Casting and Hagrid's accent

[Vicki Merriman]

No: HPFGUIDX 461

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Peg Kerr <pkerr06 at a...> wrote:
> I was dubious about Chris Columbus, [snip] 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.


I read the same (or similar) interview and quote and was also 
pleasantly surprised.  It sounds as though he was interviewing and 
testing the parents of the potential child actors to determine 
their "stage mother" quotient.  ie. how much they are pushing the 
kids themselves and how much they will allow them, and perhaps even 
sometimes force them, to remain kids.   It may be easier to pull off 
in the UK than it would be in the States.  It seems to me that actors 
and actresses aren't venerated in the way that we seem to worship 
them in the states.  They are just actors.  That's their job.  Would 
some of the British in the group agree/disagree?

It also sounds as though he feels somewhat guilty and partially 
responsible for what happened to McCaulkin.  I'm glad he learned from 
the experience.

Vicki