Director Chris Columbus Reflects on Trio and the First Two Harry Potter Films

As part of the build up to the release of the much anticipated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Ultimate Edition DVDs due next month, director Chris Columbus is the subject of a new feature in the LA Times Hero Complex blog. In this article, Chris Columbus reflects back on the casting of the Trio and remarks too at how far they have come since those very early movies. Quotage of interest:

“Having done the ‘Home Alone’ pictures, I realized
that we needed to start casting kids based on their families and the
security that their families could give them at this particular time in
their lives — that was particularly the case with the “Potter” kids,
who were about to become three of the most famous kids in the world,”
Columbus said. “So David Heyman and I made sort of a pact that we were
gonna cast the families as well as the kids. And in interviewing Dan’s
family and Rupert’s family and Emma’s family, they surrounded
themselves with a really solid group of people. Their parents were very
supportive, their parents were there for them all the time.”

…
“There wasn’t this obsession for fame,” the 51-year-old director
said. “It all sort of happened — particularly with Daniel Radcliffe
— reluctantly. With the other two kids it seemed accidentally
’ they weren’t expecting it. And I think as a result of that, because
they had that sense of support from us at the beginning, and from their
parents throughout, they’ve really turned into terrific adults. And
that being said, they’ve also turned into terrific actors, you know. ”

Debate, if you will, the quality of Columbus as a director but don’t
doubt for a minute his value to the franchise that is now a towering
part of Hollywood history. “Boy, I’m telling you, to see them grow as
actors and actually having the opportunity to see Dan in [the stage
play] ‘Equus’¦I was just really, really impressed. It was the feeling of a proud parent.”