James and Oliver Phelps at Silicon Valley Comic Con

Veronica Nunez

October 10, 2019

James (Fred Weasley) and Oliver Phelps (George Weasley) from the Harry Potter films appeared at Silicon Valley Comic Con in San Jose, California on August 16-18, 2019.  They had a great panel talking about the practical jokes the cast played on each other, and they gave a detailed account of a prank they played on the intern in the hair and makeup department.

The twins did clarify a rumor that they had once switched characters for a day which required reshoots.  They said that there are hundreds of cast and crew on set each day, and they would never intentionally do something to cost the production time and money.  I remember reading about this joke a few years ago, and I’m glad to hear that it isn’t true.

I think it’s great that they received a copy of the book when filming each film which the cast would sign.  The books became school yearbooks in that way.  Oliver tells a fan that he has George’s missing ear.  James thinks this is a bit weird and tells the audience that Oliver has the ear prosthetic displayed on the plaster mold of his head in his (Oliver) house.

Tom Felton always gets their names wrong even now, but they don’t correct him because they think it’s funny.  When they first started the first film and did the table read they still didn’t know who was playing Fred and who was playing George.  They had to ask the casting director, but they don’t know if the director/producers even knew who was playing who until that moment.

James and Oliver talked about the wide reach of Harry Potter around the world even if people haven’t read the books or seen the films, they still get recognized for Harry Potter.