As the names of the eight movies of the Harry Potter franchise suggest, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is the main character of J.K. Rowling’s scripted saga. It follows the orphaned boy’s journey of discovering his magical potential and eventually facing Lord Voldemort, an evil wizard who killed his parents.
In his journey through Hogwarts, Harry is joined by his two close friends Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), who help him fight dark powers in all eight installments of the series and in a similar way to Radcliffe, both actors shot to stardom overnight. However, despite his importance to the plot and popularity among the masses, Grint found himself in the shadows for many emotional scenes.
Why Rupert Grint Wasn’t Part of Some Emotional Scenes in Harry Potter
Apart from Daniel Radcliffe‘s Harry Potter, Rupert Grint‘s Ron Weasley’s arc is the most detailed in the series. The makers not only focused on his transformation from a confused and naive (but very funny) kid to an intelligent young man with a penchant for well-timed quips but also shed plenty of light on his family.
However, Grint was also sometimes a cause of headaches for the directors on the sets due to his habit of failing to control his laughs. During an appearance on the virtual reunion of the cast of Harry Potter on the 19th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the actor revealed (via Yahoo!):
“It would always be the most inappropriate scenes, like Dumbledore’s funeral was a particularly bad one. For some reason, I found that absolutely hilarious. And yeah, once you start laughing, it’s very hard to stop. I had a particularly bad reputation, they used to call me Go Again Grint because I could never do anything without doing it like 20 times.”
Interestingly, the first scene Go Again Grint and Radcliffe shot together became such a hurdle because of their continuous giggles that their respective reactions had to be filmed separately to finish the sequence.
How Rupert Grint Sometimes Felt on the Sets of Harry Potter
While Grint enjoyed plenty of laughs during the filming of the life-changing role, he also endured some tough moments across a decade-long Harry Potter saga.
The actor, now 35, used Groundhog Day reference to convey the sense of monotony he sometimes felt on the sets of Harry Potter. The 1993 comedy is about weatherman Phil who is astonished after realizing he’s reliving the same day over and over. Grint said during an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast:
“There was a time where it felt quite suffocating, because it was heavy going, because it was every day for 10 years in the end. It was a great experience. Such a nice kind of family atmosphere … But sometimes it definitely felt like, ‘I want to do something else. See what else is out there.’ It just never ended. Every year, we came back. And it was kind of like Groundhog Day because it was the same sets. It was the same people. But it was great. I loved it.”
Nevertheless, the cast and crew members didn’t let the weariness reflect on the final cut and all eight movies were received brilliantly by fans, making Harry Potter one of the most financially successful franchises of all time, with a gross collection of over more than $7 billion under its belt.
