10 Things You Didn't Know About Harry Potter's Scar

9. Special Templates Were Used To Draw It Onto Daniel Radcliffe's Forehead

harry potter and the chamber of secrets harry's scar
Warner Bros.

While the first movie was being developed, the placement and design of Harry's scar was a heavily-debated topic.

With its importance as both a visual point of interest and an integral plot device, getting it right from day one was crucial. However, early on, the filmmakers were faced with a problem: in the books, the scar is often mentioned, but its exact position on Harry's forehead is never disclosed.

Quotes like "under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning" from The Philosopher's Stone didn't give any hints, and so the filmmakers had to go directly to Rowling for an answer. "Razor sharp, just off center”, was the response she gave to director Chris Columbus.

With the scar's placement set, the conversation turned to making it look as neat and realistic as possible. To accomplish the look you see onscreen, special templates - almost like small helmets that would wrap around Radcliffe's head - were used, and the scar was stencilled on. Whenever Harry was under any Voldemort-related duress, the makeup team would redden the scar to make it look more prominent.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!