Harry Potter's Bonnie Wright Described Filming The Banquet Scenes As 'Overwhelming'
Some scenes can be more overwhelming for an actor than others. Factors like the intensity of any action, the number of people on set, weather conditions, emotional charge, and many more play into the final result viewers get to see on the big screen. Needless to say, not every day on set is a piece of cake. And on big-budget sets, like the ones found in the "Harry Potter" films, it's unsurprising that some scenes called upon a bit more from actors.
Each film posed unique challenges. Bonnie Wright, who played the only female Weasley sibling, Ginny, knows this just as well as any other cast member: "I think for all of us any new challenge our character has in each movie [...] you look at it with slight trepidation because all these hundreds of millions of fans are reading the books and they have their vision of the character and they have their vision of each film so you know we want to do as much justice to the character as possible." Wright said in an interview, acknowledging the momentous pressure the actors felt while shooting the movies of the incredibly beloved franchise.
However, there was one recurrent kind of scene that Wright described as being particularly overwhelming — the banquet scenes in the marvelously imposing Great Hall.
A lot of people, food, and fireplaces
There have consistently been important scenes shot in the Great Hall, a set built in 2000, throughout the series. These included key moments like the Yule Ball in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Undoubtedly, one of the most iconic sets you can visit in real life, it certainly incites a sense of wonder and nostalgia for those who grew up seeing the locale featured in the films over the years. Fans might've wished to attend one of those impressive-looking banquets, but the reality of filming in the Great Hall was not as glamorous as one might think.
When asked about her secret for getting through the banquet scenes in an interview, Bonnie Wright went into detail about what made those challenging. The actress first described those days of shooting as being lengthy, noting a particular challenge was how the crew managed to create the sense of imposing scale that would feel recreated for moviegoers.
Wright also revealed a specific difficulty about the scenes in the Great Hall: "There's so much eating that goes on in those scenes [...] just food after food, and it becomes quite overwhelming when you're maybe in there for three days." The actress also attested to it being quite hot on set, "On the edges, there's fireplaces, so it gets incredibly hot and we're in cloaks [...]," Wright noted.
Though it likely wouldn't sway fans from the opportunity to take Wright's place in the Great Hall, it's worth knowing where the magical experience might have fallen short.