Rupert spoke to CBBC Newsround’s Lizo Mzimba about what he gets up to when he’s not busy being a film star and how he really hated filming scenes with spiders in.

Did it help you doing Thunderpants in between?

Yeah – I think I needed to do another role because I was completely ‘Pottered out’ by the first one. So I think it was good I did a completely different role. The perm I wasn’t too happy with!

Do you want to do a fourth film?

I don’t know yet – I want to do most of them because I have a really good time doing them. And I want to do this when I’m older, because I really do enjoy it, it’s really fun.

Any advice for kids getting into acting?

Just do it – it’s so fun. It really is fun.

What are you looking forward to in the next movie?

Getting a new wand and getting a new owl.

Ron and Hermione

Do you think this one’s going to get even creepier with the Dementors?

Yeah – it’s going to be good.

What kind of ordinary things do you do when you’re not being a movie star?

I go-kart, that’s quite cool. And I’ve just started playing golf actually which is a bit… frustrating. Just playing on my PlayStation.

In this movie we’ve got just a hint of something going on with you and Hermione? What do you think of the storyline?

I don’t know – I’m not really looking forward to doing that! But yeah… I hope it doesn’t happen. I hope Ron gets killed off before they actually do something.

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Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Producer David Heyman Talk About “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”

On the eve of the November 15, 2002 opening of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” two of the film’s young stars stopped by the movie’s Los Angeles premiere. Part of a whirlwind publicity tour promoting this second in the series of “Harry Potter” films, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson answered a few questions about their starring roles in the “Harry Potter” franchise.

Rupert Grint at the LA Premiere of
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
Photo ©Rebecca Murray. All Rights Reserved.

RUPERT GRINT (‘Ron Weasley’)

What’s it like seeing yourself on movie posters worldwide?
It’s actually quite scary. It’s weird.

How does it feel being a celebrity?

It feels really cool. It’s a bit weird because I get recognized quite a lot. It’s strange – and they call me ‘Ron.’ I’ve tried different disguises, like hats and stuff, but it doesn’t work.

My friends treat me pretty normal. My teachers suck up a bit.

How difficult was it to shoot the slug scenes?

It was really good. I loved doing that slug scene because they flavored the slug slime so it was like chocolate, peppermint, orange, lemon, and all these really nice flavors.

How many times did you have to do the scene?

Oh, the more the better!

You have a pretty scary scene with spiders in this film and I hear you’re not a big spider fan.

I hate spiders. That was horrible to film because I really didn’t like it. I was a bit nervous about doing that one but it wasn’t that bad. After I did it like five times, I got used to it.

Were a lot of real spiders used in the movie?
Yes. Most of them weren’t CGI actually so I had to act with the spiders and I didn’t like it.

Have you begun shooting the third “Harry Potter” movie yet?

No, not yet. We start in February. I’m in school at the moment.

Emma Watson at the LA Premiere of
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
Photo ©Rebecca Murray. All Rights Reserved.

EMMA WATSON (‘Hermione’)

How did you get your big break in films?

Really by chance. Some people came to my school and said, “Is there anyone who wants to audition?” I got the audition and they kind of went on and on, and then I got the part, really.

If you had a magical power, what would it be?

I’d like to make myself invisible so that I could get in to rock concerts.

Are the “Harry Potter” films getting darker and scarier as they progress? What do you think about younger children seeing this particular movie?

It’s not necessarily getting much scarier or darker, it’s just getting more mature, I suppose. It really does depend on the kid. I took in a 5 year-old of my friend’s, and I was the one cowering in my seat. It just depends on the kid, really.

Producer David Heyman at the LA Premiere of
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
Photo ©Rebecca Murray. All Rights Reserved.

DAVID HEYMAN (Producer, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”)

What attracted you to “Harry Potter?”

I read the book back in 1997 and I fell in love with it. It had been published that week and it was not the phenomenon it would become. But I read a book that was funny, with great characters and great core values – loyalty, good over evil, family, ultimately very optimistic, filled with magic, and a great sense of adventure. I thought it had it all and I fell in love with it. Now we’ve finished the second film and we’re starting on the third and I’m still as excited as I was on day one.

When I read the book, I sent it to Warner Bros., they optioned it on my behalf and here we are. They are the financiers and they’ve been fantastic about that. I’d worked with Warner Bros. for ten years before; I was very lucky. Also, I’d made a few films – very, very different types. In fact, I made a film “The Daytrippers” which had a budget of about $60,000, which is at the opposite end from “Harry Potter,” but it was every bit as challenging and every bit as wonderful. Making films of any scale have their own challenges. “Harry Potter” has its own but it’s a fantastic project.

What’s the most difficult part of producing a film?
The most difficult part of the movie business is patience and tenacity. It takes a very long time to get films made. “Harry Potter” is very much the exception. You have to survive the many goods and the many lows. I’ve enjoyed the highs of the good, but I’ve also survived the indignity and the pain of the lows. You have to carry on through that and it’s very challenging. It’s also challenging to find things you fall in love with and you want to fight for many years to get made.

How much did the CGI effects cost in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?”
Put it this way, “The Daytrippers” cost $60,000 and I could have made many, many, many, many, many “Daytrippers” with the visual effects budget on this film.

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Rupert Grint has admitted he had a tough time settling back into school after months spent on the Harry Potter film set.

The teenage star, who plays Ron Weasley, said it was weird going to school again after such a long break.

“I don’t really like it very much,” he said on Channel 4′s Ri:se.
“I got a detention when I came back from the film premiere because I forgot my kit three times. I had to clear up the sports shed.”

Nervous

“My teachers suck up a bit as well. I shouldn’t have said that!”

Rupert, like all the other young Potter stars, has a private tutor on the set, but he has to go back to school in between filming.

He also said he gets a bit edgy when he first meets really famous actors, like Kenneth Branagh, who plays Gilderoy Lockhart in the Chamber of Secrets.

“I get quite nervous when I meet them because they’re really famous but once you get to know them, they’re really down to earth and nice,” he said.

Rupert was on Ri:se with his Thunderpants co-star, Bruce Cook.

Rupert admitted he actually thumped Bruce in a scene where he has to slap his face.

“One of the crew members paid me £5 to actually whack him in the film,” Rupert laughed. “But it was really fun to film.”

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The stars of the Harry Potter films tell John Hiscock what it’s like to be the most famous children in the world

Written by John Hiscock

During the past two years they have spent 300 days in front of the cameras, either on cavernous sets at Leavesden Studios or at various locations around England. They have been carefully shielded from publicity and access to them has been scrupulously monitored.

But now, with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the film of J K Rowling’s second Harry Potter book, about to open around the world, the three young stars upon whose shoulders the success of the project rests have emerged, like Dobby the house elf, from servitude into the world.

Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) have spent the past few days in America doing what sightseeing they can, although it has had to be fitted in around interviews and television appearances.

“I did see the Empire State Building and I met Robin Williams,” Rupert tells me, when I catch up with them in Chicago. They are due to appear on America’s top-rated daytime talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and I am immediately struck by how much more self-possessed they are than when they gave their first interviews a year ago.

Yet they still behave as if the fact that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone grossed more than £600 million around the world and is the second-biggest grossing film ever, after Titanic, means little to them. Jason Isaacs, who portrays the villainous Lucius Malfoy, says of the trio: “They are the most famous kids in the world, but they’re also the most normal.”

The three children sit together in a room at the Peninsula Hotel on a cold, rainy morning and laugh together, share private glances and jokes, and take turns to talk about their lives. The words “cool” and “amazing” feature prominently in the boys’ vocabularies, while Emma, like her Hermione character, speaks like a prim young lady.

“My life hasn’t really changed at all,” says 13-year-old Daniel, whose voice has now broken. He has also shot up two inches in height since the first film. “The only difference is that people come up to me in the street and want to talk about the film, which is fine with me because they’re always so enthusiastic.”

However, it soon becomes clear that playing Harry Potter has changed his life more than he realises as he talks matter-of-factly about the letters he receives from around the world, particularly from China and Japan. “I try to read as much of my fan mail as is humanly possible, and I deal with it with the help of the publicity department,” he says.

Daniel, who had previously played David Copperfield in the BBC television series, already talks with the self-assurance of a veteran actor. Thoughtful and articulate – he is currently reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude – he is clearly the leader of the trio, both on-screen and off, although 12-year-old Emma has firm opinions of her own. A star hockey player at school, she is hoping to win an art scholarship.

Rupert, at 14, is the oldest of the three and, like Daniel, he insists that little has changed – although he has taken up golf, he says he still devotes a lot of his spare time to his PlayStation2 video games. “All my friends have been really normal, but some of the teachers suck up a bit,” he says with a grin.

Rupert managed to complete another film, Thunderpants, in between his Harry Potter commitments and he also gets recognised wherever he goes.”It’s quite weird,” he says. “It’s hard to get used to, but it’s quite cool as well.” As to the new film, his favourite scenes are those in which he is “coughing up slugs and driving the flying car”.

None of the children has any idea of how much they are earning for the films or how much they are worth, although they all went on a spending spree when their first pay cheques arrived. Daniel, who is a big fan of films and music (particularly the Sex Pistols and the Stranglers), bought himself “a stack of DVDs”; Emma went on “a massive clothes shopping spree”; and Rupert bought “a cool phone with a camera on it and loads of stuff”.

But money is not something that occupies their thoughts. “I don’t know how much money I have, and I don’t need to know, because I’m only a kid,” says Dan, whose father is a literary agent and mother a casting director.

“We don’t have anything to do with it,” Emma agrees. “My parents decided not to tell me what I am earning because it is easier that way.”

Rupert shrugs offhandedly. “Dunno,” he says.

The Chamber of Secrets sees Harry Potter lurching into darker territory, as a malevolent force is hiding in Hogwarts with the intention of purging it of “Mudbloods” (those who are not of pure wizard stock). One by one, pupils are being turned to stone, and it is up to Harry, Ron and Hermione to unmask the villain.

The film depicts Harry as more of an action hero this time, wielding a sword, battling a monster and risking death from giant spiders while tracking down the evil force terrorising the school.

“Dan is more of a leading man now,” says the film’s producer, David Heyman. “On the first film, most of the 12-year-old girls went for Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy, but this time I think it will be Harry.

“He’s more confident now and much more aggressive in the action sequences. He has come into his own as a leader. I have been around Dan for the past two years and to see him grow has been one of the big rewards for me. He has become really mature.”

Daniel, Emma and Rupert and the 600 child extras in the cast can only work for up to four-and-a-half hours a day, because they have to take regular half-hour breaks and three hours off to attend school classes, which slows down production but allows the filmmakers to edit as they go.

Filming is due to begin early next year on the third in the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, with the Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron replacing Chris Columbus as director. (Columbus is staying on as a producer.) After that, nothing is set.

A lot will depend on how fast the children grow during the next year, and whether Rowling carries out her plans to write a total of seven books. Four have been published so far, with a fifth now overdue.

Heyman says: “The Prisoner of Azkaban is set for release either in the spring or autumn of 2004, but after that we just don’t know.” Despite suggestions that the children will be replaced after the next film, Daniel sees no reason why he should not continue to play Harry Potter well into his teens.

“Harry actually grows in the books,” he says, “and there’s no reason why I can’t grow with Harry, or why Emma can’t grow with Hermione or Rupert with Ron.”

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