Bonnie Wright gives her take on the love scenes between her character Ginny and Harry Potter to ComingSoon.net when we sat down with her on the set of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:
Q: You get to have a romantic scene this time around. Can you talk about that?
Bonnie Wright: Yeah, well there’s two. The second one is obviously much more romantic and how it comes. It’s changed the film quite a lot for me and more kind of development of what she entails and what she has to do. I’ve enjoyed it.
Q: How was it shooting the scene with your character and Harry’s character together?
Wright: It was great. It’s weird, I guess, after you’ve known someone for a long time, it’s quite weird to do that, but it was fine. It wasn’t too bad. It was better than I expected which is good.
Q: Were you excited about the outcome in book seven?
Wright: Yeah. I really enjoyed what happen, the final half ending that happens, so to speak. Obviously there’s a large part of time in which they’ve spent apart. I also thought also actually while I was reading it that it was a short thing and it’ll never go back to how it was and so I was happy when it did.
Q: Even more than the romance you and Harry become more of a integral part of the storyline. How has that changing for you as you play that?
Wright: Shooting this one there’s been much for me to do. I guess there’s been much more of the character to dig into and get myself into. There’s even more scenes that build up in moments, for instance, in the relationship with Harry. They kind of build up and make it something more special for the characters. I think the character development has been good for me and I don’t think that she’s really ever been able to have that much in the films. I had more in the last one and obviously had a part in the second one, but I think it’ll definitely come across to the audience in this one that she’s much more developed.
Q: What do you think are her most important attributes?
Wright: I think that considering, obviously, that she’s known Harry since she was really young that she understands from a friendly side that he’s within the family. She obviously understands what he goes through and she’s not always thinking about if he’s the chosen one or what his motives are. I think that she kind of loves him for who he is, kind of like in a family way in which like Mrs. Weasley does.
Q: When they get together at this point do you think she feels that it’s a true love, kind of lifelong thing?
Wright: I don’t think she’s the kind of person that holds onto something or thinks so much of something and kind of builds something up in her head. I think that she just waits and sees and is quite patient. For instance, we know that she’s liked Harry since they were quite young and she’s been patient and waiting, holding off and has never really been that bothered. So I don’t think in this first relationship that she ever thinks it’s something that as we know develops into the seventh.
Q: What’s been the most exciting thing for you on this film so far or what are you looking forward to the most?
Wright: I really enjoyed, or well so far I’ve really liked doing all the scenes at the Weasley house. That was really fun and kind of humorous to film and it was a really interesting scene that we did out in the weeds around the Weasley house at night. That was exciting because it had a lot of action in it without being really action packed in the sense of magic and different things. It was much more serious and quiet and really scary, obviously, in the middle of the night and being surrounded by people that we can’t actually see. I’m also really looking forward to also the Christmas party. It’ll be fun to dress up and everyone will be in that. It feels like we’ve shot loads of things, but there’s so much to come.
Q: What do you think it is that brings Harry around this time and makes him see her in a different, especially considering that she’s liked him all this time?
Wright: I think it comes quite as a surprise to him that he starts to see her in a different light and starts to think, “Oh, wait a minute. I can’t do this because she’s the little sister of my best friend.” It’s that kind of weird issue and getting past that. I don’t know. I think in order for him to recognize her she’s obviously come a lot more out of her shell and she’s not that shy person that we saw in book one and two. I think that just stepping out obviously made him realize someone who he always saw just around the house, a sort of sisterly kind of thing.
Q: How does she handle it at first when she realizes that Harry does have feelings for her?
Wright: I think at first she almost casts it off as him being generally nice and friendly and being how he’s always been. I think she does start to realize it and I think that it also rekindles things that she likes in him as well because I think that for a time she’s probably tried to forget about him, in a sense.
Q: Have you shot the Quidditch scenes?
Wright: Yeah, we’ve done some of the scenes and we’ve got some more of them to do. I’ve done some of the flying, but not stuck on the ground.
Q: How was that for you?
Wright: It was fun. I never really realized how much they really, or how quite powerful the machines were that you go up on and how much they spin you around. It’s such a weird idea. I’m standing up there, sitting on a broom and I’m meant to be flying. It’s really weird.
Q: Rupert [Grint] was complaining that it’s quite painful.
Wright: You do get quite sore. You don’t really realize how much, like I say, that it throws you around. I did one where I was spinning completely, horizontally, three hundred and sixty degrees and I was like, “Ah, this hurts.” You’re obviously strapped in, but it’s still quite a weird experience.
Q: What are most looking forward to filming in the next movie and how do you feel about it being the last film in the series?
Wright: I guess it’ll be interesting to see how in the seventh one they’ll do the epilogue and those parts of the scene. I think there’s that moment in the seventh one where he’s at the house at Christmas, I think, where they exchange gifts or something. I don’t know what I’m looking forward to. It depends. There’s just so much in the seventh one that it’ll be interesting to see how they portray it.
Q: You have a steamy moment with Harry in that one as well.
Wright: Yeah. I don’t know how they’ll portray that. I wonder.
Q: When the Weasleys are all together do you guys feel like a family on set?
Wright: Yeah, I think so. There’s obviously a big family here and so all of us together in the Weasley house there is that. Also the set is amazing and it’s really colorful and very different from the other much darker sets that are really kind of bare like Hogwarts, obviously. It’s just fun because Julie Walters who plays Mrs. Weasley is so much fun to be with. I’ve always known that I’m going to laugh loads when we’re doing those scenes. I’ve never had a dull day at the Weasley house. It’s always fun.
Q: Do you want to continue acting after these series of movies?
Wright: Yeah, definitely. I’ve really enjoyed it and I’d never done it before we started on these films. So I’ve really enjoyed it and it’s opened up a lot for me. I never knew anything about the film industry at all, what’s involved. There are so many things to it with all the things that go behind it, all the sets and the costumes. You just don’t realize it and that’s really interesting to me as well.
Q: What sort of films do you think you’d like to do afterwards?
Wright: Well, I guess after playing the same character for quite a while I’d be interested in playing really different characters. After playing someone for so long you’re quite stuck with that same character. So it’d be interesting to do someone that was drastically different. Im quite interested in characters that you almost have to, not research into them, but that they’re so unlike yourself that you almost have to look into them and what goes on in their minds.
Q: What kinds of films do you like to watch yourself?
Wright: I like loads of films. I’m not really into one thing. I do like action, but not like thriller ones. I kind of like the more independent films. I guess this is very much a blockbuster film, “Harry Potter,” but I think it does have aspects of much more individual films. I think definitely the last one, how David Yates did it, was more low key and more about character. I like things with a lot of character development.
Q: What’s been the best acting advice anyone’s giving you?
Wright: Well, I think that a lot of time in acting there can be so much going on in your mind that you’re thinking about the process of what you’re doing. In life you’re never really thinking about what you’re doing in the day to day, what you’re feeling you just feel it. You don’t think about being angry. You feel being angry. So in a sense those two opposites, don’t think, but feel what you’re thinking.
Q: Who told you that?
Wright: Quite a lot of people have told me that. David Yates taught me quite a lot.
Q: What did you learn by working with him?
Wright: I definitely think that he opened up the idea of a kind of actor/director who’s really into knowing your ideas behind your character. He’s obviously thinking about the whole picture and every other character whereas we’re just thinking almost about ourselves, our own characters. So it was having the idea that you can give as much as you can. David likes to build a relationship with you and know what you believe about your character. Since I’ve been doing this since I was nine you kind of feel that you know what you should be doing in that scene or how you should be acting. So it’s giving your own kind of thoughts was something that I was able to do.
