LONDON-As the bus that picked us up at the Dorchester Hotel sped into the countryside, the wide open spaces made us feel like we were headed for Bulacan.
But no, we were not going to Meycauayan. We were bound for a visit-very rarely allowed-to the set of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Our two teenage daughters would do anything to be in our shoes right this minute on this cold and gray early morning. Our excitement was no match to their "Oh, my Gawds!" (and their friends' as well) when they first heard that we received an invitation to visit Leavesden Studios, where Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and company were filming the fourth film adaptation of novelist J.K. Rowling's best-selling "Harry
Potter" series.
Joining the young cast is Katie Leung, a Chinese-Scottish girl who landed the Cho Chang role after a search that drew application letters from girls worldwide, including the Philippines, "Potter" producer David Heyman told Inquirer Entertainment.
After an hour, we stopped at a guard gate. What lay beyond did not look promising-a vast field dotted by a few structures against a bleak sky. This used to be an airfield, where Britain's Ministry of Defense manufactured aircraft during World War II. When Rolls Royce took over and used Leavesden to make helicopter engines, the Guinness Book of Records listed it as the largest single factory in Europe under one roof. After Rolls Royce closed it in 1994, Leavesden began its new life as a film studio and became home to such blockbusters as "GoldenEye" and "Star Wars
Episode I: The Phantom Menace."
Black tablecloths
Once the bus rolled on and we alighted in front of the studio, our experience turned anything but dreary. The place was huge! We were ushered into the studio and straight to a party tent-black, in keeping with "Harry Potter's" dark undercurrents. Even the tablecloths were black. The only touches of color came from accent fabrics in shimmering silver, which we later learned were also used at the Yule Ball, one of the film's big scenes, and the hues from the uniforms of the three wizardry schools, Hogwarts (Harry's cloak, pants and hat-certainly worth a fortune on eBay), Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, which were on display. Tables, chairs and props from previous "Potter" films completed the ambience.
The tent became our home for the day. However, we came out several times to heed exciting calls like, "Let's go see the dragon!" or to see the sets, watch actual filming and interview some of the stars between takes.
Daniel Radcliffe, not nerdy-looking at all minus his Harry Potter glasses, exclaimed, "Oh my, this is the attack of the killer microphones!" when the "Muggles" thrust their tape recorders at him.
How different would Harry be in this latest installment, Radcliffe was asked. His reply: "He's coming to terms with a lot of demons and things. He's forced to face them. He's a lot more vulnerable in this film. Sirius can't do anything because he can't come out of hiding to help Harry. Dumbledore doesn't know what's going on. But the main difference is that Harry is growing up and discovering girls."
The actor stressed that he remains enthusiastic about playing his phenomenally popular character: "I love acting because it's the only thing that I've been really good at. I have more confidence when I'm acting than when I'm doing anything that I would be doing at school, like [maybe] sports or writing."
Rupert Grint, very shy, carrot-colored bangs covering his eyes, talked about his fan mail: "I saw loads that just came; it has gone quite a little bit more. And I do read them." His voice has become noticeably bigger. "The most interesting things are the gifts that people send me. I get quite a lot of pajamas (laughs). It's a bit weird."
Emma Watson, lovelier in person in a pink shirt, brown jacket and blue jeans, gave the most candid, most refreshing statements. For instance, on Mike Newell, the first Englishman "Potter" director: "He brings a real sense of British boarding school sensibility to the film. We never really had a sense of that before. He also brings a lot of humor. This book ... when I read it, felt very dark. I think Mike noticed this. He really worked through the script carefully and picked out the humor where he could."
The two fortunate boys selected to join the young cast are heartthrob material. Robert Pattinson, the fair one, plays Cedric Diggory. He said of his experience being one of the new kids on the block: "We did a workshop before the principal shooting started. It was kind of a bonding-type thing. I was star-struck when I first came."
Of Leung, who plays a girl that his Cedric and Radcliffe's Harry both have a crush on, Pattinson revealed: "I don't really have that many big scenes with Katie but I've been trying to get the chemistry right. I see her a lot outside of the set. I suppose that helps."
Stanislav Ianevski, dark and appealing as Quidditch star Victor Krum, also shared his experience as a neophyte actor: "On my first few days, we did the maze scenes. In the very first scene, I had to fight with Cedric. I remember my heart pumping because it was the first time that I was in front of the cameras."
Did he think he was a potential heartbreaker? "I'm more of a heart pleaser (laughs)."
No Rowling
Asked whether J.K. Rowling ever came to the set, producer David Heyman replied, "She has not come down to the set; she didn't come down to the set of the third movie, either. She came once on the second and a couple of times on the first. But she is always there when we have questions."
About the possibility that one of the new members could have been a young Chinese girl from Manila, Heyman said of their talent search: "We actually found our Cho Chang in Scotland. Katie Leung is a young Scottish lady of Chinese heritage. She speaks the most beautiful, softest Scottish accent-it's really lovely."
Newell's credits include small but acclaimed films like "Mona Lisa Smile" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral." We asked how challenging it was to direct a big movie that leaned heavily on computer-generated visual effects. He answered, "I had never done a huge thing like this before.
But the people on the film were very good about educating [me] ... from a state of ignorance to a level where I could look like I knew what I was talking about."
On the pressure to come up with his own style, after the impressive first three films by two different directors (the first two by Chris Columbus; the third by Alfonso Cuaron), Newell explained: "I watched both of Chris' films and I knew what I was going to do. I watched 40 or 50
minutes of Alfonso's film and realized with horror that Alfonso had already done it. I could make it darker, make the conflicts between the characters tougher until I was bleeding in the face but it wouldn't matter because Alfonso had done it first. So what I did was stop thinking who was first and who was last and that kind of competitive, going up the steps thing, and simply thought to myself, what do you really adore about this story? And you make a film that way. I adored seeing these kids growing up."
Bonuses
We got to sit on Harry's classroom chair and try his bed. We marveled at the expanse of The Great Hall, where crews were taking down yards of silver fabric from the Yule Ball scenes. We saw the Gryffindor Common Room, Dumbledore's Office, Trial Chamber, Trophy Room, and the train that takes Harry and the gang to and from Hogwarts, among others.
We came face to face with a dragon-a Hungarian horntail that figures prominently in this movie, a hippogriff and the vicious black dog in "Prisoner of Akzaban" as creature effects designer Nick Dudman welcomed us to his lair.
An unusual sight greeted us on one of our guided walks away from the tent-there were rows of owls being filmed quietly. And finally, we watched the cast do take after take of one of the opening scenes. Radcliffe, Grint, Watson and several other actors, most of them carrying backpacks, hiked up a hill (realistically created on the soundstage) to use the portkey that would transport them to the Quidditch World Cup.
In a parting shot, Newell told us, "In another seven months (the movie is slated to open in November), we will see whether I made it or not."
