The Associated Press has released their interview with Michael Gambon where he discusses his role as Professor Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films. Echoing many of his comments heard earlier from the LA Times, this acclaimed and versatile actor remarks on playing an iconic figure like the beloved Hogwarts Headmaster:
He established himself on the stage with widely hailed performances
of Shakespeare ("Othello," "Macbeth," "King Lear") and Harold Pinter
("Betrayal," "The Caretaker"). He was given the nickname "The Great
Gambon," praised for the physicality, nuance and unpredictability of
his performances. "I've played quite a lot of crooks and killers,
and that's quite interesting," says Gambon. "Then Dumbledore is the
complete opposite, isn't he? He's a nice old man."...Gambon says, it's common for a young child to anxiously spy him while sipping coffee at a cafe. "It's
very odd," Gambon said in an interview shortly after the film's crazed
London premiere. "I hadn't realized before just how powerful these
things are. I just do the job and go home and you forget it" — adding a
snap of his finger...This[being part of the Harry Potter series] will stick out as being a happy memory, being with a thing for so
long and the worldwide love of it," says Gambon. "You never forget
that."
"But the 68-year-old actor, who keeps cigarettes hid under Dumbledore’s robes," Ok, call me crazy or whatever but this is something i didn’t want to know. It’s quite disturbing, at least for me, knowing that while he’s shooting he has cigarettes in his robe…, though it is somehow quite entertaining at the same time, another proof of his rather, well if you follow the stereotypes, strange and eccentric character.
I’m glad though he recognizes the importance of what he’s doing.
I’m glad that he is finally realizing that he has personified Dumbledore, a character beloved by so many. Sure, it may just be acting – another job – to him, but Dumbledore is real to so many people which is why we get so aggravated at the "angry" Dumbledore we’ve seen and are so praise filled when his character is spot on.
I must admit the opening scene on the train platform in the HBP movie where "angry" Dumbledore demanded Harry take his arm replaced the "let us step out into the night and pursue that flightly temptress, adventure" Dumbledore of the book negatively colored my view of the movie. Michael Gambon will only ever understand and portray the Dumbledore that is presented in the movie script and he seems to be doing a good job of that.
i really like gambon honestly. He screwed up GoF but he’s gotten it right the other times! HBP was perfect.
Richard Harris, as much as i loved him, couldn’t have done the spirited dumbledore we see in the these later books, he works perfectly for the first two.
ok, I’m sorry but I really DO NOT like Gambon as Dumbledore. This book is really Dumbledore’s book. He is wonderful and witty… Gambon does not play this well at all. He did the best in PoA, in my opinion.
As both of them stared at the place where it had broken, appalled at what had happened, a pearly-white figure with hugely magnified eyes rose into the air, unnoticed by any but them. Harry could see its mouth moving, but in all the crashes and screams and
"But the 68-year-old actor, who keeps cigarettes hid under Dumbledore’s robes," Ok, call me crazy or whatever but this is something i didn’t want to know. It’s quite disturbing, at least for me, knowing that while he’s shooting he has cigarettes in his robe…, though it is somehow quite entertaining at the same time, another proof of his rather, well if you follow the stereotypes, strange and eccentric character.
I’m glad though he recognizes the importance of what he’s doing.