10 Funniest Things That Happened During The Making Of Harry Potter

Making the Harry Potter movies was an unforgettable experience for the cast and crew. They breathed new life into J.K. Rowling’s outstanding novels and made plenty of lifelong friendships in the process.

Due to the fact that Harry Potter is a fantastical coming-of-age story, most of the core cast members grew up on screen, and – as you might expect – there was plenty of humour during this time. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson were often at the centre of these amusing situations, but there were many others who had a laugh along with them.

Breaking character by falling into fits of giggles was a common occurrence throughout the filming process, especially for Rupert Grint. Other sources of hilarity arose from childish pranks, embarrassing mishaps, and physical blunders, some of which were rather painful for the people involved.

Whilst many Harry Potter fans will be familiar with the humorous story beats throughout the franchise, few are aware of the behind-the-scenes comedy that took place. And this is a great shame, as some of these moments are more entertaining than the scripted comedy in the finished films.

After directing the first two Harry Potter movies, Chris Columbus was replaced by Alfonso Cuarón, a superb director who brought a much darker tone to the franchise.

During the filmmaking process, Cuarón asked Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson to write essays about the characters they play. This may seem like an odd request, but he thought their performances would be even better if they understood their characters as thoroughly as possible.

Daniel wrote a one-page essay and was rather chuffed that he’d managed to do it. However, his sense of pride was quashed almost immediately when Emma arrived with sixteen pages of writing. Rupert, on the other hand, didn’t even do the essay. Whilst this isn’t laugh-out-loud funny, the actors’ responses to Cuarón’s request were an exact reflection of the characters they play.

In fact, Rupert essentially proved he understood his character perfectly, as Ron probably wouldn’t have done the essay, either. And as for Emma's response, her overachiever approach to the essay was remarkably similar to Hermione's attitude to school work.