Behind the scenes of Harry Potter

This year is the twentieth anniversary of Harry Potter!!! The first film, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, premiered in 2001 and as a huge fan of the series, I had to mark the anniversary somehow so here I am sharing some behind-the-scenes facts from the movies. 

• Chris Columbus, who directed the first film, wanted Daniel Radcliffe to play Harry potter after seeing him in a production of David Copperfield. Daniel's parents initially refused to let him audition but agreed after Columbus convinced them that Daniel would be protected from the media

• J.K. Rowling was asked to portray Harry's mother Lily during the Mirror of Erised scene, but she declined due to her not being an actress and worrying she would mess it up. Geraldine Somerville ended up taking the role.

•  Both Robin Williams and Rosie O'Donnell wanted to be cast in the film without pay, but Rowling turned them down because she wanted a strictly British cast. Williams wanted to play Hagrid and O'Donnell Molly Weasley.

• J.K. Rowling handpicked Dame Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), and Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) for their roles.

• Richard Harris only agreed to take the part of Albus Dumbledore after his 11-year-old granddaughter threatened never to speak to him again. He starred in the first two films but sadly passed away of Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2002. Michael Gambon then took over the role for the rest of the series.

• Producers of the series spent months training owls to carry letters. Production even hand-wrote all the Hogwarts acceptance letters brought to the Harry in the first film.

• During the filming of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Daniel Radcliffe changed the screen language on Robbie Coltrane's (Hagrid) cell phone to Turkish. Coltrane had to contact hair designer Eithne Fennel's Turkish father to set the phone back to English.

• Daniel Radcliffe went through 160 pairs of glasses during the production of all the films.

• Rupert Grint auditioned for the role of Ron Weasley by sending a video of himself rapping while explaining why he wanted the part.

• Emma Watson's name was passed on to casting agents by er Oxford Theater teacher, and she had to do over five interviews before she got the part. Watson took the audition very seriously but according to her, "never really thought I had any chance of getting the role." Producers were impressed by her self-confidence and she won the role.

• J.K. Rowling made up the names of the four Hogwarts houses while on a plane. She wrote them down on a sick bag so she would remember them.

• Tom Felton originally auditioned for the roles of Harry and Ron before being cast as Draco Malfoy. He naturally had light brown hair so he had to bleach his hair in order to portray the character.

• In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Draco Malfoy says "I didn't know you could read" when he sees Harry disguised as Goyle, Tom Felton improvised it because he forgot his line.

• Rupert Grint really is afraid of spiders. He has such a severe case of arachnophobia that he has still not watched the entire scene where Ron and Harry are in Aragog's hollow. His fear and squirming during the scene were his real reactions.

• During the filming of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Tom Felton's robes were sewn shut to prevent him from sneaking food onto the set.

• Young Voldemort was played by Hero Fiennes Tiffin, the nephew of Ralph Fiennes ho played Voldemort. 

• Harry Melling, who played Dudley Dursley lost so much weight before the third film that he was almost recast. Eventually, he was approved to continue playing the character and he had to wear a fat suit in order to look heavier.

• The books that formed Dumbledore's library are actually phone directories in disguise.

• The younger kids had to get casts of their teeth made so they could get a fake tooth put in case they lost one while shooting. Daniel Radcliffe revealed this in an interview.

• The scenes at 4 Privet Drive were originally shot on an actual street with real houses. They shot in a real house in a community called Picket Post Close. But they ended up having to build identical model houses because they didn't have access to the house for reshoots.

• Fourteen Ford Anglias were wrecked in the filming of the scene where Harry and Ron crashed into the Whomping Willow.

• Rupert Grint  used some of the money he earned from Harry Potter to buy an ice-cream truck and he served ice-cream to children in summer.

• Alan RIckman, Michael Gambon and director Alfonso Cuarón  teamed up to play a prank on Daniel Radcliffe during a scene where all the Hogwarts students are sleeping on the floor of the Great Hall. Daniel had asked for his sleeping bag to be placed next to a girl he liked so they did and put a remote-controlled fart machine inside it! Daniel said it was the best prank pulled on the set.