8 Things Happened During the Harry Potter Filming That Few Knew About

All great movies have hidden things that happened on the set that we don’t know about. Be it actors playing pranks on each other or details that we might have missed, what happens behind the scenes is always curious. And this compilation of small facts that happened on the set of the Harry Potter movies might just quench your thirst for behind the scenes insights.

At Bright Side, this compilation only made us re-watch the whole series, so we hope we can give you some of our excitement as well.

1. The director cracked his ribs on set, trying to show the cast how to do it.

During filming, director Mike Newell recalls trying to instruct how the twin brothers playing Fred and George should’ve done a scene. Since their characters were supposed to be quite mad in that particular scene, they were struggling to get it right. So the director stepped in.

“I remember gripping him round the waist and trying to fling him about and so forth, and I cracked a couple of ribs. I was in absolute agony from then on, but of course, the wonderful thing was that I’d made a complete twit of myself and everybody felt much better for that”, he remembers.

2. The costume designer changed the color of Hermione’s dress.

In the book, Hermione’s Yule Ball dress is periwinkle blue. However, on-screen, Hermione is seen wearing a pink dress. This sparked quite the controversy, since fans wanted the dress to stay true to its original. The costume designer changed the color as she felt pink would suit Emma Watson more than blue.

3. Severus Snape played a prank on the director.

As Alan Rickman recalls, he had to wear black contact lenses in order to play the stern professor Severus Snape. Because of his contacts, director Mike Newell complimented him on the rich color of his eyes, not being aware that they were not real. Alan then took out one of his lenses to play a prank on the director.

4. Emma Watson fell down the stairs while filming a scene.

Emma remembers having a few embarrassing moments when filming for the Harry Potter franchise, among these being the scene in which she had to walk down the stairs in for Yule Ball. Seemingly easy, however, she ended up fumbling.

“He’s giving me a million directions [Newell, the director] and of course I ended up falling down the stairs,” she recalled.

5. The child actors were doing their real homework during classroom scenes.

The idea of the actors doing their real homework is brilliant. This way, everything looks as authentic as possible. Turns out, the actors were made to bring in their own real homework from home to do in the classroom scenes. Oliver Phelps, the actor who played George Weasley, recalls that: “In the exercise books in the Great Hall set, we’d actually do our own school work, just to make it look as authentic as possible.”

6. Daniel Radcliffe got two ear infections while filming underwater.

The price for such an amazing scene was, for Daniel, getting two ear infections.

When asked about the most challenging scene in an interview, he remembers: “The underwater sequence. I trained six months for it. There was talk of someone else doing it and superimposing my face on it. That would have looked like rubbish. I’m glad I did it — despite the two ear infections”. Thanks to his big risk, we now have the coolest scene!

7. Henry Cavill also auditioned for the role of Cedric Diggory.

Not only had Henry auditioned for the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but the fans wanted him to play it, too. They even signed a petition in this sense. Though Cavill auditioned for the role, it eventually went to Robert Pattinson.

8. Harry Potter’s scar was applied around 5,600 times.

Something curious that Harry Potter fans might not know, is that the scar Harry has on his forehead has been applied by the crew about 5,600 times across the whole series. Even the actor who portrayed Harry, Daniel Radcliffe, did it himself a few times.

Do you know of any hidden details from the Harry Potter movies? We’d enjoy seeing more in the comments!