It’s the scene a lot of fans say they could’ve done without. It’s the scene some people were dreading when the film was released. And it might possibly be the scene that’s garnered the most criticism over the years in the Harry Potter franchise. But how exactly to the stars and creators of the movies feel about the fame Epilogue scene? Let’s ask them! But first, some background.
The final chapter of the Harry Potter series finds Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry all grown up with children of their own. It’s nineteen years later and their kids are heading off to Hogwarts, making the lives of our heros come full circle. The scene in the movie, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows – Part Two, was actually shot twice. The first time, it was shot on location at King’s Cross station, but the filmmakers and the actors didn’t feel like they got what they wanted out of such a pivotal scene – especially when it came to the makeup.
This was a point of concern for everyone involved, one that could’ve been avoided if the team had taken Daniel Radcliffe’s advice – hire other actors. He believed that putting himself and his friends in prosthetics to make them look older would be “too distracting” for audiences and no one would connect with the emotions of the scene. However, producer David Heyman felt differently and explained that he was insistent on having the kids play older versions of themselves. He said:
“After all we have been through with these characters, the way that a generation has grown up with them, they need to be the ones on screen when it’s time to bring it to a close. There’s an expectation — even if it is not articulated — that they need to be on the screen when it’s coming to an end.”
Months after the movie had wrapped, shortly after New Years Eve of this past year, the kids went back into the Leavesden studio to reshoot and hopefully rework some of the kinks. The Potter makeup team went make to basics to try and soften the aging affect on the core characters. As most people would agree, the end result was far from perfect, but then again, there was only so much the team could do. Rick Baker, a seven-time Oscar winner in the field, explains
“There’s nothing harder than the human face because we all spend so much time looking at them. You can create creatures and aliens and all of those things but people judge human faces in a different way. Especially if it’s a human face they recognize because it’s already famous.”
And no one’s face is more famous than DanRad’s … except Brad Pitt’s. They seemed to get it pretty right in Benjamin Button, huh?
What do U think? Did the epilogue scene work for U?
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