Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: An Oral History

For Harry Potter on film, things kicked off with Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001 and continued a year later with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Encompassing young Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, that film kicks off with an elf named Dobby attempting to convince Harry not to return to school. With the help of friend Ron Weasley and the Weasley family’s flying car, he does so anyway, discovering that certain students are being turned to stone. Reuniting with Hermione Granger, the trio learn that the forbidden Chamber of Secrets has been opened, unleashing a creature that is attacking those students with Muggle (human) blood.

Eventually Harry meets the spirit of Tom Riddle, who seems friendly at first but is ultimately revealed to be the man who eventually became the dark lord Voldemort. At the same time, Harry tries to cope with being a “celebrity” of sorts at Hogwarts due to the events of Sorcerer’s Stone, and must cope with grandstanding professor Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), who seeks the attention that Harry shuns.

The first two Harry Potter films were short virtually back to back, with cast and crew returning to continue the magic that they’d begun. What’s interesting in watching the two films is to see the sheer amount of growth on the part of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione), and Rupert Grint (Ron) in terms of their acting abilities. Obviously the experience of film one had a genuine impact on them.

One sad bit of news during production was the announcement that this would be director Chris Columbus’ last directorial effort for the series; that he would be stepping back into the role of producer for the next film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Nonetheless, Chamber of Secrets proved to be not only a worthwhile successor to Sorcerer’s Stone, but in many ways superior as well.

Scroll down to travel back to Hogwarts with the making of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The Rush of Production

CHRIS COLUMBUS (Director): “We started the second film while the first one was wrapping production. It was an intense time, but we’d learned so much on Sorcerer’s Stone and I was very excited about taking all this knowledge into the second film.”
DAVID HEYMAN (Producer): “We devoted a good part of Sorcerer’s Stone to setting up the world of Harry Potter. There was so much to introduce in terms of the magic, the settings, and the characters. With Chamber of Secrets, we jump directly into the narrative and into the adventure.”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “None of us had the chance to sit back and think about the success of the first film, which I think was good for everyone — particularly the kids. By that point, the cast and crew had become like one big family. It was great that we could all share that sense of excitement without losing our momentum, and carry it into Chamber Of Secrets.”

A Darker Turn

CHRIS COLUMBUS: “Chamber of Secrets is darker in tone. And it’s a little scarier, a little edgier. Jo Rowling, for instance, said that that’s the book from which she got the most heat from a lot of parents, because it was scarier. So we were aware of all that when we were making the film. But I didn’t want to pull back, because, to be faithful, I wanted the readers to have the same experience they had when they read the book.”
DANIEL RADCLIFFE (Actor, “Harry Potter”): “If you take away the darkness in the film, you haven’t done the book justice. And so, if you’ve read the book, then I don’t think you’ll be scared at all. Also, I think everyone has a dark side, really. However much you like showing it or are afraid of showing it, everybody has it. So I think it was great to be able to show Harry’s dark side, and it was great to be able to show that he’s not flawless, and he’s not the perfect person.”

The Maturing Cast

DAVID HEYMAN: “One of the wonders for me was watching the maturation of Dan, Rupert, and Emma. The children were more confident and able to draw upon a wealth of new experience for their characters. Yet, at the same time, they had maintained their enthusiasm, sense of wonder, and their youthfulness.”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “These kids have come a long way. What’s great about them is that they realize what a privilege it is to be in these films, unlike other Hollywood people who don’t realize how great their job really is. They all have no sense of ego. What happened is that after 150 days of what was almost this acting workshop, they got confidence, they felt better about themselves, they became accustomed to 250 people on the set. By the time we started shooting the second movie, there was a whole level of confidence and ease, and the ability to even do some improvisation, which we had never done before.”
EMMA WATSON (Actress, “Hermione Granger”): “We just play our age. It’s like we’re growing up with the books, because we’re the same age as the characters.”
DANIEL RADCLIFFE: “I think I was certainly a lot more confident with Chris [Columbus], and if I had an idea or something, I was more comfortable talking to him about it. Whereas on the first one I wouldn’t have been able to do that.”
RUPERT GRINT (Actor, “Ron Weasley”): “I was a bit more comfortable, because unlike the first one, we knew what everything was, we knew the scheduling.”
EMMA WATSON: “I think everyone was a lot more confident and a lot more comfortable, because we knew the crew and the director. We knew what we were doing for starts, which was good. I just think everyone came back a lot more confident. I’d never done any professional acting before the first film. I was extremely nervous and didn’t know anyone. Now I know the people and my surroundings and I know what I’m doing, so I feel a lot more relaxed and can have a good time. I’ve definitely improved as an actress and feel happier with what I’m doing on screen.”

Working With Kenneth Branagh

DANIEL RADCLIFFE: “In a way, it was quite intimidating when we first had to meet Kenneth Branagh, because he is an unbelievable Shakespearean actor. But then you actually meet him and he is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. It is an honor to work with him.”
RUPERT GRINT: “I was a bit nervous to start with, working with him, but once I got talking to him, he was just so easy to talk to and down to earth and really funny.”
EMMA WATSON: “When I first met him, I felt like I would be really intimidated, since he is such an amazing person. But he is really, really down to earth and he is a really nice guy. I think he portrayed his character of Lockhart perfectly — really cheesy, really funny.”
KENNETH BRANAGH (Actor, “Gilderoy Lockhart”): “It was nerve-wracking to me, because I was aware that Chamber of Secrets is a major film with huge audience expectations and that fans already had a very established idea of who Lockhart is. He’s very flamboyant, rather vain and terribly narcissistic. So he’s a delicious character to play, ferociously irritating and charming, but we had to convince audiences that he could have done all the things he claims. We had to make him plausible. I trusted Chris Columbus and his comic timing implicitly.”

Staying Faithful to the Novel

EMMA WATSON: “I think it is amazing how much they have squeezed in. It is two hours and 40 minutes and they have put so much in, it is really amazing. Literally, I can’t think of anything which wasn’t put in that was in the book.”
RUPERT GRINT: “I can’t say anything that was missed out. I think they have been really faithful to the book. It was wicked.”
DANIEL RADCLIFFE: “I don’t think that you can be that critical of the books. I think the books are absolutely fantastic. I love the films. I think that they are really great, special films. As far as not getting everything into the film, I don’t think that in an adaptation you can really get absolutely everything into a film.”

Chamber Secrets

DANIEL RADCLIFFE: “The action scenes, for me, are so cool. When I’m hanging out of the car window, that’s actually me! I was hanging like 30 feet up in the air and it was just really cool. I do as many of the stunts as possible, but then, of course, there are those that I can’t do. But I do quite a lot of the stuff, so it is a lot of fun for me.”
RUPERT GRINT: “I got to do a lot more fun things in this film, particularly with the flying car. The scenes in Spider’s Hollow were particularly scary as I have a big fear of spiders. When I saw Aragog [an enormous ancient spider who lives in the Dark Forest] for the first time, I wasn’t acting — I was genuinely scared. I also liked the Womping Willow, which was really fun because it was like a theme park ride and I got to drive a car.”
DAVID HEYMAN: “I really loved the mandrakes. They made me laugh and I think they’re funny, so I really respond to that. I like the spider sequence, because it’s scary and I think it’s really well done. And I like it, but I always get a little nervous when Harry’s in real danger with the basilisk. I want Harry to be okay, and so there’s a moment when I’m watching the basilisk when I go, ‘Is he going to be okay?’ I, of course, know he will, but once in a while I’m still not sure.”
RUPERT GRINT: “For me, the stunts are so cool. They are my favorite thing about doing the film. Like doing that car scene was so cool, because it was like being on a theme park ride.”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “I think the hardest part to direct for Dan and myself was Dan’s interaction with [CG elf] Dobby, because he didn’t have anyone in the room. He was basically acting with a little green ball at the end of a stick. We also wanted to make sure that Dobby was lovable and existed within that frame. So when you see the frame, you believe that Dobby’s in the room with Dan. Part of what makes that work is that ILM did a really wonderful job with Dobby’s skin texture and the lighting and making it feel like he was in the room. The other thing that makes it work is Dan, because Dan really focused and even when we saw the early dailies and we saw a little green ball on the end of a stick, and we saw Dan talking to that ball, you believe that he is talking to someone.”
DANIEL RADCLIFFE: “The green ball on a stick helped, because the actual creature is so animated and jumps all over the place, it’s hard to actually get a fix on where it is at one time. But it was made so easy by everybody around us that we just got used to it.”

Goodbye, Columbus

CHRIS COLUMBUS: “I knew that after Chamber of Secrets I would be stepping down as director and become a producer. My intention was to do all seven movies as a director, but obviously that doesn’t fit in with my life. I chose not to direct in order to spend time with my kids while they are young. Once they are older, they won’t want to hang out with me nearly as much as I want to hang out with them. I just felt that it was an important time for me to be there. I was also mentally burnt out. At the same time, I felt I should stick around for Prisoner of Azkaban to make sure that there is a good transition for the actors in the film and that the quality of the films remained the same. I wanted to make sure that the ‘comfort level’ was still there for the viewers, because of the familiar worlds and characters.”

Looking Back at Chamber of Secrets

DANIEL RADCLIFFE: “The last line of the first film is like the beginning of the second film. Harry says, ‘I’m not going home, not really,’ because he’s discovered his home is at Hogwarts and that is where he belongs. But when he returns to Hogwarts at the beginning of Chamber of Secrets, he discovers that there’s a real threat to his school and home and he’s determined to protect it. In the film, I think my favorite — and the most challenging — two scenes were the dialogue between myself and Tom Riddle, which was awesome and very intense, and the dueling scene, because it had a lot of action. There’s so much dialogue in the Chamber of Secrets scene — we had to keep it going and we had to keep it very intense in order to keep the audience’s attention. Also, the dueling scene was very hard, because we had to speak parse tongue, which is a completely different language.”
RUPERT GRINT: “I think coughing up slugs in one scene was quite hard. I had these giant slugs in my mouth loaded with slime and I spat them out. They actually tasted really nice; I think it was plastic or something — at least I hope it was plastic. I enjoyed making the second film more than I did the first one, because on the first one I was a little new to it and it was the first time on the set. It was quite scary.”
EMMA WATSON: “I think in the second film Hermione became a bit more laid back and not so mothering to Harry and Ron. She finally has a bit of a different hairstyle, which is kind of nice. When I think of the funniest thing that happened on the set, imagine 300 extras in the same room for the whole week. The food is stinking, it’s boiling and everyone is dying of boredom, okay? So imagine that, and we need to get them all to laugh, and we did so many takes. It got so bad that Dan and Robbie Coltrane had to stand up on the tables and dance. And they did the Macarena, they did the Can-Can — everything — and it worked. It was the highlight of the whole filming, I think. I never laughed so much in my life.”
Our look back at Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban will be coming soon. And don’t forget our oral history retrospective on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.