Why Daniel Radcliffe Seriously Hated Harry Potter's Quidditch Scenes
"Harry is spent. The crowd is destroying its throats calling Harry's name. Harry feels right with himself. He's down there, a new God who has found his calling. He holds up the Snitch and bellows 'I am a beautiful animal! I am a destroyer of worlds! I am Harry f***ing Potter!' And, dear reader, at last, the world was quiet."
The above passage comes from "Wizard People, Dear Reader," an unauthorized, parodic "book on tape" version of the movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," written and performed by comedian Brad Neely. The passage comes at the end of a match of Quidditch (which Neely mistakenly called Cribbage), a sport in Harry Potter's wizarding world that is, essentially, a midair version of rugby, played while riding flying broomsticks. Neely exaggerates the epic moment from "Sorcerer's Stone," of course, but in 2001, when Chris Columbus' film first came out, audiences were ceaselessly dazzled by seeing Quidditch realized on the big screen. "Sorcerer's Stone" used state-of-the-art visual effects to put various British schoolchildren up in the air, passing quaffles to one another and ramming into each other while 60 feet off the ground. By today's SFX standards, the sequence may look quaint, but in 2001, it was a big deal.
It seems, however, that actor Daniel Radcliffe, who played the title character, hated filming the Quidditch sequences. And who could blame him? Perching on a broom and posing in front of a blue screen for hours on end doesn't sound like quite the thrill ride that Quidditch might be. In a 2009 interview with IndieLondon, Radcliffe stated outright that he was more than happy to leave Quidditch in his past, because it was a painful experience.
Quidditch sucks
Quidditch played a big part in the early "Harry Potter" movies but took a backseat as the series expanded into more and more installments. Radcliffe had to do multiple scenes on the broomstick against the bluescreen. When it came time to make "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1," released in 2010, Radcliffe breathed a sigh of relief. Flying scenes may be common in the "Harry Potter" film series, but the fewer of them, Radcliffe seems to feel, the better. He said:
"Quidditch is right up there with the least fun things I've done on 'Harry Potter' certainly. It is not a pleasant experience, it does hurt quite a lot and it is not something I would be rushing back to do! [...] I had to do it for all of the movies, pretty much, so that's been my favourite thing about the seventh one. No Quidditch!"
Tom Felton, the actor who plays Harry's school rival Draco Malfoy added briefly "I'm so glad I haven't done it since the second film."
Other experiences were unpleasant on the set for a lot of the films' actors. Actor Matthew Lewis played a character named Neville Longbottom, an awkward, nerdy kid who grows into an awkward nerdy teen. Lewis, as he got older, was required to wear extra padding under his clothes to keep his character rotund, as well as a mouth appliance giving him crooked-looking teeth. As a teen, these appliances did a blow to his vanity. He was quoted on these details in a 2011 issue of EW.
The events of "Sorcerer's Stone" will be retold in a planned "Harry Potter" TV series for the Max streaming service. Radcliffe's words about Quidditch should be heeded by whomever they cast.