Top 10 Crazy Facts You Didn't Know About the Harry Potter Movies

Top 10 Crazy Facts You Probably Didn't Know About The Harry Potter Movies

Even if you’ve seen each film a dozen times, you might not know these behind-the-scenes facts. Welcome to MsMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the Top 10 Crazy Facts You Probably Didn't Know About The Harry Potter Movies.
For this list, we’re looking at the most interesting bits of information that the cast and producers have revealed about the making of this popular series of fantasy films.

#10: The Black Family Tree Tapestry was Really Authentic

If you’ve read “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, you probably remember the scene where Sirius is showing Harry his family tree which is on a tapestry hanging in Grimmauld Place. While it may not get a ton of screen time in the film, the producers still put in all the work to make it as close to the author’s imaginings as possible. J.K. Rowling allegedly gave them a family tree with over 70 names on it as well as details of how they were all connected. The book version is supposed to date back to the middle ages so it would be even more extensive.

#9: Emma Watson Not Hugging Rupert Grint Was Based on Genuine Awkwardness

In the final scenes of the “Chamber of Secrets”, Hermione is finally revived after having been petrified for much of the story’s conclusion. In the great hall, she greets Harry and Ron for the first time and hugs Harry before awkwardly avoiding a hug with Ron. It turns out, Emma Watson was quite nervous at the time about having to hug the boys so her trepidation about embracing Ron was totally authentic. According to director Christopher Columbus, Watson initially refused to hug either of the boys, so Columbus embraced her genuine discomfort and found a compromise. She hugged Radcliffe but skipped Grint, perfectly foreshadowing their later romantic relationship in the process.

#8: Those Were Real Owls Carrying the Letters

In the age of special effects and CGI, it’s almost unbelievable that they put the time and effort into this. But in the first Harry Potter film, when Harry receives the thousands of letters informing him of his acceptance to Hogwarts, the owls who deliver them are not computer animated - nor are the letters! The crew trained real owls to carry envelopes, only to discover after much trial and error that the envelopes they were using were too heavy. This meant they had to completely recreate the painstakingly handmade creations. For the fifth movie, they brought 40 kittens on set to film the scenes for Umbridge’s office. Don’t worry though- they were all adopted afterwards.

#7: Harry Melling Almost Lost his Role

This young British actor who portrayed Harry’s horrible cousin Dudley Dursley in the films was nearly out of the job at one point. In between filming “Chamber of Secrets” and “Prisoner of Azkaban”, Harry Melling lost so much weight that he no longer fit his character description. One of Dudley’s main characteristics is his portly stature, so it didn’t exactly fit to have someone thin playing him. Rather than re-cast however, the producers made a fat suit for him to wear as filming went forward.

#6: The Seven Potter Scene Was Not Easy to Film

At the beginning of “Deathly Hallows- Part 1”, Harry has to be safely transported to the The Burrow from the Dursley’s house on Privet Drive. The problem is that the Order suspects that Voldemort knows of their plans to move him. In order to decrease their odds of Harry being killed in transit, six others take polyjuice potion in order to temporarily transform into Harry. Considering Daniel Radcliffe had to actually act out each role, this scene became incredibly complicated to shoot. It allegedly took them over 95 takes in order to get it right. Similarly, many Ford Anglias were ruined when filming the Whomping Willow scene.

#5: They Built a Lot of Sets

Throughout the journey that Harry, Ron and Hermione take over the span of the eight movies, the characters are constantly visiting new places and discovering new parts of the wizarding world. Because of this, the art department was constantly at work on creating new sets in order to expand the scope of this greater wizarding world. Especially in the later movies, the trio moves around a lot, seeing the Quidditch World Cup, entering the Department of Mysteries and walking through Godric’s Hollow. All in all, it has been estimated that more than 588 sets were built in total.

#4: Emma Almost Didn't Audition

It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing the role of Hermione Granger, but it turns out that it almost didn’t happen. In the quest to find young actors to play the pivotal roles from the Harry Potter books, the producers went through a rigorous casting process that brought them to schools all around the United Kingdom. One of those schools was Emma Watson’s, and even though she was a huge Harry Potter fan, she reportedly wasn’t interested in auditioning. As the story goes, it was one of her teachers that prodded her to give it a try and the rest is history.

#3: The Trio Took Souvenirs From the Set

Considering how many props were used during the creation of this film series, we’re going to guess that no one noticed if a couple went missing at the end. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson all took a little something home with them after filming wrapped which was key to their character. Daniel chose to take both the first pair of glasses Harry wore, and the last. Emma took a wand. And Rupert took the deluminator, which was so important for Ron in the story’s final installments. If Dumbledore decided to leave it to him, we’re not going to argue with that.

#2: The Script Forced J.K. Rowling to Reveal Dumbledore’s Sexual Orientation

Long before J.K. Rowling shared the fact that Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore was gay with the public, she had to let the filmmakers in on the secret. Rowling chose never to mention this fact in the books, saying that it wasn’t relevant to his character’s story. When going over the script for one of the films however, Rowling noticed a line where Dumbledore mentions a girl he had a crush on once. She had to tell the writers to scrap the line because it wasn’t true to the character she had imagined.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
J.K. Rowling Could Have Played Lily Potter

One of Draco’s Best Lines was Improvised by Tom Felton

They Didn’t Film Daniel’s Feet in the Yule Ball Scene Because He Kept Tripping

#1: The Producers Tried to Make the Actors Look Like the Book Characters - But Failed

Knowing the rabid fan base that the books had, the film creators had their work cut out for them when it came to casting actors who looked as much like the book characters as possible. One of the issues they encountered was that their Harry, Daniel Radcliffe, had blue eyes instead of green. Much is made of Harry’s eye color in the books for reasons which become clear later in the series, but despite their attempts to get him to use colored contacts, an allergic reaction prevented it from happening. Similarly, Hermione’s large front teeth are emblematic of her character, but when Emma Watson wore false ones, it affected her ability to deliver her lines.