Actor Jim Broadbent: I am Horace Slughorn in the New "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" Film
HBP FilmIn an exclusive interview with our friend Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons, actor Jim Broadbent confirms that he has been cast in the role of new Potions Master Horace Slughorn for the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” film.
The actor, who says he has read the Harry Potter books, confirms he will play the pivotal character in the sixth Harry Potter film which is in rehearsals this week and is set to begin filming shortly. Jim Broadbent, best known for his roles in “Moulin Rouge,” the “Bridget Jones” films, and for his Academy Award winning role in “Iris” says the following:
Who are you?Broadbent: Who am I? He’s called Horace Slughorn. He’s a retired teacher of magic who’s drawn back out of retirement because he’s got some secrets they need in the battle against the Deatheaters and he’s quite star struck as a teacher and he’s drawn back into the fold because he likes to notch up celebrity students, and he’s drawn back by Harry.
Question: Is he a comic character?
Broadbent: He is quite a comic character, yes. I haven’t started yet. I’ve had endless costume fittings and makeup and …
Question: What kind of costumes?
Broadbent: Tweedy sort of things with a bit of padding. He’s an older man, I’m aging up again.
UPDATE: You can see some additional photos of the actor here in our galleries. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince “is due for release November 21, 2008.
Thanks much to Dark Horizons and to Cameron for the heads up!
I am so thrilled and excited about Jim being cast. Yet another actor I pictured while reading the book and he’s now been cast (I think I’ve cast about 90% of the adult cast while reading the books, before the films were cast). He is going to be so awesome. I feared we wouldn’t get him because he’s also in the Narnia Chronicles but this is seriously wicked news, he will totally do Slughorn justice. Sometimes I doubt the casting people on the HP films (cos I think a few of the kids are very wrong) but then they do something like this and totally redeem themselves.