RM: As an actor it must be fantastic…I mean it’s great being in a hit and it’s great being in a film that’s big and that’s publicised big time around the world, but it must be fabulous to be part of something which everybody talks about and that we all like, and a real phenomenon. 

Jason: All that is true, but actually I’m still kind of aglow from yesterday. It’s great being in a film that’s this good. I mean it’s not a hit yet…no-ones seen it… 

JF: It will be 

Jason: It’s fabulous…you know what was also nice is you don’t often get the chance to play a wizard, and stick hair down to your bum on, and have a wand and a cape, and make things fly across the room by waving your hand. I mean obviously you two do, but it doesn’t happen to me in my profession. 

(R and J laugh) 

JF: It’s awfully sad about Richard Harris. Incredibly sad.

Jason: Yes, it was very odd for us because, you know, we’ve been publicising this film the last couple of days, and Richard died in the middle of it. I mean it’s very hard to be…it’s not hard to be sad, but memories of Richard…when I think about Richard…he made everyone laugh so much. He was such a fantastic raconteur and just such a twinkly mischievous presence. I’m absolutely sure he wouldn’t want people to be miserable. I mean he just relished every second of his life. 

JF: And he was actually quite self-deprecatory wasn’t he. He couldn’t stand anyone saying “acting is a terribly difficult, wonderful profession,” He was always saying no, it was a really good time. 

Jason: What’s interesting about Richard was that people want to talk about the fact that he drank a lot or had adventures and was always in the newspapers, but I was lucky enough, privileged enough, to do some scenes with him and of course all those things we know about him, we know because he was a brilliant actor. In the end he did his job so superbly that we got to learn about his private life. But he was a sensational actor. 

You know, I got to the set and was very intimidated, because here was this guy…I went to drama school with his son Jared and so I was already terrified of him, because he came to see us at Central (Central School of Speech and Drama, London) and it was change your underwear day when he came. 

And he’d sit and tell these great stories and then they’d call “action” and suddenly I was looking at Dumbledore, and here was this guy that, you know, wanted me out. 

JF: When I first heard that he was going to play Dumbledore, I thought “oh he’s not quite twinkly enough for it” but he was fantastic. 

Jason: Ah…he was sensational  

RM: But also there’s that dark side to Dumbledore and as you say when you’re opposite him presumably the tension between the two characters is enormous. 

Jason: Richard was a very tough guy, and Dumbledore was a very intimidating figure and it raises the stakes slightly when you play a scene with a man like that. 

RM: Was it you who said that he’d be up till four in the morning, having a great time, telling everybody jokes, keeping everybody laughing, and then even if he wasn’t on camera the next morning, if you had a scene, he’d come down at eight o’clock and read your lines to you? 

Jason: I didn’t get to be…I mean…there was this one famous night when he held court all night long and Alan Rickman, and Ken Branagh and Maggie Smith sat there till dawn listening to his stories, but I wasn’t there unfortunately that day, but the ripples were still going on when I got there. But I did get to sit there and had to be dragged across to the set, because his stories stretched back for decades and he had perfect recall and cracking timing. Even in death he had perfect timing. 

RM: (shakes Jason’s hand) Great to see you again 

Jason: Thanks very much 

JF: I can’t wait to see the film

Jason: Now, you’re going on Sunday aren’t you? 

JF: We are 

Jason: Now I’ll tell you…your kids are teenagers aren’t they…and I thought that maybe teenagers are too old for the film but I took two teenagers yesterday, who reluctantly dragged their heels in and they loved it. They are going to have such a good time. 

JF: The excitement in our house is palpable 

RM: The last time was Black Hawk Down wasn’t it? 

Jason: It was…much less hair last time. 

(R and J laugh) 

Jason: It’s all about the hair really. 

(R and J laugh again)

 

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