What is it like to face the daunting task of playing the three most famous characters and friends from “Harry Potter“Wizard World?
Amount recently spoke with young British actors Frankie Treadaway (14), Max Lester (13) and Arabella Stanton (11), who provide the voices of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger respectively in the first three “Harry Potter” audiobooks from Audible. The result: All three – who are already accomplished actors with notable credits – were genuinely thrilled at the opportunity to portray the young wizards.
Treadaway, asked what his reaction was when he found out he was cast as Harry Potter in the first three books, said it was one of “just pure amazement, to be honest. With such a famous character, it’s just amazing to associate yourself with him.”
Stanton said for her, it was “a pinch-me moment. It’s like, ‘Did I really get this?’ It was just so amazing when I found out.” (Stanton subsequently landed the part of Hermione in the upcoming HBO series.) And Lester admitted that his first thought was, “I don’t believe this is real… And still now, I can’t believe I’m a part of this, and I’m in this amazing role with an amazing cast.”
Are they real life friends like Harry, Hermione and Ron are in the ‘Harry Potter’ books? “Well, of course we are!” Treadaway said. “I think we’ve created a bond over this period of time doing this.”
The first audiobook in the series, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” is scheduled to be released Tuesday, Nov. 4 exclusively on Audible, and each of the remaining six will be released monthly worldwide. (A second group of actors — Jaxon Knopf, Rhys Mulligan and Nina Barker-Francis — will voice Harry, Ron and Hermione, respectively, for books 4-7.) The cast of over 200 actors for the Audible “Harry Potter” books includes Hugh Laurie as Dumbledore and Matthew Macfadyen as Voldemort.
For Treadaway, Stanton and Lester, how much time they spent in the recording studio for Audibles”Harry Potter: The Full Cast Audio Editions” was relatively short—about a week or so to cover all three books. For the most part, they weren’t together: They recorded their lines separately with other actors speaking the other parts, but the trio came together for some of the group scenes.
To prepare for the parts, the three said they watched (or re-watched) the Warner Bros. movies starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Stanton said she read the original books to understand Hermione’s state of mind at different points in the story. “I think Hermione can be portrayed in many different ways,” Stanton said. “She’s quite a well-to-do girl – and she’s very bright and very keen to learn.”
For Lester, adopting Ron Weasley’s English country accent was a challenge. That meant “getting your vowels longer and making your L’s longer and your R’s longer,” he said. “It was all new to me and it was weird, but I definitely got used to it. And I don’t know, sometimes in conversations now, I slip them in there because it sounds right.”
Lester’s favorite part of the project was shooting the scenes where Ron ate: The producers prepared and served real food to the actors during the sessions. “It was so real!” he said. “It was even better if you grabbed more.”
The makers of the “Harry Potter” audiobooks also provide props for the actors, such as the characters’ wands and Hogwarts robes. “If you had your wand, if you cast a spell, you could practice doing that movement,” Stanton said. “And I really think that all the little little things that they gave us really helped me personally bring Hermione to life.”
Treadaway, who he recorded, was aware of Radcliffe’s line deliveries from the films. “I definitely had in mind what other past Harry Potter stuff was, just so people still have that familiarity with the character,” he said. But he also added “my spin on it.”
Through the experience, Stanton gained an appreciation of the different skills required for voice acting versus acting for stage or film. With the former, “you have to focus more on your voice and really portray your character through your voice with more emotion,” she said. “It’s quite difficult because you kind of have to not enunciate too much, but really have a good, good diction while you’re talking so that the microphone picks up everything you’re saying.”
Their families, of course, have known about their cast in the Audible “Harry Potter” series for months. But the actors weren’t allowed to tell their friends or anyone else about the gigs until then they were announced in early August. “When I finally got to tell my friends… they were really impressed,” Lester said. “But when I (couldn’t) tell them it was pretty tough because I really wanted to say what I did!”
Treadaway’s West End stage credits include appearances in “Mary Poppins”, “Elf”, “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Matilda the Musical”, while his television credits include LJP Ltd’s “My Lady Jane”. Lester’s acting career has included roles in “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice” (Warner Bros.) and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (Marvel), as well as stage roles in “Les Misérables” and “Leopoldstadt” in the West End and animated roles in Nickelodeon’s “Best Birthdayba Everpa” and “Best Birthdayba Everpa”. Stanton played the title role in ‘Matilda the Musical’ in the West End at the age of 9, before joining the original cast of ‘Starlight Express’ (London) in the part of Control shortly after she turned 10.
Meanwhile, none of the three have met JK Rowling, whose Pottermore Publishing is co-producing “Harry Potter: The Full Cast Audio Editions” with Audible. But they would welcome the chance.
“I love that she writes. I love the books,” Stanton said. “Hopefully we’ll get to meet her in the future.”
Pictured above, L to R: Max Lester, Frankie Treadaway, Arabella Stanton
