Oliver and James Phelps | Full Q&A | Oxford Union

it's very nice hello evening pity so thank you for coming this evening thank you everyone else for coming um we're going to start with the fact that you were both 14 when you auditioned Barry Potter neither of you had ever acted before what made you go along that day a couple of things really one there was a chance to get in major film 2 we had a day off school it's probably not the best place to say so no but we decided that we basically heard that there was an open audition going so they're casting every every role in the movie so we thought why not what we got to lose so we actually went from drove up from a place home in Sutton Coldfield North Birmingham up to Leeds which seemed to hell of a long way at the time we got there and then you were given a raffle ticket and there was literally thousands of kids going for all different parts and everything in so you're given a raffle ticket and said this is when when your numbers called you go in and we figured out we'd have about three hours of waiting so in that timer waiting we realized Oliver and I were the only people owned the only sets of twins there who weren't wearing the same clothes so we ran over to the BHS or whatever was over the road grab two shirts off the rail and then eventually our number was called and it was a bit of a sliding doors moment there was door on the left door on the right we went in door on the left and that just happened to have the head casting director in it so she liked what she liked us and then you know six auditions later we got the part as he's in a nutshell so when you went to the audition did you how much did you know about Harry Potter I she read read the books yes oh did you know it had become the phenomenon that it has loosely when we went for our audition the first three books had been released and then the I want to say the Goblet of Fire had just come out always was about to come out and I was quite a waiting list for it to happen but I don't think anyone truthfully could have ever said that there would be what it turned into I was just thinking that we were we were actually filming in Oxford twelve years ago the Goblet of Fire doing the full rehearsal sequence when we're learning to dance and to think that here we are over a decade later and there's all you guys have turned up to listen to what we've got to say I don't know what that says more to the social life on a Wednesday night Oxford yeah how great or how great how big Harry Potter is since we're talking about Oxford so at dinner James and Oliver we're telling us about how when they were foaming Aqsa they just turned 18 so they're just able to go out in Oxford and they went to one of our favorite clips on the Thursday they were to bridge and just how like IRAs saying that this is one of rock's his favorite nights out and yeah it's just quite cool that we've all been to bridge together and so another thing obviously filming growing up through your teen years you weren't at school how did that impact the atmosphere on set how did that work with school life I think it did affect it there's no we're getting around that the the good thing was that when we were filming it was we were lucky that for every I suppose for every tuted I was probably five students so it was a really good way of making the most of that the only downside is that most teachers gave you all their work in advance which I don't think the teachers really appreciate except to do a lesson plan B under the next day but there was the trouble is that sometimes you concentrate more on the subjects you enjoyed and kind of deter from the subjects you didn't that was there's a downside to it but we did get away with some cool stuff like obviously homework and things we were able to actually do that in the Great Hall and lucky if you're in the background younger dialog you could quite easily it's easy to seek sneak a an exercise book into a proper book I get dinner very actually doing your home yeah it did look very good when you're trying to work quill but but yes we did try to get away with it sometimes doing that so you're all growing up together on set do you still feel are you still as close to everyone now as you went to work how is the dynamic change all these years later I guess oh yeah but we are still close to quite a few guys I've caused explain to some some people earlier it's best way to describe it is when you're friends with your friends at university now or your friends at school before you don't see each other all the time but when you do it's like you've never left it's kind of that same dynamic okay so do easily twins I think the thing we all know and love those characters far their pranks their jokes always making something fun out of any situation and when Michael Gambon visited last term he was telling us all about practical jokes he played on set and sneaking around to have a cheeky cigarette with Daniel Radcliffe were you too mischievous off camera what was the most entertaining thing that happened yeah yes we were very mysterious I said we always used to say that and I'll openly admit it that we were the oldest oldest of the young caste but probably the most immature to a point where we would be filming say on B when we first started filming the studio's was if any of you guys have been to the the studio tour at least and it's nothing like that until when we filmed it was like going to an old aircraft factory which it was and over the road from where we were filming they were building some like a call center for PT and we realized that the radios what the studios had worked on the same frequency as what the engineers had over the road so but and Bonnie writes we played Ginny she was in on it as well granted she was about 11 at the time but still we're able to you know raid you in okay guys you can go home now super guys eager to ascend again big van did you ever get caught on oaks we will we have by far the other side of the road and they couldn't see what was going on and then subsequently when the buildings got made we realized that it was about 310 yards I need that because I could hit my driver that far I see when you are filming it takes a lot of time waiting around so it depends how much you want to relieve the boredom by either watching TV or reading or doing some productive one that one thing that I remembered actually when we were when I drove into Oxford today I remember their little prank I was putting on anyone that I could went basically when we were filming here Oliver and I the scene we were doing was inside but we were on what was called weather cover so if they're filming outside if it starts raining or the weather isn't right they'll film what's inside so in pretty much nine 10 o'clock every morning for 10 days I got the phone call saying we don't need you today have the day off in Oxford and then when they started filming night scenes as well so then my weather cover was then at night so that means I was up at night to be told you don't need to come in but stay awake just in case and the hotel that we're staying at I can't remember which one it is but it's like one of the main roads out of town it's it was really glamorous it was a Holiday Inn on the m-40 okay so yeah that is yeah anyway so that Brooke so said you guys know where that is that's all yeah they were motoring really so the long road that goes from that which is straight into town I was just walking down there with my little point and shoot camera and any time a car went past I decided to set my flash on and take a photo see what went in the speaker so they would think they had a speeding ticket which makes it how many hours you can spend doing that yeah and I I learned from doing that that everyone slows down after they've got the ticket which is a so if those are your best moments away from the camera what's what was your favorite thing that you filmed what stands out to you now I'll show you get this question all the time this there's a lot actually trying to put it down to one one moment I always remember when we did the the Yule Ball seen in the the Goblet of Fire because the it was filmed actually the week before Christmas so everyone was in a very festive mood and we've been taught how to dance which came across well for the two seconds on camera it was useful but we actually had three weeks of practice before that yeah it's proper dance they're not like pogo stick but like a proper you'll blow the walls of all seals and and then yes a film and that was Barry stood out because at the end of the the week you had the guys who filmed the the pop group and those who you've read the book there's actually a band called The Weird Sisters who who performed in there in the film or in the book and they did actually film it in the film but they couldn't use it some than physical mythical reason or whatever reason and that was actually made up of Jarvis Cocker and all the Radiohead Bar Thom Yorke so it was quite good and they did a gig where if you had like pyro going off and Warwick Davis who played Flitwick crowd-surfing and a mosh pit breaking up and yeah it's really good bring it there's so many is literally trying to pick something from one that I was really good kind of an ego trip rub as well was in the sixth movie where Fred and George have their own shot and so I'm not exaggerating the set was as tall as this room all filled with different products and random like there's a guy who walked up the wall as we were filming and there's a huge cartoon version of myself outside with his hat going on it on and off and that was just a really cool couple of days filming in there so it was very compact very everything's going up all the time but that was a lot of fun in interviews with so many members of the cast they always pick up on how sad the last day of filming was for the final film because I guess you've been filming so many years and all grown so close together and then suddenly it's done how did that feel get like leaving something that had been with you for so long and then it was yes it's hard subscribe without sounding really arty-farty it's very much case that you know that you've been doing something for so long which you after a while you just take for granted and then you realize actually it is over we were filming on pick ups so it was definitely definitely that was going to be it and we we knew that they were going to knock down the studios straight afterwards because they were bulldoze is waiting outside and because the next day they literally tore the studios down so we thought we not going to be here anymore but it was did the stuff behind the camera as well what to do with that you've got the friends you made onset and offset you've got the we lived in a hotel the whole time when we were there just great someone makes you bet every day kidding but even just stuff like that knowing I'm not going to be going about there and stuff like that I think that's what that was the thing that surprised me the most was I'd kind of mentally prepared for not going to least and anymore to film Potter but I hadn't prepared of that final check out of the hotel because know me I didn't even check out I just go home and then they're just sign me off but then that was a kind of I had to wait in the long line of people to check out in the morning of there you go if it is really those the thing that caught me off the most I guess in a way it hasn't really ended now we have the studio tour and posh MO and all the other stuff that's happened since do you think that's a good thing that people can stay in touch or do you think it should have stayed where it was no I think it's I think it's really good that it's get going I think because there's there's a lot of things that we've noticed now that Jane's not very lucky to be able to go around the world because it's very much everywhere and and you know we've started meeting a new generation who have grown up with it so I bet a lot of you guys in here today one too old when the first film came out and yet now we're meeting people who have had children and they're now getting into it so it's a new generation type thing and it's I think it's brilliant because it's it's quite a timeless piece in terms of because it is in the Wiz in a Wizarding World there's no oh look they're using the Nokia 3210 in that film not an iPhone you know you don't there's none of that so it's quite don't try and relate information funny try you try agree but no so I think I think it does make sense this it's kept going it's great so that's part of its secrets to its accessor timelessness do you think I don't know do you think people can relate to characters how have you found people coming up to you and saying I report has been a huge part of my life how does that make you feel it's quite yes it is a great compliment is but for me it's it's hard to understand it completely because when we film it we're just filming in front of 100 crew and that's it so we never it's not like when you do a show and you see every night the audience it's you kind of just go and buy what people tell you but it is quite an incredible thing to know that so many people know so much about about everything and when it always I'm always a bit stumped when someone asked me today what's your favorite line I couldn't tell you whereas I know there's guys who know every single line of every single film so a little bit of a fraud in that one but it's it's a it's still quite a unique experience and one that we're just very very grateful to be of being involved in so I think now we'll open to some questions from the audience because I'm sure you all have lots of questions to ask any questions from anyone right at the back in the red jumper and if you could take an object away from the phones and the world and what would you take you don't work for Warner Brothers do because legally I didn't but I've I've actually got I've really actually on the last day of filming I got one of the skiving snap boxes which but in Georgia and I've actually got one of those with all the all the little treats inside it because when you're filming a lot of the just to look out on on film it just looks like a box but actually inside the box has all the items in it even though it's not gonna be seen on film all that long so yeah that's what I've got and mine is a bit boring but my character lost his ear in the final film so it's actually it's actually a fake prosthetic ear which is like spatially that I don't know why I'm doing it like that but they they basically stuck step my ear down and then put a prosthetic piece on top of it which was great apart from one time I went to summer my football team were playing away at West Ham one evening and domhnall gleeson who played Charlie Arab built our older brother in the film sports support Sevilla like I do we set up call we'll go to the game so we finished filming at about half-past six if we leave now we can we can make kickoff and normally it takes an hour to take this the bits off with the old beer cane so we get on the tray get on the the underground and we realise that no one is sitting next to us and that's because I've got this Gorge in my face which is all and Donal has been attacked by well earlier ons he's got a huge scar across the and yeah so I kept that that ear stuff that's my word and and also I've got a framed joke shop bag from wheezy's visiting wheezes just cuz it's a bit more it's quite cool I'd have loved to have had the one there but they were they were very tight on them great thank you okay if we go to on the front row in the green hello hi um was just wondering what did you feel when you read about Fred's death did you feel angry because I did I hope that wasn't a spoiler for anyone actually when when I learned what happened to Fred I was in Japan and the the book had just come out and is in English so I was actually traveling on the bullet train whilst I was reading what happened to Fred so I'm reading it and it's it's a bit of an emotional roller coaster right and are surprised a what happened to the character then I'll surprise what I was feeling for the car I didn't I didn't realize how attached I'd become to the character so I'm kind of in this mind head Oh meanwhile this ticket inspector comes around these Japanese guys come just prods me ticket ticket ticket and I was just reading the book now I just died here just give me V so that was the that was the the memory that I have read about but ultimately yes sucks but at least it happened in the last book and not the first one I thought never mind thank you me a question and if we go to on the second row here I was wondering whether you could compare the relationship that you have with each other to the relationship that Fred and George had well they're twins I don't know actually I they're probably about I don't know I saw I think the friend George seems to do a lot more together than James and I do certainly wouldn't go into business with James in a good way thank you but you yeah I don't know I mean this I think I think it as as twins you do show a lot of traits of love there any twins in here tonight yes okay great so so I know that like you know you're sharing experience with each other you always been asked you know it's even worse when you get on the birthday and someone sends you a card two and two on the same card so I'm sure they relate to the same thing so that's when you don't live with each other anymore is really and it only something your birthday and you can kind of get some a maybe that respect but apart from that I've got no idea really maybe we don't have as much ginger hair jokes given to us as better choices all right thank you thank you so much for your question if we go to go and then yep yes hi thank you for speaking here tonight I was wondering how you or the casting director whoever decided who would play George and who would play Fred where's it's a really is really important decision that actually when we so when you first start filming you do a thing called a screen test and that is nothing to do with my art you do a read-through so it's basically when you all the car sits in the room around the big table and read through the script so basically she can gauge timings and stuff like that and we got to read through we still didn't know who was Fred and he was George so they're like okay and then so the read-through starts at 1 o'clock 20 to 1 they wish find out ten to one you should definitely find out so went over and saw the casting director Janet and said do you know whose friend whose tools challenge you're kidding right so first use oh yeah it's a good one that's a good one yeah now if you see here is Fred and who's George so then you see Janet walk around the table to David Heyman who's the producer JK rowling who wrote the book Susie I know and Chris Columbus who directed the first two films and you see them like talking amongst themselves and then Janet came back over to the K change your throat I love you George so we like to think that it was a party that didn't get the memo about the huge meeting we had him in an America about all this but more than likely JK running probably looked at one yeah it can be that thank you for your question if we go to so many people I'm on the front row hi I just like to ask what your favorite thing is you've done since the movies are all over and my maybe Harry Potter related maybe not but your favorite thing you've done since workwise or and um either whatever you want since POTUS finish uh there's been a lot we actually did a job for the BBC last year a TV show called Danny and the human Zoo which was actually filmed in Dudley which is about 15 minutes from where I live and grew up and my mum's side of the family are all from the Black Country so whenever I go and visit my man I get a very broad black country accent anyway so this job was encouraging me to speak in this accent which was a lot of a lot of fun to do and I think for me nan professionally it's been quite a lot as you say to do with Potter as well because there's a there's a travelling exhibition of other props Steve Potter's so that's been all around North America Asia Europe and with that we've been able to travel all over the globe pretty much with that so for me would be traveling the world on someone else's credit card thank you for your question if we go to here um thank you guys for coming and I guess with Harry Potter what's kind of so incredible is that it has the ability to transcend like an international scale so Americans who know nothing about England are growing up and feeling so attached and I wondered if you thought that there could kind of be another Harry Potter because it for me it feels so like momentous another moment and like it can't happen again maybe that's very severe but just if you think that like it kind of will exist in its own world or if there there could be another story like it potentially I'm sure that everyone would love there to be some some similar thing but I think I guess it's one of those just wait and see but it's really cool that we're all able to experience that kind of thing and I call over saying we get scare on the world doing these things in seeing like I say in the States and to the point where Oliver and I have been in Sydney and we did a skydive and as we're going up the gut the guy is like my tandem jumpers oh I know you it's quite quite a big thing so I can't really give us to answer to your question but I guess it's just cool that it's a is happening while we can enjoy it did did the books of the film's have an influence on he wanted to come and steady absolutely and I think that our first week here like half of the Americans were like the Great Hall where the moving pictures but yet and we said it was too good that we would come to Oxford basically Hogwarts and then have the Weasley twins that's like too good to be true just kind of look building on that then I guess the sign we were talking I like the generational quality of it the fact that so for most of us here we'll have probably been around like when the last few books were coming out and then with the films and then now children are doing it to keep on going can't keep on going forever what people always love Harry Potter hopefully I feel I think maybe I think it may be a thing because it's it is held in such prestige and and the great thing in hindsight when it finished although it was quite a bit of a with snow to being that when the films were finished but it went out such a high the final premiere in in London it wasn't they were rebuilding Leicester Square and there were some other franchises around at the time which had their premieres in like the Westfield Shopping Center and stuff like that because Leicester Square was known the construction but the final premier plastic over Trafalgar Square which unless you're a sports scene is just one something major they don't close off many people and like a vivid image in my head is walking and you almost got out and did a perfect round so if you can't see that and I'm walking up the middle towards a National Portrait Gallery and either side is thousands and thousands of people just to watch you go into a sea of film it's really hard to describe some what do you only stay yeah let's go stand outside and watch someone go into a building but there were there were people who actually flew from Australia from Brazil from all over the world just to camp out and watch us go in and then go straight back to Heathrow and fly home except it meant so much to be able to be there and I I go and go back to your question I can't see that ever happening I'm sure it probably will but it's hard to imagine it really is yeah I think like because for all my life Harry Potter has been such a huge thing and it still is and I think that's a really powerful thing about it any more questions yes and if we go in the wand huh yeah yeah I'm not ready to describe my people sorry actually hi I think I have a question and maybe a lot of people are wondering how often have you switched spots and pretended to be one another James is a quite good job of it when the bill comes a restaurant I just disappear when that happens we actually we didn't switch when we were filming which proves that Wikipedia is a lie just very we we do a satellite we we did switch for a rehearsal of a long great hall scene and the cat when the camera is at the top end of the table I think that's all the way down so there's like 400 kids in the one shot and we're near the back that's what that's the only time we switched around simply because the amount of people who are in this room tonight that's how many people work on the crew if you're the reason that they're staying late or got to work an extra each I mean though you're keeping them from their families or their friends or whatever just because you wanted to break continuity that's that's quite a big no-no really so sorry to be boring but yeah that was in real life occasionally occasionally though we normally really did pranks on more elaborate things than any easy one of it was him it was him one being there was one of the ladies in the production crew who on the first movie she asked how can she tell us apart and I said I've got a mark here which is actually a chicken pox mark and when I was a kid but I said about mark here where I was shot by farm with an airgun they're trespassing on his land okay so anyway fast forward five years later my dad was visiting the the set and my be the lady said oh oh yes I know it's tell the difference between them all right how'd you do it well James told me needs to go you got shot by that farmer so I was like a five year prank which I'm quite a I'm quite happy about on do you feel it I've been like inspired by Fred and George then with the mister yeah it's probably I think I think we were always a bit mischievous anyway but it's just poured gasoline on to that fire you you really and you can get away with it that's the best thing you like oh you guys whereas someone else do they be you know one is struggling but we're method act with method access that's it brilliant thank you so much for your question if we come to over here I'll get experience like a really crazy high water fan yeah so I'm going to understand it that's okay you feel a bit rude hiding at the back twice understood yeah yes um yeah we kind of we have done from time to time because just because it means so much to a lot of people there's a few random experiences I remember once actually when we were in Sydney and this guy kept we're in a club and a guy comes up and he's like covered in tattoos he's like this was my first he's got the dark mark that was one and another one is when a couple tried to get you to a man tried to get you to help him propose to his girlfriend oh yeah yeah yeah so we did a comic-con and the guy came over he said I'm going to come up later with with my girlfriend but I want to propose to her can you help me out okay this is quite okay so he comes over and he beforehand he like slips the ring I'm doing says can you just give that and I'm then I'm thinking I don't Hurst think I'm proposing how does it so anyway I was like ah he's got something to ask you and she was like what you mean and I was like and so that was quite a cool moment luckily she said yeah luckily she said yes but then I really I really a bit of a mental one we had was when we were filming in Newcastle and a few of us had just come out of a restaurant and we nichy as we walk out onto the road there's like four girls who just starts going oh oh my god that said of the started screaming started running after us so I'm at our natural reaction was just to run so we're and out there really running down the time and then we get to the bridge and then because that's what why are we running I've returned around these girls got to us and then they've obviously realized why are we right could have been awkward standoff and it was like okay thanks but on the whole everyone's pretty nice yeah thank you so much for your question if we go to on the end of the second row back yeah so usually people maintain that the Moot books are always better than the movies which uses that not me a lot of people would you agree with that especially given that you're in the movies got the lady girl well um I should have stayed at the back sitting down as much easy and I think that there's different things for different you're even doing the political scenario I know I think okay so here's what we're going to do I need a teleprompter right now but it's very much a case of I think some things are how people imagined in their head when they read in the books I think the thing would be the company did really well was they they managed to get that in on the whole very well the only trouble is that with the film's is they have to cut a lot out a lot of Fred and Georgie's stuff noted so I think but on the basis that if the first film had everything getting yeah first film had everything the book has it would be seven hours long so going on that basis when you get to deftly how those you be there until probably yesterday so this very much case of that's that's how it happened but I wouldn't say I put a preference between one and the other I mean I do like it when it's on the TV thank you so much for your question and if we go to I don't know this area on the back of the ya know you're looking around yes yeah hi so I play for Oxford University Quidditch Club and I was wondering whether you both be interested in being honorary members I'd be proud to be a member I finished up like I think I stepped like that's really cool as well because when we were filming the Quidditch it was nowhere near as exciting as you guys playing it now and yet and yet yeah the thing is I think when we were filming you wouldn't realize but we wouldn't ever realize that it would be a sport played between universities not just here but all over the world and I think the less how violent it can get as well it's pretty physical yeah yeah what what's your position I play beta and seeker okay great thank you so much if we go to I think about the second row back right in a video yeah hello um so Fred and George are in Gryffindor but what houses do you think you would be sorted huh actually identify because I've already got the outfit or not but I did actually get into Gryffindor so I was really happy with that identify manipulated some of the answers maybe to get into it but I got that however James I was told I'm a Hufflepuff well hufflepuffs are great finders so thank you so much for that if we go right here at the front yeah it fed you so I was wondering if because you played Fred and George if you ever have trouble being taken seriously in real life because of the roles who played you know me then yeah it's known the whole it's people all right I think because we played good guys anyway people are a lot more receptive to what you're going to say like we were out once in in a marathon with he's left me now it's just gone full politician I apologize so I think the hall you need to be in this program and it's a bit like when we were we were out in America once and we went out for a drink after we tom Felton who played Malfoy and guy comes it's cuz hey Fred George yeah now for this he fit some up and water say on the whole it's a good thing actually yeah are you sitting down no no I'm just letting you at this place but well yeah no yeah like he says it's kind of it works in one of those were not solely being taken not seriously but we're a lot more I guess approachable for guys who don't know us which is always good so based per se is it always normally happens in a bar or somewhere like that where and it's also it's normally quite funny when people you know and you see someone but you don't remember where from but you'll speak to them anyway so that's that's happened to me a couple of times where guys talking to me it's like oh yeah how's your mom and I yeah she's good and then but then you'll keep the Sharada and then eventually you'll see them get oh no yeah but I guess that's because the characters are nice welcoming guys anyway do you ever feel a little tight cast but like come as a package deals is that thing were you guys arses together well we did yeah maybe a little bit just cuz that that's the way it happens you know we get that but on the whole on the whole things are cool we do live very separate lives anyway it's the only time we ever see each other really hence I've got to be honest we didn't plan to wear the same color tees tonight James pick me up when you wearing a dark blue suit so that you're going to change next so we got in the car but no I mean on the whole it's it is it is what it is but that's that's the way it goes not bad is it have any more questions thank you so much that if we go to is about the Volvo back on that side Julie oh yeah yeah over that burger hey thanks for both coming today my question is related to your profile I mean there's evidence in this room that you guys have quite a high profile in the world and I'm curious to know if you've thought of how you're going to use that to create the change that you want to see in the world and how you're going to create advocacy based on that politics go right organ Amash for London and we're all gonna know I don't know I guess that we're very lucky with the jobs that we've done that it's like you say it's elevated profile and so what's what's quite fun is that Oliver and I are involved in certain charities and it's just getting attention raised about some of those and just attention to for just you know I'm not trying to preach or anything but just making the world a nice place for everybody and it's it's it's just about if you can if what we do can benefit other people's lives for example when we were doing the Potters unfortunately fortunately but unfortunately every day on the set there was a make-a-wish child and some of them are terminal and some guys were in on the other other side and all good so you're very aware that what we did meant a lot of people a lot of things for a lot of people and actually one of my my best memories from Potter actually was when we're filming the third movie we were doing the Quidditch scene which is dull I'm going to be honest because it's green screen and at the scene that we're filming was in the wet as well so just before you're filming someone comes and throws a bottle of like a load of water on it was really sophisticated yeah really sophisticated technology but while in between takes there was a guy there with his son from America there with make-a-wish and I was chatting to them and you know you say you good-byes then that's it fast-forward about nine months later I was in New York for the premiere and after the screening I saw the guys dad in the foyer so I went over to say hi and at that moment the guy the lad came out he'd been given the all-clear and it was amazing that was that meant more to me than any press or anything else that they've done so to be able to be involved in something which can give great great experiences to people bring families together friends together and I just I just think it we're very fortunate for it so if us doing just a little part in a in a film can make a big a big difference to someone's life I think that's quite a cool thing to Oliver yes yes Jay Sedlar we've been fortunate to see and meet more and more people than whatever and you I think you gauge Sony you guys here have got a very world you know the amount from all over the globe is so your interactions in your how you view people would have changed since you came since you came here you know and I think that's a great thing that we've been able to learn on a selfish point of view can I say to change the world from it all or preach or whatever like that but you understand people's positions on stuff and and things so it's very much a very lucky case to be able to into it I've totally lost my train of thought he's giving me the stare of Shh I do it a lot anyway back of the quiz um what else good thank you so much for that any more questions you've got time for just a few more if we go to right at the very back on my right yeah thank you for speaking tonight and I was I know we've had someone ask whether or how about casting Fred and George but based on your readings of the books and your kind of do you think did you think at the time that they picked correctly oh yeah sure yeah and my house has the same know so it was very much case of when we read in the books I think being twins as well you very much read into it yeah I relate to those guys I relate those characters and when the filming came back we were purely in the right place at the right time I mean if it happened five years later we'd need too old for it and and that type thing so going through the whole audition process I went into it with a naivety of this is ours from from the moment we got there even though there was what thousands of people going for all the different roles there was we saw loads of different sets of twins we were getting twins not wearing the same clothes well that's how even though in my mind set up know we are going to be Fred and George and then luckily when when we got into it and the film's came out here in the response from the audience and they were watching it going you guys are exactly how I imagined Fred and George to be that was to me that's a we gotta weigh in here thank you so much for your question if we go to again right to the back on the left hand side in the middle looking around yep how did your parents react when you told them you'd skip school to audition they drove they drove us there they were a we're very lucky that mum and dad are very much of the same mindset that we are their opportunities like this don't come around very often and it's not we're missing that GCSEs or a-levels at the time it was I think it was like the last week of term music and let's face it the music teacher didn't want to be there there's only so many times you can learn to play chopsticks on on a keyboard with the lump with the letters written on it so we did it and they were they were really encouraging throughout the whole process which is which is we're very lucky to be able to have that brilliant thank you so much for your question if we come to you right at the front yeah hi so now you've done filming for the seven previous Harry Potter what's your view on the new fantastic piece that's gonna come out soon and how did you feel about it when you first heard about the new Harry Potter movie coming out I'm really I haven't heard anything more than the new guys I was actually playing golf with one of the head guys at Warner Brothers in America about three years ago and they told me that there were scripts about fantastic beasts but he wouldn't like this well I've known I've known him for quite a few years and gulfs very chilled out and I was like so what what happens then so I can't tell you oh come on just a little bit no so I have no idea what else but from what you guys know but I am looking forward to it and you know I'm sure they're going to be held with the same to same high standards as the other ones so especially with David directing and everything I'm I'm really fought seeing it man thank you so much for that and welcome to if we go over here on the front yeah um I have a question that first of all thank you for coming tonight appreciate it um but also how much you said that JK Rowling was on this set a decent amount do you have any idea how much input she had into the movies or not really to be honest we didn't know too often when she was when she was on set we was very much case of that sometimes we was used to hang out in Rupert grints dressing room sit along the biggest and he had like you know could be playing table tennis or darts or or Xbox and then at the blue one day she came walking in but I know and we'd met briefly before but there still it's still as nice as she is to me she's very intimidating just purely because we're portraying a character what she's written and it was great she she actually gave us told us like a backstory to Fred and George or where the inspiration for those characters came from and things like that happen really awesome no I'll keep that for me I feel everything sorry yeah and it was and he was a very much case where I didn't realize that she was there that often but I think she must have been if she wasn't there she did have people who were portraying like her eyes and ears as it were and I think over that her influence in it came through because a lot of it is very true to the books in terms of an all-british cast and and that type of thing whereas you know back in back and when they started they could have easily gone with an American cast and make it more Hollywood but that was know this is the story this is where it's based and yeah nothing to me the proofs in the pudding where the other films turned out thank you if welcome to oh yeah yeah so just hi um do you ever go back and watch the films and when you do can you enjoy it and I'm also wondering do you have a favorite for the films and which one is that we I don't like get out the boxset or anything like effort if if they're on I'll I kind of just like watch them by well I'm not necessarily when I'm watching them and I can't watch them as a normal film I'm remembering what we're doing behind the camera and scenes that like what what we were doing in our life around when seem to be in shock but sure if they're on I'll watch them I always know when the first ones on special on terrestrial TV because I'll get a text message from at least five or six my friends saying how high was your voice in that first so it's like a high movie that will never go away but in terms of favorite film to work on like enjoyable most enjoyable would be the fourth movie the Goblet of Fire was that was that because you entered the bridge the bridge did have it higher and also my favorite film from it was probably the the Prisoner of Azkaban to watch thing yeah for me my favorite favorite film to make probably be a couple of fire and Deathly Hallows Part 1 for me yeah it's always good having bullard and although although it's actually like a a sugary based thing so it just you just stuck to everything afterwards that's the one drawback okay so I think we have time for one last question and if we go to so on my right second row back in the middle with glasses no in front you there you're looking at me yeah yeah um what was your favorite set or prop for me the favorite set be cooked Pearlie because it never got old was the Great Hall from the moment we walked into it on I still remember it really clearly walking into it for the first time and it was like all the all the flames were going and at the time that was when they still had the the candles actually in the in the Great Hall all dangling from the ceiling and it was all fully dressed for Halloween and it was actually brilliant and it was literally like you know in the movie when the Harry and Ron's go into the Great Hall for the first time and it's all that but that was what we were all like first going onto set they did they should have just shot that really and I mean yeah but we'd also play football in the Great Hall we've ridden segways around in the Great Hall cricket cricket in the Great Hall they see it's weird necks when we film goes in the studio tourists like this the Great Hall isn't it great please don't touch this booth we think bats playing as a safe like kicking a football from one side to the other and then and then back and forth but for me for me the Great Hall is just it's just awesome and the Ministry of Magic was one of my favorite sets because it's so it was so grand and they made it very kind of like communist Russia s like just very oppressed pressive but very grand on the same scale and you looking at it you forget that it's all fake but you would actually go up and start knocking on it realizing it's not real concrete or whatever but it's just a detail that goes into it and in the films it's only in for like the actual set itself is only in for ten seconds actually of actual set viewing so to actually just walk around it and it's probably I'm not exaggerating ten times the size of this room so it is like that's how grander scale it was so that was quite a cool thing to just go in check out just for us really and prop wise I'm gonna have to say my wand because everyone's characters had everyone every act every character had their own individual wand and my one it wasn't very comfortable to hold but mine was a pinecone esque wand so it's quite yeah not very nice to hold you do it alright yeah - shaped like a broomstick so the a like a a modern coolish broomstick it's such a thing it will be very good to just with but it looks really good so you had like obviously like the regular one tip and then as a slight saddle part and everything it was just almost the detail work gone into it so you're actually holding it with a bit of comfort puff me if you dropped it it broke quite easily so you'd be pretending it's not broken and be like see which looked terrible was terrible to do but anyway by the end of it my one that like runs in the second film with cellotape already so I'm really sorry but that is all we have time for today Oliver and James are very kindly agreed to come along to our pop quiz in 15 minutes so if the space please do come along but can everyone please join me in saying a massive thank you to Oliver and James you

Channel: OxfordUnion

Views: 812,739

Rating: 4.9825602 out of 5

Keywords: Oxford, Union, Oxford Union, Oxford Union Society, debate, debating, The Oxford Union, Oxford University, phelp twins, james phelps, oliver phelps, harry potter, weasley, weasley twins, fred and george weasley, fred weasley, george weasley, twins, british actors, twin actors, twin british sctors

Id: ey0o69yYSFs

Length: 53min 8sec (3188 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 25 2016