Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone: An Oral History On The Movie's Filming

The Harry Potter universe continues to expand beyond the seven books written by J.K. Rowling and the eight feature films that they inspired. There’s the live sequel to it all, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which was presented on both London’s West End and on Broadway; and there’s the prequel film series under the umbrella title Fantastic Beasts, the second entry of which, The Crimes of Grindelwald, reaches theaters on Nov. 16.

All told, it’s an incredible saga that’s been unfolding since the publication of the first Harry Potter novel back in 1997 and the release of the first film in 2001 (both titled in the UK Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone). What you’re reading is the kick-off in a series of retrospective articles, told in oral history format through a combination of exclusive interviews and studio-provided quotes, which will be presented weekly and go right up until the release of the new Fantastic Beasts.

“Where the idea for Harry Potter actually came from, I really couldn’t tell you,” admitted J.K. Rowling. “My boyfriend was moving to Manchester and wanted me to move, too. It was during the train journey back from Manchester to London, after a weekend of looking for a flat that Harry Potter made is appearance. I have never felt such a huge rush of excitement. I knew immediately that this was going to be so much fun to write. I didn’t know then that it was going to be a book for children, I just knew that I had this boy, Harry. I also saw it as a series which would follow Harry to the end of his school days at Hogwarts, which would be seven years. So in the final book, Harry will have come of age in this wizarding world.

“It was the weirdest feeling,” she added. “I was on the train and it seemed like the idea was just floating in my head; it was like the idea had been floating around, waiting for someone to write it, and it chose me. It was like an explosion in my head, like magic. I know that sounds corny, but it was like pure inspiration. You can always tell when you have a good idea when you are writing, because you get this physical response to it; a surge of excitement. I never felt such excitement. And during that journey, I not only discovered Harry, but also Ron, Nearly Headless Nick, Hagrid, and Peeves. But with the idea of my life careening round my head, I didn’t have a pen that worked. And I never went anywhere without my pen and notebook. So rather than trying to write it, I had to think it. And I think that was a very good thing. I was besieged by a mass of detail, and if it didn’t survive that journey, it probably wasn’t worth remembering.”

Obviously it was.

Our look at The Sorcerer’s Stone, focusing on how the various elements came together, begins below — scroll down to see!

Harry goes to the movies.

DAVID HEYMAN (Producer): “Success has many partners. The story is that I came back to London to start my company, where I wanted to focus on books. I’d been looking for a subject matter that would appeal to audiences in both Europe and the United States. My secretary was actually the one who introduced me to the book by telling me the idea. When I heard what the book was about, I took it home, read it, and was very impressed. What I thought was a great idea turned out to be an even more remarkable book, and so much richer than the idea that initially attracted me. I realized that this was something very special and began pursuing the rights the following morning.”
CHRIS COLUMBUS (Director): “I received a call from my agent telling me the book was available. There was only one problem: several directors were now also interested in making the film. Warner Bros. and David Heyman began a lengthy process of interviewing the potential candidates.”
J.K. ROWLING: “We were inundated with offers from film companies, and I said no to all of them — even Warner. But they kept coming back. I’m not against the idea of a film — I love films. The vital thing for me was that it would be true to the book. The decision to go with Warner wasn’t about money or power, it was because I believed in them.”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “I felt that if I could articulate my passion and obsession with the material, if I could clearly specify how I would make the film, David and the studio would realize I was the man for the job.”
DAVID HEYMAN: “I thought Chris Columbus would be the right director for the film. He has worked with children before and has a great sense of humanity. We knew that would be necessary for this kind of movie, plus he had a great passion for the books.”

Chris Columbus is chosen as director.

CHRIS COLUMBUS: “I have to admit that I was weary of the Potter films at first, because I was worried about the amount of visual effects, because you don’t want an artificial sense of reality. You want the film to have personality. Once we discovered we could build the actual sets in the film, I was much more happy with directing it. I also was a huge Charles Dickens fan growing up and always wanted to direct a film set in England. Also, my real love is story. Story can be set anywhere; it is the basis of your film. Stories have universal appeal outside of specific genres. I love the idea of fantasy, because it empowers people and leads them into uncharted worlds. The real connection between the Harry Potter movies and myself lies in my film Young Sherlock Holmes, which is where the fantasy and English elements lead together. It begins there.”
DAVID HEYMAN: “Chris emerged as the person with the greatest passion and understanding of the books, and the desire to remain faithful to Jo’s vision.”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “There’s a reason why millions of children and adults have fallen in love with the Harry Potter books. To destroy the foundation of this world and these characters would alienate our audience. So I was adamant about being incredibly faithful to the books.”
J.K. ROWLING: “They made me two promises. That it would be an all-British cast, and that they would keep it as true to the book as was possible within the constraints of film. They kept both promises.”
DAVID HEYMAN: “There is no stipulations other than my promise to her. I’m a man of my word, and that’s important. Second, the very fact that the books have been so successful encourages fidelity and responsibility. And third, Jo is the most wonderful collaborator. She’s not a person who says, ‘No, you can’t do this.’ She’s incredibly reasonable and very clear.”

Respecting Rowling.

CHRIS COLUMBUS: “To me, the movie is a companion piece to the book. My goal was to involve Jo Rowling as a collaborator. People would say, ‘Well, isn’t that going to interrupt your vision and isn’t that going to get in the way of what you want this film to look like?’ I thought, ‘If I were doing Dracula and had access to Bram Stoker, I would certainly want to know what he was thinking.’ If I were doing a World War II movie, I would hire a consultant who had been in the war and knew what happened in terms of reality. Jo was a very willing collaborator. She never came in with a sledgehammer and said, ‘This must be done this way, you need to do this.’ That never happened, so I just found it a joy to work with her.”
STEVE KLOVES (Screenwriter): “What would happen with a writer like me is that I would get an envelope with a half a dozen synopses of books. The last one was something called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The title was interesting, but the synopsis didn’t do it justice. I decided to go into a bookstore about a block from my office, I bought it and I was about ten-pages in when I called my agent and said, ‘I think I’m going to want to do this movie called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.’ Little did I know it was going to be the next 11 or 12 years for me. It was just one of those things that was meant to happen. I just felt this weird kinship with this material.”
J.K. ROWLING: “Steve and I were introduced, in LA, by David Heyman and we almost immediately went into a lunchtime meeting with a big studio executive. Steve turned to me while food was being ordered and said quietly, ‘You know who my favorite character is?’ I looked at him, red hair included, and I thought, ‘You’re going to say Ron. Please, please don’t say Ron — Ron’s so easy to love.’ And he said, ‘Hermione.’ At which point, under my standoffish, mistrusting exterior, I just melted, because if he got Hermione, he got the books. He also, to a large extent, got me.”
STEVE KLOVES: “I think for some weird reason, from that moment on she sort of trusted me. The thing about Jo, though, which is remarkable for someone who had no experience with the filmmaking process, was her intuition. We had a conversation the very first day I met her where she said, ‘I know the movies can’t be the books. I just ask you to be true to the characters, that’s all I care about.’ And that was always my watchword.”

Casting the Characters.

DAVID HEYMAN: “Finding the right actors to play the characters was a very big challenge. It was not easy to find a boy who embodied the many qualities of Harry Potter. We wanted someone who could combine a sense of wonder and curiosity, the sense of having lived a life, having experienced pain; an old soul in a child’s body. He needed to be open and generous to those around him and have good judgment.”
J.K. ROWLING: “We’d know him when we found him. I was walking around in London and Edinburgh, looking at kids as I passed them, just thinking, ‘Could be, you never know.’ I could have lunged at a kid and said, ‘Can you act? You’re coming with me. Taxi!’”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “We had auditioned hundreds of actors for the role of Harry, but with little luck. Then, the first casting director, in a fit of total frustration, threw up her arms and said, ‘I just don’t know what you want!’ Sitting on a shelf in the office was a video copy of David Copperfield, starring Daniel Radcliffe. I picked up the video box, pointed to Dan’s face and said, ‘This is who I want! This is Harry Potter.’”
DAVID HEYMAN: “Dan’s parents were reluctant, and I completely understand their reticence and caution in allowing their child to play a role that would inevitably change his life.”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “We made it very clear that we would protect their son. We knew from the start that Dan was Harry Potter. He had the magic, the inner depth and darkness that is very rare in an 11-year-old. He also has a sense of wisdom and intelligence that I haven’t seen in many other kids his age. We knew we made the right choice after sending Jo a copy of his screen test. Her comment was to the effect, ‘I feel as if I’ve been reunited with my long-lost son.’”
DANIEL RADCLIFFE (Actor, “Harry Potter”): “I went to go see a play with my mom and dad called Stones in His Pockets. In the row in front of us were David Heyman and Steve Kloves, the producer and writer of the films. David introduced himself during the break. He was a really nice guy and my dad knew him from work. I was only introduced to them as a producer and a writer; I didn’t know they did Harry Potter. Then we got a call asking if we would meet with David, and I went. Now, I never thought of me as being Harry, although when a friend of mine told me they were holding audition, I was dead keen. Later, we got a call asking me to go on another audition and it just went from there. I had to go on three auditions and two or three screen tests. I remember thinking, ‘There are a million boys auditioning and I know I won’t get it.’ I was in the bath one day and my dad picked up the phone. I hear him say, ‘Hello, David.’ My dad came upstairs and I thought it was going to be a letdown call to say that I didn’t get the part. But he came upstairs and told me, and I just sat there for a while to let it sink in. I just started to cry because I was so happy. There’s no words for it, really.”

Finding the other parts of the trio.

Once Daniel was signed to play Harry, the other cast members began falling into place, including Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry’s best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger; Tom Felton as the dark-spirited Draco Malfoy, who is Harry’s enemy at school; Robbie Coltrane as the lovable Hagrid the Giant, Richard Harris as Head of Hogwarts, Professor Albus Dumbledore; Alan Rickman as Professor Snape, and Dame Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall.
DAVID HEYMAN: “While we were casting Harry, we were simultaneously looking to fill the other roles, but the casting of Harry was the peak of the triangle. Without him, none of the rest would make sense. We brought in several children for screentests, but it soon became apparent who we wanted.”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “When it came to Ron Weasley, we immediately fell in love with Rupert Grint. He’s extremely funny and has such an incredibly warm presence.”
RUPERT GRINT (Actor, “Ron Weasley”): “I decided to do my own audition video, pretending to be one of my drama teachers. I dressed up like my teacher, who’s a girl, so it was kind of scary. Then I made up this rap song about how much I wanted to be in the film. I guess it worked, because I had a bunch of auditions. It was so cool when I was cast. It was the coolest moment in my life. I’d just been doing school plays and stuff. One time, I was a fish in Noah’s Ark, and then I was in Harry Potter — that’s a big step!”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “Emma Watson embodies the soul and the essence of Hermione Granger. When we saw Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson together on screen, they had amazing chemistry. It was electric. We knew we had found the perfect team.”
EMMA WATSON (Actress, “Hermione Granger”): “Some people came round to my school in Oxfordshire and said, ‘Do you have anyone who would like to audition?’ So I had an audition at my school. I think I ended up doing over five auditions. My dad told me, ‘You do realize there are going to be, like, a thousand girls auditioning, right?’ And I was kind of like, ‘Oh, okay… I’ll, um, keep that in mind.’ I tried to enjoy it instead of desperately trying for it. I found out that I had gotten the part when David Heyman invited Rupert Grint and me to come in. We sat down in his office — all very casual — and he said, ‘You’ve got the part.’ I was so shocked and I just stood there and said, ‘Pinch me.’ Getting the part is… intimidating. When I got the part, I couldn’t believe it because I was expecting someone to get the part who had professional acting experience.
“I truly love the character. I like her because she’s really bossy and nerdy and all that kind of stuff it makes her funny, even though she doesn’t realize it. A lot of people have asked if I am like her, but I don’t think I am, really. She’s a total bookworm and will do anything to get top marks. I enjoy school, but I’m not obsessed with school. I also hope that I have better fashion sense than she does.”

The rest of the HP family.

TOM FELTON (Actor, “Draco Malfoy”): “Draco is very mean. To best honest, I’m not that mean. I think he’s jealous and he wants to be the coolest guy in school. Of course, I prefer to play a bad character. It’s more fun, because it’s different.”
ROBBIE COLTRANE (Actor, “Hagrid”): “Hagrid is very scary. He’s half a giant and the giants aren’t very nice, so he has to have that edge to him and they did it very cleverly. They said, ‘When he kicks the door in and then he says, ‘Sorry,’ that’s real Hagrid.” He forgets how strong he is and that he could break your neck with a snap of his finger. But it’s also quite clear in the writing when he’s supposed to be funny. I mean, Hagrid’s problem is that when he starts talking, he doesn’t know when to stop. He actually gives away major plotlines. ‘I should not have said that’ became a bit of a catchphrase in the shooting, because he keeps doing it.”
RICHARD HARRIS (Actor, “Professor Albus Dumbledore”): “Dumbledore’s presence is felt right through the books, even though you don’t see much of him. He’s a very important figure in the stories. Early on, I remember Chris Columbus asked me to meet the young cast and I came out to the studio and read with them. When I finished the reading, Rupert Grint turned to me and said, ‘Mr. Harris, that was quite a good reading. I think you’ll be quite good in this part.’”
ALAN RICKMAN (Actor, “Professor Snape”): “I have lots of nephews and relationships with friends’ children. They weren’t so much excited as insistent that I do the part. I understand their enthusiasm. Harry Potter’s like any great play or novel which obeys rules of storytelling. You’re gripped from the first page and as you keep turning the pages, you get involved with the characters and want to see what happens next.”
DAME MAGGIE SMITH (Actress, “Professor McGonagall”): “I thought it was such a terrific book for kids, and I was greatly interested to see how they were going to create this magic on film. The story has captured everyone’s imagination, and how often do you get to walk around as a wizard, wearing great clothes?”

Capturing Hogwarts on film.

CHRIS COLUMBUS: “When we were done with casting, I said to my cinematographer and production designer, ‘I want you guys to push this film visually beyond anything that I’ve ever done. It has to be visually stunning; that’s more important than anything.’ Then I told the actors, ‘Your performances have to be incredibly real and naturalistic.’ My feeling with Hogwarts and that whole world is that it would have been easy to take this into some fantastical places that exists only in the imagination, but I felt that when I read the books, that Jo Rowling spoke to every 11-year-old and said, ‘You know, you could potentially get a letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.’ That gave these kids some hope in their lives, and I thought, ‘That’s what I want the films to be like,’ that you could actually, potentially, get this letter. You want to make them believe in magic in a weird way. I know that sounds corny, but it’s really how I felt. You want kids to believe in the magic of it all.”
J.K. ROWLING: “I’d say a week from seeing the film, I was very excited, and the closer the viewing came, the more frightened I became. To the point where I actually sat down to see the film, I was terrified. But at the end of the film, I was happy. There is an awful lot of my book up there. All the important bits, I’d say. It’s my plot and I think it’s a very faithful adaptation.”

Looking back at Sorcerer’s Stone.

DANIEL RADCLIFFE: “I was really pleased with the movie. I hate watching myself, but I was kind of able to enjoy the film thanks to the direction and, obviously, the story and the script. And especially the cast. They kind of allowed me to sit back as if I wasn’t in it.”
RUPERT GRINT: “When I walked into the Great Hall at Hogwarts for the first time, it was absolutely incredible. There were all these effects, with all the candles floating, food on the table, all the flamboes were lit — it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in my life. The chess scene was difficult. There was loads of dust everywhere. But all the way through, Harry’s been doing all the brave stuff. So Ron was really happy, because that’s his fave thing — chess.”
EMMA WATSON: “The first time I saw the film, I was, like, ‘Oh my God,’ and I literally felt weird for a few seconds, ‘cause it’s weird seeing yourself on screen. And then the second time I watched it, I enjoyed it a little. The third time I watched it, I actually picked up how they had done it and I really enjoyed it. I reckon it’s so successful because it’s for all ages. I’ve seen just as many adults reading Harry Potter books as I have seen children. It’s kind of got a mix of everything — comedy, adventure and it can make people cry.”
CHRIS COLUMBUS: “Sorcerer’s Stone was made under a microscope because of the press surrounding the production and a lot of pressure to be successful and please the fans. Once that happened, suddenly I felt an incredible burst of artistic freedom. The second time around, I felt like I could make more of the movie that I wanted to make the first time around. Chamber of Secrets is a more fair representation of the type of movie I was trying to do the first time around. I love the first one, because it was a place where all the kids first met and in a way it was sort of like acting school for them. The first two weeks were basically teaching these kids not to look into the camera and not to laugh. The kids were always in awe like deer trapped in headlights. By the end of the second film, they were all pretty much little professionals.”

Bonus section: Special effects & Quidditch.

Director Chris Columbus had a very specific view on visual and special effects in film: “My feeling has always been that you shouldn’t let the effects overtake the story, and I’ve seen it happen in so many films where it’s all about the effects. I initially didn’t want to do a film like this because of the visual effects. I wasn’t interested in working with them. But now they are at such a point where it’s actually fun to work with. Our goal in Harry Potter was to make it just like the book, about the characters. The effects are icing on the cake.”
And the best of that “icing” was undoubtedly the aerial-played Quidditch match — a sports competition played by wizards riding their brooms.
“To create the broomsticks used in the Quidditch match,” explains special effects supervisor John Richardson, “our main rig was a hydraulic pole attached horizontally to a broom, with a seat at the end to support the actor. The attachment was adjustable, so the pole could swing in any direction. We then adapted that so the pole could be rigged from above or below the actor, for scenes where the kids are upside down or hanging from their brooms. Seats were in most cases mounted rigidly to the broomsticks, but were adjustable to allow independent movement for shots of the riders pulling their broomsticks up towards them as a means of reining them in. To ensure safety at all times, actors were strapped to the seats with climbing harnesses attached across the groin and at the back.”
As far as J.K. Rowling is concerned, the effect absolutely worked: “I loved the Quidditch match! It really looks the way I wanted it to look. They asked me early on, ‘What is Quidditch? What does it look like?’ I always said it was violent and scary. I couldn’t imagine how they were going to do it, but they have. And it looks so real. I was looking forward to it the whole first half of the film, and it really lived up to my expectations.”
Our look at Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will be live on Friday, Sept. 21.