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Credit: Warner Bros.With the exception of Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts (2022), these days it’s rare to hear one of the many Harry Potter actors actually discuss their experiences on the sets of any one of the eight Harry Potter movies.
After all, recent years have seen controversy surround Hogwarts like a swarm of Dementors, which stems from a number of tweets shared by Wizarding World creator JK Rowling, which were met with waves of criticism, with many describing her as “transphobic”.
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Since then, many Harry Potter “alumni” have been quizzed on their views of Rowling, most of whom have criticised her directly, or shown opposition by reaffirming their pro-trans stance. However, one of the very few who has defended JK Rowling is actor Jason Isaacs.
In the Harry Potter movies, Jason Isaacs plays the wicked Lucius Malfoy, father to Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), perhaps the most unpleasant Slytherin in the whole of Hogwarts, and second mortal enemy to Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe).
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Isaacs first appeared in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), and subsequently appeared in Harry Potter and the Globlet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), and the final movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011).
While he was one of many Harry Potter actors to address the controversy, Isaacs recently spoke about his time on the final film in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, calling upon memories of a particularly pivotal moment.
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In an interview with The List, Isaacs reveals that his fondest memories on set are those while filming the climactic Battle of Hogwarts. He said:
“I remember when we were shooting the big courtyard sequence at the end, the big battle of Hogwarts [in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2] … because it went on for quite a long time because it rained, so we couldn’t shoot. We’d go to work every day and we’d sit about. If it was an American film, people would go back to their trailers, but it wasn’t an American film, so we all sat in a big tent with a tea urn full of increasingly solid tea, which the spoons would stand up in, waiting for the tin of biscuits at 11 o’clock to come around, huddled around the heaters.”
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Isaacs then went on to talk specifically about some of his co-stars, including Helen McCrory, who played his on-screen wife Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, but who sadly passed away last year:
“It was very cold, listening to Julie Walters tell stories about her pig farm and laughing like idiots, and telling filthy showbiz anecdotes to each other. I wanted the rain to go on for months. I wanted it never to end … I also remember standing there, somebody, could have been the late, great, brilliant and hilarious Helen McCrory, going, ‘I don’t know how you’ve f***ing taken this for 10 years. I can’t tell you.”
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In an interview published in The Telegraph earlier this year, Isaacs weighed in on the JK Rowling controversy. The 58-year-old actor said:
“There’s a bunch of stuff about Jo… I don’t want to get drawn into the trans issues, talking about them, because it’s such an extraordinary minefield. One of the things that people should know about her too — not as a counter-argument — is that she poured an enormous amount of her fortune into making the world a much better place, for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children through her charity Lumos.”
Isaacs added that many of the Harry Potter actors, himself included, have seen “on the ground the work they [Lumos] do”, and that “for all that she [JK Rowling] has said some very controversial things”, that he was not going to be “jumping to stab her in the front, or back” without having a conversation with her.
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While many Harry Potter actors have spoken out against JK Rowling, Warner Bros. has since defended the 56-year-old British author. However, there could still be trouble ahead for the Wizarding World, as the latest Fantastic Beasts film has underperformed at the box office.
As such, it’s entirely possible that Harry Potter will be “reset” at some point in the future, or at the very least, that there will be no more Fantastic Beasts movies as previously planned. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) failed to wow fans and audiences, while turning in a mediocre performance at the global box office.
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What’s your favorite moments from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2? Let us know in the comments down below!