Did you know? (about the movies)
Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
- There was a huge media outcry in Gloucester, England when it was decided to use the local Cathedral for some of the Hogwarts scenes. Protesters wrote letters by the sack-load to local newspapers, claiming it was blasphemy and promising to block the film-crew's access. In the end, only one protester turned up.
- Three owls play Hedwig: Gizmo, Ook and Sprout, but mainly Gizmo.
- The movie is known as "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" everywhere except the USA and so every scene in which the Philosopher's Stone was mentioned was filmed twice (once with the actors saying "Philosopher's" and once with the actors saying "Sorcerer's") or redubbed (notably, one of the times Hermione says it in the library, her face isn't shown). The reason for this was to keep the films consistent with the book series: the US publisher, Scholastic, had changed the title (and corresponding text) to "Sorcerer's Stone". The title change was done with the consent of author 'J.K. Rowling', but she has since said that she regrets having granting permission, and as a fledgling author she wasn't in a strong enough position to fight it at the time.
- During filming, Daniel Radcliffe changed the screen on Robbie Coltrane's cellphone to Turkish. Coltrane had to phone hair designer Eithne Fennel's Turkish father in order to find out Turkish for "Change Language".
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- The set for Flourish and Blotts is a redress of the set that served as Olivander's Wand Shop in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
- Nurses were drafted into the production when an outbreak of head lice occurred among the young cast.
- In order to create a realistic image of the floating set of needles (knitting in The Burrow), one of the crew coerced his mother to let them film her for several hours as she did her own knitting.
- During production, Emma Watson frequently brought her pet hamster Millie on set. Unfortunately, Millie passed away shortly after shooting began. The set department for the film created a specially-made hamster coffin, complete with velvet lining and the name "Millie" engraved on the top. "I don't think a hamster has ever had a better send-off." Watson said.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- The cast was told that the Honeydukes candy was lacquer-coated, when in fact it wasn't, to prevent candy from disappearing between takes.
- Warner Brothers supplied ushers at cinemas with night vision goggles to prevent illegal recording and pirating of the film.
- During the filming of the sleeping bag scene, director Alfonso Cuarón and Alan Rickman played a practical joke on Daniel Radcliffe by hiding a remote-control-operated Whoopee Cushion in his sleeping bag. According to Cuarón, Daniel tried really hard to stay in character while everyone else was laughing.
- Two Persian red cats were used for the role of Crookshanks: Crackerjack and Pumpkin.
- Dawn French, who plays the Fat Lady in this film (but not in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) is the wife of Lenny Henry, who voiced the shrunken head on the Knight Bus.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Over 3,000 girls turned up at the auditions for the role of Cho Chang in London on 7 February 2004.
- During the underwater filming Daniel Radcliffe, a couple of the cast members, and all of the underwater crew posed for a photo which he later sent out as a Christmas card with Rudolph noses and antlers Photoshopped on everyone's faces.
- Safety divers swam in with scuba regulators to allow them to breathe without having to surface. These scenes were shot in a huge purpose-built tank with a blue-screen background. Daniel Radcliffe alone logged around 41 hours 38 minutes underwater during the course of filming. At one point during training he inadvertently signaled that he was drowning, sending the crew into a huge panic to bring him back up to surface
- As Ron, Harry and Hermione are talking in the great hall, before George and Fred attempt to enter their names in the Goblet, Hermione is reading a book. We can't see the title, but the cover features the harlequin pattern of the UK editions of the Harry Potter novels.
- Katie Leung hadn't intended to audition for the role of Cho Chang. Her father had told her where the audition was being held and she decided to go before her shopping trip.
- In one of the first takes of Hermione's "Cinderella moment", Emma Watson actually tripped in that fancy dress and fell down the stairs.
- Icelandic moviegoers (particularly the younger crowd) tended to crack up unexpectedly in theaters when Rita Skeeter first introduces herself. Apparently the audience weren't expecting the pronunciation of her last name, Skeeter, to sound so close to the Icelandic verb "skíta", which happens to be a rather crude word for defecating.