Arthur Weasley Actor Mark Williams Recalls His Harry Potter Set Memories in a New Guardian Interview
Accio nostalgia! The actor behind Arthur Weasley has thrown open his memory box, and the Wizarding World features heavily. In a reader Q&A with The Guardian, Mark Williams — who played the Weasley patriarch across seven Harry Potter films, beginning with 2002’s Chamber of Secrets — looked back on his years on set with obvious fondness.
His warmest stories are about his castmates. He remembers Michael Gambon, who played Dumbledore, as the set’s king of finely honed jokes who often did his best work backstage, and Richard Griffiths, who played Uncle Vernon, as a raconteur whose tales were brilliant but unrepeatable. Maggie Smith, he recalls, once spotted him in a bespoke blazer at a premiere and breezed over to ask whether he had just come from Henley Regatta — thoroughly pleased with her own joke.
The headline memory is gentler still. Between takes, Williams and the late Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid, liked to leaf through Plant Trader, a sales magazine for cranes, tractors and earthmoving equipment. They never actually bought anything, he admits, though they came close.
One memory borders on the surreal. While filming a crowd scene in the Ministry of Magic, Williams realized one of the extras was his own accountant — part of a group of professionals, including a high court judge, who turned up to do background work for fun. His lesson: never underestimate the extras.
As for staying in touch, there are no formal Weasley reunions, but the connections hold. He has collaborated with the Phelps twins, who played Fred and George, on a documentary, and keeps in regular contact with what he jokingly calls the dark side — death eaters Nick Moran and Jason Isaacs.
Williams sat for the interview at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, where his favorite newer attraction is the giant animatronic paw of Fluffy, Hagrid’s three-headed dog. Fittingly, the tour’s First Year at Hogwarts feature is running there now through September 7.
Which on-set anecdote is your favorite? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to follow along for the latest Harry Potter news.
Source: The Guardian
