. The thing is – you go into the art department of any film and they sort of – you know – you can get a few things on the side. [laughter]
Although Yates joked about Carter’s scene with Oldman being included on DVD extras, we’re unsure if it’ll ever actually be seen. Maybe it should just to please Carter!
The actress was hilarious throughout the Q&A, at one point joking she auditioned to play Hermione but instead was given the role of “an old witch with bad teeth.”
Check out our report from earlier today which details more of what was said at the fun event and includes photos.
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