Ian Kelly, who will be playing Hermione Granger's Muggle dentist father in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was interviewed today on BBC Radio Devon by Judi Spiers about his role in the movie, as well as his career as an actor and author. The segment as a whole is over 20 minutes, as Ian chronicles his professional work, but he spends a couple of minutes talking about getting the role as Mr. Granger, meeting the cast, including Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe, on set, and how he was told he got the role.
The entire segment (beginning at 2:10 hours in), can be heard here; the Potter segment (which starts at 2:23 hours) can be listened to below:
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Ian Kelly: I love Harry Potter. You know I can't tell you much about it. They'll send 'round the men they have from Hogwarts. I play Hermione's dad and it's quite similar to what goes on in the book.
Judi Spiers: It's a two parter, isn't it?
Ian: Yes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One and Part Two. The last book is being filmed as two films, if that makes sense. It's an absolute joy because it's such a triumph of the British film industry. You go to where it's filmed, this studio, and it's all there. So it's like a kind of a theme park, and there have been people who have been working on the franchise for nine years, so it's like no other film studio you can imagine. It's like stepping back into old Hollywood in some respects.
Judi: But it can't be as much for you as it is for us because there are so many special effects. You don't see what we see. You don't play Quidditch.
Ian: Yes, it's sadly true. I play Hermione's dad and Emma Watson was very funny about how she's grown up doing blue screen. She's spent most of her acting career, actually, imagining who she's acting with, or with no idea of quite what could be going on behind her. They're a lovely gang. It was a very happy job.
Judi: A huge all-star cast, of course. Or did you not get to mix with them?
Ian: Yes, absolutely. There's Maggie Smith and Miriam Margolyes and Judy Walters and David Thewlis and Alan Rickman and so on and so forth. But they're a really lovely gang. Dan Radcliffe came over to me the first morning to shake hands – we didn't have any scenes together – but just to sort of say welcome. The lovely director – this has never happened to me in my so-called film career – we got asked out to the studio, myself and the woman who's going to play my wife, Hermione's mother, Michelle Fairley. We were taken out - we thought it was for another round of auditions – and he said, I just wanted to sit you in the room and tell you you've got the part." It was the loveliest thing. Can you imagine being sent a car just to be told good news. So I thought, "Oh, this is going to be a nice job."
