RhondaWeasley.com

Alex Crockford’s RupertGrint.net Interview

12.November.2005

Alex Crockford did this interview with RGN in 2004. It no longer exist on their site, so I hope they don’t mind me resurrecting it here.

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Where and when were you born?

Alex: 28th March 1984, in London (King’s College Hospital, if you want a really exact answer. Can’t remember the ward number, had other things on my mind at the time I suspect.)

When did you start reading the Harry Potter books?

Alex: Some time in 2000, I think, a few months before Goblet of Fire came out. So as soon as I became literate, in other words!

How did you first become interested in acting?

Alex: At primary school. They seemed to have a policy of introducing the pupils to transvestism at an early age, at least where I was concerned. I always seemed to get to play the women, complete with a pair of comedy balloons. But I’ve just about managed to get over the trauma. At secondary school they took advantage of my natural rugged manliness to cast me in slightly more fulfilling roles (comparatively speaking).

What role did you originally audition for?

Alex: I actually auditioned for Percy in the first film, and overacted shamelessly if I remember rightly, although I did get to meet Chris Columbus twice, and he was a charming man, very patient, although bearing in mind at the time he was scouring all corners of the British Isles to find his ideal Harry Potter he probably had to be. I think he must have got every boy between eight and fifteen into the studio at some point. But he was still smiling when I saw him, although it probably turned into more of a manic grin by the time I’d finished my audition. Basically I just did a vaguely John Cleese type thing. Had I known that the real Cleese, who can do his thing rather better than I can, was going to actually be in the film himself I might have adopted slightly different tactics. But it was a complete surprise when my extras agency called me up three years later and asked me if I wanted to play another Weasley, admittedly not in a speaking (or credited) role this time.

Do you have anything in common with your character?

Alex: Apart from the hair, you mean? Probably not all that much, he’s more of an athletic, sporty type than I am (I have to admit that I joined my local leisure centre in Cambridge for a month and ended up going to the gym a grand total of twice, and spent the rest of the time in the jacuzzi.) I think that if I ever went into dragon wrangling as a career I’d probably last about five minutes before being fried alive and eaten (although who knows, I might have a natural aptitude for it.)

Are you excited about the upcoming movie?

Alex: I am, although I feel I ought to mention at this point that I’m not actually going to be in it, I was only hired as an extra for film three and they’ve cut me out of the script. One of Mike Newell’s assistants sent me a letter saying that if they did write me back in I would be called up as I am currently on their files as “the official Charlie Weasley” so if he gets a major role in books 6 and 7 and is absolutely indispensable to the plot I could yet have my fifteen minutes of fame (as opposed to the three seconds of being slightly less of a nonentity than usual that I’ve had so far.) So as you can imagine I’ve spent the last few months feverishly writing to JK Rowling under several different pseudonyms suggesting that perhaps in book 6 Charlie should lead an army of dragons against Lord Voldemort. It would be a good sequence for any film I feel, especially with me riding on a huge CGI dragon looking murderous. A great cinematic moment rather like Omar Sharif riding out of the desert in Lawrence of Arabia! Sort of. But getting back to the question, yes, I’m still looking forward to it, although how they’re going to cram all those pages into 2 1/2 hours of sceeentime I’m not sure.

Is there anything in particular you would like to tell the world about yourself?

Alex: I think I’ve probably said quite enough already!

What is favourite of the 5 books?

Alex: It’s a toss up between books three and four.

What is your favourite of the three movies so far?

Alex: The third one, obviously, because it’s the one with me in it! And Gary Oldman’s presence might have helped a bit as well. Actually I think they’ve got steadily better, which isn’t bad considering I thoroughly enjoyed the first one. Let’s hope the trend continues.

How are you enjoying working with Mike Newell?

Alex: Never met him, but I’m sure he’s fantastic, although failing to cut that “Is it still raining? I hadn’t noticed!” line out of Four Weddings and a Funeral, which he also directed, is probably a hanging offence.

What is it like to act alongside Rupert Grint?

Alex: I think you’re being fairly generous with the word “act” there, considering all I had to do was wear a fez and wave excitedly, although I venture to suggest that I carried off both those tasks with considerable aplomb. So I didn’t really get to know Rupert that well, as I only met him on a couple of occasions, but he seemed a nice young chap, totally unspoiled by stardom etc. In fact all the actors playing the Weasleys were nice, Mark Williams was as off-the-wall as you might expect, and Julie Walters was extremely motherly in the nicest possible sense of the word.

So far, what has been your favourite moment since you received your role?

Alex: Probably having to sign an autograph from a star struck waitress in New Zealand. Actually I’m probably exaggerating when I use the phrase “star struck”, I think most people are mildly impressed when I tell them about it, (strangely enough I don’t get recognised on the street all that often, possibly because even I almost missed me when I saw the film in the cinema, note by the way the lack of invitation to the premiere, is there no justice in the world?) but they don’t treat me with awe or anything. Sadly.

Are looking forward to a career as an actor or do you have other plans?

Alex: Well, if the chance came I’d take it, but the offers have not exactly been clogging up my letter box! It was extremely impressive that the first job the agency managed to get me was on Harry Potter (still the only job I’ve ever managed to get purely on the grounds of my physical appearance), but most of the last couple of years have been spent doing other things so probably the next most prestigious job I’ve had was playing “soldier with nosebleed walking down staircase” in Dunkirk. And you couldn’t even see the nosebleed! So hopefully the Bond producers will read this interview and think “My God, this is the guy we need to replace Brosnan”. But in the unlikely event that they choose not to go down the Ginger Bond route I’ll just stick at the law degree I’m currently slaving away for, see how that goes.

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