Inkheart's young star Eliza Bennett spoke recently to SnitchSeeker about her upcoming feature, which stars
Harry Potter actors Jim Broadbent (Horace Slughorn) and Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown). It can be read below:
Quote:
Obviously Jim Broadbent and Jessie Cave are in this movie and they both star in the Harry Potter movies too. What was it like to work with both of these actors?
EB: I got to work quite a lot with Jim as his character is with Meggie a lot during the film. When I first met him he was quite shy, which is actually surprising, and then over time when you get to know him you find he is the sweetest man ever, he sort of felt like a granddad, it was lovely, and he is someone who has been in the industry for such a long time and he knows his stuff and knows everything that is going on. He is not ‘out there’ as in ‘look at me, I am famous,’ he is really generous and funny. Everyone on the set was really funny which was good as we were laughing from start to finish.
Would you say that you are a Harry Potter fan?
EB: I’ve watched all of the films since they started to come out and I think that it something that you just do – you are waiting for the next Harry Potter movie to come out, aren’t you? They have just been such a massive hit and if someone said that they hadn’t seen them everyone would be like ‘sorry, what?’ I, myself, don’t read fantasy books particularly, but I have read some of the Harry Potter books. My sister and brother have read all of them and are massive, massive fans.
It is quite incredible how huge they are, how a set of books can completely take the whole world by storm and that’s what they have done and I think that everyone is just waiting for the next one. They are brilliant and I think that they are so well done and that’s an example of how I think someone has done the book into a film well. They have got the meat of the plot, you can’t put everything in, and the meat of the characters and that’s why I think book fans are so happy with them.
Would you say that there are any similarities between Inkheart and the Harry Potter movies?
EB: I think a similarity that I was talking about before is the fact that Meggie is very, very normal. She has been dragged into a fantasy world and Harry Potter went from not knowing he was a wizard at all and then he was dragged into this massively, crazy land of complete bedlam, another world.
Another similarity with Harry Potter is the three main actors. They are quite normal and give the audience something to relate too. You can relate to one of their characters usually and I think Meggie is a character that people can relate to and she is quite normal, likable, strong, she’s got grounding and reality of the world, therefore the audience have someone who can take them through the whole story and they don’t feel like they are grasping out to no one and are just viewing random stuff that they have never experienced before.
If you could be sorted into any Harry Potter house, which one would it be and why?
EB: Hmmmm. You know what, I would probably go for Gryffindor just because that is blatantly the coolest house and has got Harry Potter in it and is the one that you would want to be in – and they always win!!
Who’s your favourite Harry Potter character and why?
EB: I do love Ron Weasley just because from the very first film he made me laugh and was very consistent. He’s funny and so likable and he is played so well. So, I am going to have to go with him!
If you could visit any of the Harry Potter sets, which one would you choose and why?
EB: It’s got to be the Great Hall as when you say Harry Potter that is the image that I think of. I think of all the candles floating on the ceiling and the long tables and that is the primitive of what Harry Potter is. Also, the big seats and Dumbledore at the end…
Thanks go out to Stefan from TheDailySnitcher for covering this interview on behalf of SnitchSeeker. You can read more about
Inkheart from Stefan's interview with Eliza
here.
Inkheart is out in the UK this Friday, December 12th and in the US January 23, 2009.