Radcliffe, who is now 19, was 11 when he was cast as the boy wizard for the series’ 2001 debut. Watson, now 19, was 10 when she auditioned for the whip-smart Hermione Granger.
Grint, the eldest of the trio, is 20.
"I’ve probably been Ron as long as I’ve been Rupert," says Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, the ginger-haired, perpetually hungry friend of Harry and Hermione.
The cast and crew have taken a break from filming Rowling’s last Potter book - to be spread out in two films - to publicise the series’ sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - which is opening in Malaysia soon.
Early reviews of the film - the second one directed by David Yates - have been positive; both Variety and The Associated Press suggested it was the best Potter film yet.
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From left: Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in 2005's Harry Potter and the Gobliet of Fire. |
As the films have matured, so has the cast. More so than any other instalment, The Half-Blood Prince, shows that Radcliffe, Watson and Grint have gone from children to young adults. To watch the first Potter film is to be reminded how young the actors were when they began.
With the end of the films looming, its young stars appear to have emerged from the most treacherous of adventures - child actor stardom - as remarkably grounded people and increasingly talented actors.
"For me to look back on the old films is an almost entirely destructive thing to do," says Radcliffe.
"I just torture myself over it. I mean, I was young. I can’t be held accountable for the performance I gave in the first two films: I was 11 and 12. I wasn’t like Dakota Fanning ... who could seemingly just do it. It was very much a child’s performance."
The many lauded Brit actors of the Potter films have had an influence on Radcliffe - perhaps none more than Gary Oldman, who played Sirius Black in several of the films, most notably the third: 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Interestingly, Radcliffe pegs that film as the moment he realised he loved acting.
"Something happened at the age of 14," he says. "I started taking it more seriously, which meant I started having more fun."
He has begun transitioning away from Harry Potter, including a hilarious cameo in Ricky Gervais' TV seriesExtras, and a well-reviewed performance in a revival of the play Equus in London in 2007 and on Broadway in 2008.
In it, Radcliffe played a deranged stable boy who completely disrobes - a scene much written about by the press.
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Daniel, Emma and Rupert at the New York premiere of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. |
The soft-spoken Yates - who’s directing the final two films - is credited with helping the young cast mature.
"They’re getting more experience outside of the film set and they’re bringing that to the floor," says Yates. "People are acknowledging it for Half-Blood Prince - but you haven’t seen anything yet."
Watson has a hard time recalling the beginning.
"This all happened to me so young," she says. "It’s very hard to go back to that time and be like, 'Did I want to do this?' It feels very foggy - it all feels very blurry."
Watson has acted in a few other films (a voiceover in 2008’s The Tale of Despereaux and the 2007 BBC filmBallet Shoes), but she has spent most of her spare time throughout Potter - and this is very Hermione-like - studying.
This fall, she’ll attend Brown University, says producer David Heyman.
"I would have exploded if I hadn’t had school to ground me and focus me," says Watson.
She plans to study literature and art, but she has also shown interest in fashion. She signed to a modeling agency about two years ago.
The bemused Grint - whom Azkaban director Alfonso Cuaron once said was the one most likely to become a star - remains clearly grounded, (even if he’s used his earnings to purchase a hovercraft). That playfulness is perhaps an essential quality to Grint, who was never inclined to view acting as a job.
"I don’t think I ever really made the connection of it being a career," he says. "It was just something that was fun to do. In the early ones, I don’t think I took the acting too seriously. I just read the lines and got on with it. Over the years, you start to take it more seriously with different directors coming in."
Grint has starred in two films not yet released: Cherrybomb, a boozy teen comedy set in Belfast; and Wild Target, a film about a retiring hitman that stars Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt. -- AP
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