Harry Potter Director David Yates on Life After Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione's Kiss and Harry's Oscar Chances

This past July was a bittersweet month for Harry Potter fans who flocked to theaters en masse to bid farewell to their beloved J.K. Rowling franchise with David Yates’s final film installment Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 starring, one last time, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Fortunately for honorary Hogwarts members, J.K. Rowling’s mythical universe is still very much alive at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Parks in Orlando, Florida — where, this weekend, Warner Bros. hosts a junket for the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 home release. This morning, Movieline sat down with British director Yates, who has helmed the final four Potter films (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2) and earned rave reviews from fans and critics for masterfully closing out an eight-part franchise. On a second-floor balcony overlooking hoards of fans in robes and wizard hats, Yates reflected on Ron and Hermione’s dreaded kiss, his Academy Award campaign — and at long last, life after Harry Potter. How are you unwinding from six years’ worth of Harry Potter? I’m having a nice time, chilling out, traveling. [My wife and I] just went to Bali and stayed in this nice place where we did yoga and pilates and meditation. It was great and really healthy. Then we went to Singapore, which was fantastic. And I’m working on some scripts for next year. It’s been really nice because Potter was so intense. It never stopped! It was like [long groan], making one after the other after the other. I needed some time to decompress. I’m curious because when Warner Bros. announced that you would be directing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, producer David Heyman said that they wanted you because you know how to push actors into giving the best performances of their careers. How did you get better and better performances out of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint four movies in a row? I love actors, and I just feel very empathetic towards the characters. To me, they are very real. So every time I did a scene with Dan or Emma or Rupert, their characters were very real. You feel their journey and an enthusiasm for what they are dealing with. I think that helps. There are some directors that are very technically oriented and are more into putting the whole process together and there are some directors who are more focused on actors. I like a bit of everything though. I like making what they do as real as possible. That’s what gets me up in the morning. For me, when you have a group of actors together doing a scene for the seventh take and you feel that something has happened — not just that I can see but the person who is making the tea or loading the clapper board, if they can feel it. It’s tangible. I always love those moments where you feel as though you’ve witnessed something that feels that real and incredible. The extras respond — everyone does. Do you recall one moment on Deathly Hallows — Part 2 when the entire cast and crew responded like that? There were a couple key moments where everyone was really interested. Everyone gathered around when Ron and Hermione had their first kiss because they had never kissed before in any other film or in real life. It was a very sweet and charming moment because [Rupert and Emma] are best mates. They have a mutual amount of affection for each other and were very nervous about the process of snogging each other. It was a really lovely morning though because it was such a nice atmosphere on set. When they did finally kiss, it was just such a relief. How did you calm their nerves beforehand? Well, I talked to them each individually beforehand and said that the way to get through this is to give yourself to your character. “For God’s sake, don’t be Rupert. You need to be Ron and remember all of the times you’ve wanted to kiss this girl all this time. Just become Ron, even before we start turning over — just be Ron.” I said the same thing to Emma. “Just give yourself to the character. Let the characters take over. Then it will be easier.” Because they are like brother and sister. [Laughs] So that’s what they did. And Emma is very smart. She knows that I do a lot of takes so she figured if she really went for it in the first or second take, it would be in the can and we’d be done. So how many takes did you end up doing? We did three or four, I think. The take we eventually used is really funny though because you can see Emma’s thought process — “I’m going to go for this. I’m going to go for this big time and then it’ll be nailed and we’ll be done.” Rupert wasn’t prepared for that so if you watch the DVD you’ll see Emma’s determination and Rupert looking slightly vacant and then she just goes for it and Rupert is in a state of shock. Was it a closed set? It was — just to make them feel comfortable. It was nice. They came back to watch the monitor afterward and it was such a charming moment — just watching them watch that moment unfold and being really thrilled with it. Harry Potter fans have such an intense relationship with these movies. Did you as the director ever feel like you had a strong relationship with the fans? The fans are just amazing. They are incredible because they are so supportive and they are the reason we are here now. They are the reason we’ve made so many films. It’s because people have come to see those films again and again and again. I have a huge respect for the fans but I had to go by the material. If you looked at the comments online, you’d see that some people loved certain things, hated certain things, were arguing about certain things. It would be impossible to take a lead from the fans. You just hope that you fall in love with the material like you fall in love with the material. I get letters and I’ll think, “Well, that’s really interesting. That’s really helpful.” But the fans disagree amongst themselves about who they like and don’t like so it was always the material that I was directed by. It was always interesting to get those letters to see what people didn’t want left out. Unfortunately, sometimes we had to leave those things out. Is there any decision you regret after reading fan feedback? You know, I’m proud of the films. I think they’re good. I didn’t want them to be exact replicas of the books. That felt wrong to me. After making each of these movies, we had test screenings and always asked, “How many people have read the books?” Actually, year on and year on, you’d be surprised at how few people had read the books. So I had to be aware that I was making these movies for the fans and for the people who had never read the books. We had to serve two audiences in a way.