“Harry Potter” stars Jason Issacs (Lucius Malfoy) and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) got emotional during a Salt Lake City FanX panel on Saturday afternoon as they recounted their favorite memories of the late Maggie Smith, who starred alongside them in the “Harry Potter” movies as Professor McGonagall.
Issacs choked back tears when a fan asked the “Harry Potter” stars for their favorite moment with Maggie Smith while filming the eight movies.
“The thing about Maggie Smith is that she was one of the funniest, filthiest people,” Issacs said. “And so I feel like none of my favorite Maggie Smith moments are appropriate for the kids in this room.”
He added later: “You remember her as a wizard in ‘Harry Potter.’ I remember her as Miss Jean Brodie, … She was caustic, hilarious, sexy, cool and had a great voice as well — she could sing.”
Wright was just 9 years old when she made her acting debut in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” She recalled being too young to appreciate the enduring talent Maggie Smith was.
“We didn’t really understand the incredible, wonderful actors we were getting to work alongside until we grew a bit older and started watching the films they were in,” Wright told fans. “So it was a real slow understanding and appreciation for me.”
Wright said her favorite scene to film with Smith was the Yule Ball for “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”
“I think we were filming in Oxford … and we were all being true 14, 15-year-olds — like girls on one side, boys on the next,” Wright recalled. “And (Smith) was not going to let that go. She said, ‘Come on, get up. Let’s do this.’
“I love the moment that she has with Rupert (Grint) in that scene with Ron. It was like, a real depiction of her. … I loved her.”
Issacs reminded fans that “Harry Potter” actors like Maggie Smith and Richard Harris had decadeslong acting careers before “Harry Potter,” and had already established “an incredible legacy.”
“So if you get the chance, these people we have lost — look at their back catalog,” Issacs said. “There’s a reason they were great at the end of their life. They were great at the beginning of the middle as well.”
More ‘Harry Potter’ reveals at FanX
Jason Isaacs auditioned to play Gilderoy Lockhart
Isaacs originally auditioned the play Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
“I did my audition, which was just in my opinion brilliant. And it was so good the director said to me, ‘Would you consider reading for a different part?’”
When he was asked to read for Lucius Malfoy, Isaacs called his agent and said, “I don’t want to do that part!”
He was lined up to play Captain Hook and didn’t want to play two villains from children’s books back-to-back.
Still, his agent convinced him to do the reading. Begrudgingly, he did it.
“I think I auctioned through gritted teeth,” Isaacs said. “And I think that’s why I got the job.”
Actors didn’t know if their ‘Harry Potter’ characters would survive
When actors started filming the first “Harry Potter” movie in 2000, J.K. Rowling had not published all seven books yet. So, the actors did not know what the fate of their characters would be, or if they would survive through the entire saga.
“Every time a book came out you were kind of hoping you survived and lived,” Wright told the audience.
Wright told the audience that she was the slowest reader in her family and therefore the last to find out what happened to her character, Ginny.
“It was always hard when I read the books, because I was reading them as a fan and wanting to know what happened to all the characters,” Wright said. “But then I was obviously also reading and knowing that this could be, you know, what I had to film. So it was almost like reading with two minds.”
When cast to play Ginny, Wright did not know her character would have a romance with Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe).
“I guess there were clues and moments to believe that Ginny and Harry would end up together,” Wright said. “I was excited, yeah, but also terrified. But I was grateful as well. I feel like Ginny has such a cool character arc. … So I was really, really lucky to play her.”
