JKR interview Dec 1999

[Sister Mary Lunatic]

No: HPFGUIDX 3441


I just finished listening to an interview of JKR on a radio call-in show
from October 1999.  She made several points during this talk that I haven't
seen mentioned here so far, although I think the interview itself may have
been mentioned before.

1.  Dumbledore -- she named him Dumbledore (meaning bumblebee) because he's
fond of music and she imagined him going around humming to himself a lot.

2.  One of the adult callers was telling her all the voices he used when
reading the stories to his kids.  He said he read Dumbledore as Sean
Connery, and JKR said that she always imagined John Gielgud's voice when she
thought of D.  She also says Hagrid's accent is West Country (near Wales)
and says a few phrases in that accent so you can hear what she means.  The
caller went on to say that he did a Margaret Thatcher voice when he did
Prof. McGonnagall, and JKR said that was a good choice.  (She also said that
McGonnagall was the name of Scotland's worst poet, LOL!)

3.  Someone asked if Snape would fall in love.  She laughed out loud quite a
bit at this, and said "Who would want Snape in love with them?" and then
said that we'd hear a bit about Snape's love life in Book 7.

4.  Hagrid was named after the English slang meaning a person who'd had a
bad night, as he was a drinker and had "many" bad nights.  She also said
Hermione was named after the Shakespearean character.

5.  She said that we'd learn a bit more about Lily Potter in Book 5, but
that the real major revelation about Lily would not come until Book 7.

6.  When speaking of Draco or Snape, I did not get the impression that she
was planning any personality changes for them -- they are nasty unpleasant
people, based on people she'd known during her own life, and will likely
stay that way during the whole series.

There's lots more, but I won't go on -- the interview is nearly an hour
long, and is streamed -- you'll need Real Audio to listen.  (I wish there
was a way to save it to be re-heard, because net traffic congestion caused
several bits to be lost in transmission). You can order a tape of the show
for $15.00.

The address is:  http://www.theconnection.org/archive/1999/12/1228a.shtml


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