Movies.com Harry Potter Set Visit, Part 2: Hanging Out at Hogwarts, and Why the Yellow Pages Came In Handy
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Special Makeup and Creature Creation Lab
Dudman, who’s known as a creature effects master, showed us around the animatronic creature creation lab and prosthetic makeup studio. Upon entering a storage room, Buckbeak stands at least seven feet tall to greet us. Dozens of creature props are on display, including the Monster Book of Monsters, a Thestral, Lupin’s werewolf, Dumbledore’s Phoenix Fawkes, a Basilisk, Dobby, a massive Aragog and more. Dudman went into great detail about the labor intensive efforts it takes to create not only the creatures, but the prosthetic makeup as well. “If you do a prosthetic makeup, all eyebrows and hairlines are done one hair at a time.”
Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom, undergoes a gritty makeover for his character’s evolution. “The first week, it was really enjoyable. I thought, ‘This is fun! This is great.’ About 12 months later, it’s pretty boring. The novelty has definitely worn off. When I get the full thing on – a headpiece as well – it took two hours for the first few weeks. We’ve knocked it down to about an hour and a quarter now.” Other changes in his prosthetic makeup included getting rid of the fat suit, which he had to wear in past films to portray a pudgier Neville. “Neville’s slimmed down. We’re trying to suggest he’s living underground at Hogwarts, and he’s been this resistance leader. So he’s not had time to eat, and he’s been stressing out.”
Like Radcliffe, Lewis has played his role since the beginning, and said he’ll miss the security of having Harry Potter. “Auditions are the worst thing in the world. I go to pieces. I just can’t do it. Everything I do from now [on] is going to be a little bit harder, but at the same time, it’s time to move on and do something else. I can’t wait for that either – some ambivalence on it, really. I’m happy, sad, a little bit of both.”
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