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So I had my friend over the other day and we were just chilling in my basement watching some TV. While scrolling through the channels we saw Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on ABC Family. Both of us stopped, looked at each other, and said “WE. MUST. WATCH. THIS.” Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint (who we all know more closely as Harry and Ron) were so tiny and short, and Emma Watson (or Hermione) still had that signature frizzy mop of hair. We sat laughing and reminiscing about when it first came out back in 2002. “2002?” my friend said, “Man, we’re getting old”. And she’s right. But we’re not the only ones who’ve grown up. At the start of the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone which was released in late 2001, Daniel Radcliffe was twelve, Rupert Grint was thirteen, and Emma Watson was only eleven. Now, nearly a decade later and on the eve of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, Radcliffe is twenty one, Grint is twenty two, and Watson is twenty. Holy. Crud. I think this is an instance where I can use the expression: time flies.
Being in the Harry Potter movies has forever changed the lives of these three young actors. Emma Watson was at first conflicted as to whether she wanted to reprise her role as Harry’s best friend Hermione Granger after the first few movies. She wanted to focus on her studies, attend university, and live a typical life. By the time new contracts had to be signed she decided to stick it out (thank god, I don’t think the series would have been the same without her). While shooting the last installment of the series Watson occasionally found it a struggle to balance her enrollment at Brown with her acting career. The end of filming was a bittersweet occasion for Watson. While she will miss her friends on the set she says “I have such a structure when I’m working on Potter…Every single second of my day is not in my power. Being at college, I took pleasure in the smallest things…it was so liberating!” Rupert Grint recalls that the only reason he was cast as Harry’s best friend, the bumbling Ron Weasly, was because “I have ginger hair”. His experience was a bit different from Watson’s; he’s always been really into the movies and the life it’s created for him as an actor. “It’s been amazing…these films have given me opportunities I never would have had…I’m just grateful to have been a part of it.” As for the star, Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter was the experience which defined his acting career. Although the series has been a major part of his life, Radcliffe has been trying to stray away from his type cast as Harry Potter. In an attempt to expand his versatility as an actor, Radcliffe has been trying to appear in some musicals and plays, most notably Equus (oh ho ho, I’m sure we all remember that one). Despite this, Radcliffe is going to miss Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Whilst reflecting on the past decade, he stated “It’s very rare that you get to burst through the surface of water surrounded by a ring of fire. I took that for granted for quite a long time.”
The end of the Harry Potter series is the end of an era for our generation. I remember sitting on the bus in elementary school and seeing the “big kids” reading the books. I remember my parents taking my sister and I to see the movie when it was first released and how unbelievably packed the theatre was. I remember watching spoofs on Youtube like Potter Puppet Pals. And now, another memory to store in my brain: the beginning of the end of this wonderful series. It really has made such a great impact on kids our age, well, I think so anyway. I just find it insane how when the first movie came out we were all so young, but now at the release of Hallows Part I we’re about Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s ages. We grew up with this series. We grew up with Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. And now, we’re putting the past behind us just like they are. Because soon, just like the young wizards, we’re going to have to start to face the realities of our adult life. And soon we’re going to have to leave high school and move on with our lives.
The end of Harry Potter is not just the end of an era, but for our generation it signifies the beginning of the end of our childhood. Maybe I’m being a little too over analytical, but, that’s the way I see it. I recall sitting on my bed at four o’clock in the morning, the night after the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the book. I read the last page and set it on my night table. And I just remember feeling such an overwhelming rush of unidentifiable emotions that I can’t really explain. I just knew that it was over, this phenomenon which has touched our generation was over. I wonder if that’s how I’ll feel when I see Hallows Part I and eventually Part II (which will be released in mid 2011). As for now, however, we wait in anticipation for its release…
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