[HPforGrownups] Casting and Hagrid's accent

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 458


Rob Usdin wrote:

> But, I think that Chris Columbus can and WILL do it right.  He seems genuinely concerned for keeping the spirit and tone of the books, especially by his filming two different versions of the movie - one for the UK and one for America.  The UK is the one I will really want to see.

I was dubious about Chris Columbus, but I discovered one thing about him that makes me hopeful, which I hadn't thought of until I read a snippet of an interview with him, and that is that he seems to be extremely cognizant of the dangers of using child actors because of his experience with casting the
kid in Home Alone (Caulkin??), whose life later went off the rails.  And so Columbus said that he wanted to cast good actors whose parents would be a rock-steady influence (caulkin's were evil monsters).  He is VERY aware that these kids are going to be under enormous pressure, and that the publicity
could wreck their lives, and so he is going to be taking extra pains to protect them so that they can live as normally as possible.

Peg