"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" promises to be the darkest of all the Potter films so far. With Harry tormented by dreams of Voldemort and leading a rebellion against Hogwarts teachers, he is truly a tortured soul. To bring out some of the most intense moments, costar Gary Oldman went method on teenage Daniel Radcliffe.
"There was the one bizarre bit," said Radcliffe. "He said, ‘Dan, in this next one, do you mind if I do something a little more physical.’ And I was thinking, ‘Maybe he’s going to give me a hug’ or something like that. And he grabbed me and shook me violently for 30 seconds while screaming at me. And then he sort of backed away slowly and you suddenly regress and I just started to cry. It was this really weird thing but he obviously knew it would work. I don’t know if he’s done it to people in the past but certainly it worked then."
For the dream sequences, director Yates had to hold Radcliffe back. "I was doing a lot of that sort of movie type of ‘Ah!’ Sort of waking up. And David just says, ‘Dan, no one does that. Just open your eyes.’ [He was] absolutely right. You do see it in films a lot of the time when people are lying straight down in bed and they suddenly sit bolt upright. If you try and do that, it’s incredibly difficult to do, let alone when you’re half asleep."
"Order of the Phoenix" opens tomorrow, kids! Keep an eye on that 75 percent Tomatometer…
