Tom Felton revealed the way director Chris Columbus kept the numerous young cast members under control on the set of Harry Potter.
Columbus directed the first two film adaptations of JK Rowling’s famous fantasy saga: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
In his new memoir, Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard, Draco Malfoy star Felton recalled a scene that took place in Professor McGonagall’s (Maggie Smith) classroom involving “a rather ill-mannered baboon”.
The scene involved a number of animals in cages and, according to the actor, the baboon was “unaware of what behaviour is appropriate to exhibit in front of a bunch of kids”.
“Which is my roundabout way of saying that we had to cope with the distracting intrusion of a self-pleasuring primate during the filming of the scene,” Felton wrote.
He added that Columbus had a system in place to deter the child actors from ruining scenes: “Any time one of us disturbed a take, we were given a red card.
“A red card meant you had to put £10 into a bag and, at the end of the shoot, all the money was donated to charity. It was a good plan to keep us on the straight and narrow, but it didn’t always work.”
Felton claimed that Ron Weasley actor Rupert Grint was the worst offender for ruining takes: “I believe he put in over £2,500 during the first two films alone, such was his inability to control himself when the giggles hit.”
Elsewhere in the memoir, Felton recalled the “painful” memory of laughing at a nine-year-old Emma Watson after she performed a dance for him and other cast members.
Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton is out now, published by Ebury Spotlight.
