By HILARY FOX Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — If you listen carefully, you can hear the noise of chocolate frogs flying through the air on the Hogwarts Express.
Hermione Granger gasps with delight as Ron Weasley catches the sweet treat thrown his way by Harry Potter, as all three travel home after an eventful first year at the wizarding school.
This isn’t the now-vintage, Daniel Radcliffe-era movies, it’s not the “Cursed Child” play and neither is it the forthcoming HBO TV series. What you’re hearing is a brand-new cast in a new Audible recording of J.K. Rowling’s seven books.
The legacy of Harry Potter might have been clouded by headlines surrounding Rowling’s comments on gender and opposition to trans rights, but it hasn’t stopped production on new projects set in the wizarding universe. The Associated Press visited the London recording studio for a “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” session in the summer, as young actors Frankie Treadaway, Max Lester and Arabella Stanton lay down walla — background noise that’s used to bring the stories to life. The young trio voice Harry, Ron and Hermione in the first three audiobook adaptations, before an older cast takes over.
Instead of listening to someone like Jim Dale or Stephen Fry telling the whole story alone, this new audio production — the first book releases Nov. 4 — has a full, high-wattage cast. While Cush Jumbo narrates, Hugh Laurie is Albus Dumbledore, Riz Ahmed portrays Professor Snape and Michelle Gomez brings Professor McGonagall’s Scottish lilt to life. Matthew Macfadyen voices Voldemort, and Keira Knightley appears later in the series as Dolores Umbridge.
But it’s Stanton who is pulling double duty in the Potterverse: The 11-year-old is also starring as the studious and brave Hermione Granger in the HBO show.
“I can’t say much, because they’ve cast a Mimblewimble tongue-tying spell on me,” Stanton apologizes. “But I’ve just started filming, and it’s great at the moment.”
AP sat down with Treadaway, 14, Lester, 13, and Stanton to find out the snacks required to keep them going, their introductions to the wizarding world and how they feel about acting. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: What were the auditions like?
TREADAWAY (Harry): You really got like, a taste of what it was going to be like, also in the studio and even the scenes.
AP: Had you done anything like this before?
LESTER (Ron): I did some audio before, yeah, but I mean nothing as professional as this is.
AP: How does this compare to your stage work?
STANTON (Hermione): It’s just very, very different, but I suppose the similar thing is that, because you want to make your voice come alive, I think you … sort of act as you’re saying the lines to give the words some color.
AP: How’s the recording going so far?
LESTER: Lovely people, great food and great experience.
AP: What’s your favorite food when you’re working?
TREADAWAY: The snack cupboard and the chocolate fridge.
LESTER: The chocolate fridge is dedicated to chocolate.
STANTON: It’s filled with snacks.
TREADAWAY: They have to restock every time I go.
AP: Can you remember the first time you ever heard about Harry Potter?
TREADAWAY: I think it might have been when my sister was watching the movies chronologically and then for some reason I only decided to tag along for the last one.
AP: Did you go back to the beginning?
TREADAWAY: I don’t think I did, because I was like, “Oh, I can’t watch this, this is a 12 (rating),” so I had to wait till I was 12 to watch them.
STANTON: My friends had started all reading all the books and everything and they were like, “Oh have you heard Harry Potter this, Harry Potter that?” And so I was like, right I’m going to start reading the books. So I think when I was 8 I started reading the first one. Sort of just worked my way through them and yeah it was great, I’ve loved Harry Potter. I love it.
LESTER: I saw this book in Waterstones and everyone said that it was quite popular. It was like one of the bestsellers. So my mum bought it for me and I read the book and it was just great.
AP: So what do your friends and family think about you voicing these characters? Have you been able to tell them?
LESTER: I haven’t really told many of them, not really.
TREADAWAY: I think those who know will never truly know actually what it’s about until they listen to it.
STANTON: I think I’ve told quite close family, sort of keeping it in a bubble. But they’ll never really understand because so much effort — I mean, the teams, all the amazing people behind it, they put in so much effort to make the audio series incredible.
AP: Have you got a favorite part of the stories?
TREADAWAY: I can’t wait to hear how the battle scenes work because of all the SFX and all the sounds and all of the grunts and oohs and ahs and all that because I think that will sound really cinematic. … It was very weird because I would stand there for a minute just grunting and I would feel so stupid.
STANTON: I can’t wait to hear all the spells because I think Hermione generally just says so many spells and I can’t wait to hear the sounds of people casting them, I just love spells.
LESTER: My favorite part that I’m looking forward to is just literally just to hear it all come together and for everyone to talk to each other because I feel like that’s going to be amazing.
AP: Are you like your characters in any way?
TREADAWAY: That’s how I found it quite easy to just step into the character because I think I relate to them and I’m sure you guys do as well. … I’m not like the biggest ego ever. … Sometimes you’re the smaller person in the room and you just sometimes just mingle. I feel like I relate to Harry in that way.
AP: How about you and Hermione?
STANTON: I love books. I love writing, I love reading, I love doing all that kind of stuff. I mean, I like school, but I don’t love school. And I think … books is the main connection between Hermione and I.
AP: How are you like Ron?
LESTER: I think we both relate to each other because we’re quite cheeky and we love food. We love food! … In moments, we’re both serious and we’re also not afraid to stand up for the people that we love or stand up for our friends because we always do the thing that’s right, and that’s kind of what I relate to, because I go into the deeper side of Ron, and not just the eating food and being cheeky.
AP: What’s your favorite kind of magical element?
LESTER: My favorite kind of magical element is the spells. I think they’re just really cool. Like “stupefy” (the stunning spell) — I think that’s very, very cool.
STANTON: One of the main props that Hermione uses is the Time Turner. I love all the magical objects like the Invisibility Cloak, the Time Turner, all those things because … (they’re) things you wouldn’t be able to use in real life, but in the magic world, it transports you into a completely different world.
TREADAWAY: The Polyjuice Potion, because when you record that, it’s like, you have to really hone in on the actual sound of turning into someone else, and that was one of my favorite magic parts of it.
AP: Are you aware of how much love there is for Harry Potter?
TREADAWAY: I guess that’s sort of why you have a bit of pride in yourself knowing that such a big name and characters, you get to associate yourself with them. If you know what I mean, it gives you a little feeling inside your heart.
AP: What does it mean for you to be representing Ron?
LESTER: It makes me proud, honestly, to be representing such a great and funny character, but then also, I don’t know, it just makes me … feel a part of this community.
AP: And how about you, representing Hermione?
STANTON: I’ve dreamt of that since a really young age, and I’ve always looked up to all of the people who played Hermione, like Emma Watson and all those people.
AP: Are you aware how huge it is around the world?
TREADAWAY: I don’t think we’ll really feel that until it comes out, I guess, because that just makes it more unreal.
LESTER: It’s so popular around the world, which makes it more unreal that so many people are going to be interested in this and we don’t even realize it, yeah, we can’t even process this.
AP: So is acting the way forward for you now? Would you like to continue doing this?
TREADAWAY: Yeah, definitely — I mean on this, it never really felt like pushing yourself to do something, it wasn’t work, it felt like an enjoyable experience and you’ve got something to see at the end of it.
STANTON: I’d love to act, yeah, definitely. And I think, like Frankie said, I mean, just being part of the audio series is incredible. And yeah, can’t wait to do more.
LESTER: I think it is for me because I always say it’s not work if you do something that you love and, honestly, I love acting so much. It makes me feel happy and it makes me feel like my true self and … I think it is the way forward just to keep going and do a lot of jobs, hopefully.
AP: And you’re all bonded now aren’t you?
ALL: Yeah.
LESTER: The proper trio.