Every child in Britain dreamt of acting in the Harry Potter film, but only three had the magic touch needed to win them the lead roles.

Interviews by Bryan Appleyard and Caroline Scott

Harry

Daniel Radcliffe has two talents that he believes were the key to getting the part of Harry Potter. He can make his stomach ripple, and he can play recognizable tunes by tapping on his cheeks. “I thought,” he says, “if that doesn’t do it, nothing will.”

Daniel was born in London, the only child of Marcia Gresham, a casting director, and Alan Radcliffe, a literary agent. Curiously, he never acted in school plays. “I knew I’d do something wrong. I’d be fine during rehearsals, then when all the parents were there, I’d fall down and twist my ankle or something.”

But he was a player from an early age: the TV part of David Copperfield came along soon after he failed to get Oliver Twist. Harry is a similar character to both, in that he lacks a proper family: “I seem to have a talent for playing orphans,” says Daniel, now aged 12.

He auditioned for Harry in July last year, and a few weeks later he was having a bath when the telephone rang. “My dad picked up the phone in the kitchen. He said, ‘Right… okay… yes.’ He came up a few minutes later and told me I was going to play Harry Potter. We all cried. That night I woke up at 2:30 and had to wake my dad to ask him if it was a dream.”

It was announced at school assembly. “It was only the third time I’ve been mentioned in assembly. One was bad, and the other was scoring a hat trick for the B team.” He keeps in touch with his schoolfriends by having them over as visitors to the set.

Were they jealous? “I don’t think so. Everybody has been really nice.” When the film comes out, he will be one of the most famous faces in the world. Does he think he can handle it? “It will be cool.

“But I don’t think you should regard yourself as famous, because then it goes to your head.” I ask him which actors he admires. A list trips off his tongue: “Tim Robbins, Ben Stiller, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cameron Diaz, Renee Zellweger, Kate Hudson…”

He loves being in the same business as his heroes. He is thrilled that he can now watch a film and know how it is done. “The camera loves him,” says Chris Columbus, the director.

But Daniel just says, “I don’t know what they liked about me,” and, as he spots my raised eyebrows: “I don’t know, really.”

–Bryan Appleyard

Ron

When Rupert Grint, 13, from Hertfordshire, read the Harry Potter books, he imagined that the family of Ron Weasley were his family.

He loved Ron (Harry’s best friend), and when he heard that Warner Bros. was casting for the role, he had to have it. “I lived the books, and I knew the Weasleys inside out,” he says.

So firmly did he think himself to be Ron that, when he heard nothing (“Half the children in Britain must have responded”), he redoubled his efforts, hit the Harry Potter Web site, began his own show reel and wrote a rap song explaining how much he wanted the part. When he was called for the audition he couldn’t believe it, but inside was the quiet confidence: “I am Ron, I am Ron…”

“There is a warmth about Rupert, which is absolutely part of the character of Ron,” says the casting director, Karen Lindsay-Stewart, whose previous credits include The Secret Garden and Madeline.

“Ron is kind and thoughtful and slightly insecure, and has a generousness of spirit that I also see in Rupert. There are no short cuts with children. You have to see as many as possible until you find the one who has the spark you’re looking for. I’ll go anywhere – primary schools and youth groups as well as agents and drama schools. The great thing is that every child knows the characters inside out.”

Children all over the country were asked to send in videotapes of their own making. “It was such fun getting the tapes back. When we were casting Moaning Myrtle, we had a hilarious tape from one girl, which she had obviously recorded in the school loos.” [Webmaster note: "Loo" is British English for bathroom.]

–Caroline Scott

Hermione

Emma Watson, 11, was already on her third Harry Potter book when she was visited at her school in Oxford. “A few girls were chosen to audition, and I thought it would be a giggle to try,” she says.

“Then I kept getting recalled, and it became more serious. I couldn’t imagine that they would choose me out of thousands of girls, but the closer it got, the more I wanted the part of Hermione Granger.”

“Emma had the ability to be forthright and still remain appealing, and that was the key,” says Lindsay-Stewart. “She has to appear likable in spite of sometimes behaving in a rather unlikable way.”

Emma puts it more simply: “Hermione sounds like me, behaves like me. She’s self-assured, irritating, emotional and loyal. Playing her doesn’t involve an awful lot of acting.” The final choice was down to Columbus and the producer, David Heyman.

“There has to be chemistry,’ says Lindsay-Stewart, “and that was obvious with Dan, Rupert and Emma from the moment they met. Some children look right but are so nervous that you know they won’t survive on set with a hundred other people.”

Once on set, the children formed a tight-knit group. Thrust out of ordinary lives into the glamorous yet often tedious world of film, it was inevitable that they would bond. They’ve had to get used to cramming an hour’s maths into a lighting break, as if it were part of the timetable at Hogwarts.

Outside the world of Harry Potter, they maintain as normal a life as possible. Rupert goes home from filming and sees his friends. Emma says she still has friends who don’t know she is Hermione.

She is both starry and ambivalent about her impending fame. “I’ve never turned down a request for an autograph, but it’s scary knowing that the whole world knows my face.” She is hedging her bets when it comes to her future career. “I haven’t decided on anything yet, but I generally like things I’m good at.”

Rupert wants to be an actor. Asked what he does during the endless breaks to dress sets and set up lighting, when making a film gets boring, Rupert insists: “Are you kidding? This is Harry Potter! I love every last moment of it.”

Published 7 October 2001