On this day, over 24 years ago, a little novel by the name of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released in the UK. Yeah, I know it’s really obscure. It’s about a boy wizard… ever hear of it? Joking aside, to celebrate the novel that would go on to span six more mega-popular books, an entire film franchise, and even a theme park, here are a few behind the scenes secrets (courtesy of IMDb) we bet you didn’t know about the film adaptation of the Sorcerer’s Stone.
1.Originally, filmmakers intended to use the Canterbury Cathedral for some of the scenes at Hogwarts, but the Dean of Canterbury didn’t allow it. He thought it was “unfitting” for a Christian church to be used in such a way that would “promote pagan imagery.” Gloucester Cathedral was used instead as the Dean of Gloucester was admittedly a fan of the books. However, protestors in Gloucester wrote angry letters to the local newspaper when this was announced and intended to block the film crew’s access to the cathedral, but only one person actually showed up.
2. The tabby cat that was used to portray Professor McGonagall in the opening scene actually ran away during filming, but came back two days later.
3. J.K. Rowling was originally asked to play Harry’s mom, Lily, in the Mirror of Erised scene, but she turned it down believing she would have “messed it up somehow” as she is not an actress.
4. Production originally tried to make the child actors look more like their book counterparts, so Daniel Radcliffe wore green contact lenses and Emma Watson was fitted with fake buck teeth. However, those ideas were soon dropped as Watson couldn’t talk clearly with the fake teeth and Radcliffe’s eyes had a strong reaction to the contacts.
5. The first person to be cast in the film was Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid.
6. Richard Harris, who played Professor Dumbledore in the first two movies, had trouble remembering his lines, so Daniel Radcliffe would ask him to help run through his own lines so Harris would have more time to memorize his parts.
7. Warner Brothers considered two alternate methods when trying to figure out how to adapt the Harry Potter books: turning them into computer animated movies instead of live action or trying to combine several books into one film. Their concern was that if production ran too long then they ran the risk of the young actors and actresses aging out of their roles and ultimately having to re-cast. However, J.K. Rowling vetoed both ideas and it was instead decided that the films would be shot back-to-back to ensure the cast could continue reprising their roles throughout the whole series.
8. The scenes that took place in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library were filmed in the Duke Humfrey’s building at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The library has very strict rules about not allowing any fire, but the filmmakers were the first ones in over hundreds of years to be allowed to break the rules.
9. Actor Rik Mayall was cast to be the mischief-causing poltergeist Peeves in the film, but allegedly didn’t know all his scenes got cut until he saw it. He thought it might have had something to do with the fact that the young cast members couldn’t help but laugh while he was filming his scenes.
10. Liam Aiken was originally offered the role of Harry Potter, but the offer was revoked a day later after it was discovered he wasn’t actually British. Gasp!
What was the most surprising piece of trivia? Let us know in the comments down below!