Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released in 2001, setting the precedent for a wave of successful films that continue to impress fans to this day. The franchise went on to expand the universe with the Fantastic Beasts films, generating more than $7.7 billion collectively. The initial eight Harry Potter films featured Daniel Radcliffe as the protagonist Harry Potter, a budding wizard who gets orphaned as a child; and eventually goes on to avenge the murder of his parents by defeating ‘the one who must not be named’.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone launched the careers of its younger actors in the cast, who frequently worked alongside veteran film industry actors, including Daniel Radcliffe, Tom Felton, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, John Cleese, and Robbie Coltrane.
Tom Felton’s very own ‘Chamber of Secrets’
In his biography, Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard,
Tom Felton has stated that a young Daniel Radcliffe used a photo of Cameron Diaz to help him figure out where to look when filming the Harry Potter broomstick flying sequences. Radcliffe appears to have long been vocal about his Diaz obsession, telling US Weekly in 2014 that she was his “first celebrity crush.”
The young cast would shoot the flying scenes, such as those in the fantasy sport ‘Quidditch’, in front of a green screen, with the background created in post-production.
Felton said,
“The crew’s approach was that if a piece of magic or any kind of special effect could be achieved practically, that was the best way to do it. This was especially true in the early days when the visual effects teams had less-advanced technology at their disposal.“
“The broomstick was a metal pole fitted with a deeply uncomfortable bike saddle. There were stirrups for your feet and a harness to stop you falling. They strapped you to the pole so you couldn’t fall, and they had a more elaborate see-saw device to move you up and down, left and right. They blew fans in your face to make it look as if you had the wind in your hair.”
The Magical Movie-making World
To keep the performers’ eye lines consistent, some old-school cinematic wizardry was done. The young stars were told to watch “a tennis ball on a long pole” as it soared overhead.
He explained that since there were numerous tennis balls sometimes, everyone was required to look at their own version of ‘the tennis ball’. Radcliffe had a picture of Diaz, whereas Felton, who enjoys fishing, had an image of a “beautiful carp“.
“When the first assistant director shouted ‘Dragon!’ or ‘Bludger!’ you had to look at the tennis ball like it was, well, a dragon or a bludger.”
“Sometimes there would be more than one tennis ball up there, and as one looked very much like another, after a while they gave us more individual objects to stare at.” “We chose pictures of something or somebody close to our hearts. Daniel Radcliffe had a picture of a particularly beautiful Cameron Diaz.”
Radcliffe even went on to say that Diaz is still “very high on the list” of the actor’s celebrity obsessions, on the radio show, Capital Breakfast.
Well, she’s Cameron Diaz, after all.
We get it, Dan.
All Harry Potter films are available for streaming on Max.
Source: People
