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The cast of the Harry Potter films were no strangers to playing pranks on set. As actor Daniel Radcliffe recalled in a 2014 Reddit AMA, Alan Rickman helped pull off the best prank. Find out how the Severus Snape actor and his colleages had the entire Harry Potter cast laughing behind the scenes. 

Robbie Coltrane, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman, who helped orchestrate one of the Radcliffe's favorite pranks on the set of 'Harry Potter'
Robbie Coltrane, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman | Sylvain Gaboury/FilmMagic

Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, and Alfonso Cuarón’s fart prank

When asked about his favorite prank from the Harry Potter movies, Radcliffe’s said his took place while they were filming Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. “There’s a shot in the Great Hall of all the kids sleeping,” Radcliffe recalled on Reddit. He elaborated: 

“The camera starts very, very wide, and comes in so that it’s an inch from my face, a very long developing set. Alan Rickman decided he would plant one of those fart machines in my … sleeping bag, and they waited until like — the camera had come in for this huge DRAMATIC developing shot, and then unleashed this tremendous noise in the Great Hall.”

Daniel Radcliffe, Reddit

Radcliffe admitted he thought it was another one of the child actors messing with him. “[I thought] we were going to get in trouble,” he said. In reality, it was Rickman, Michael Gambon, and director Alfonso Cuarón pulling the strings. 

The prank involved a female actor Daniel Radcliffe ‘fancied’ 

According to a behind-the-scenes interview with Cuarón, Radcliffe requested that his sleeping bag be placed “next to particular girl he fancied” (via YouTube) when they were filming that scene. Of course, he was unaware of what Cuarón, Gambon, and Rickman had planned. As Radcliffe said on Reddit: “I think I laughed a lot [and] was probably a bit embarrassed, but it was really, really funny.”

Watch the behind the scenes prank from ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ 

Fortunately for fans, the prank was caught on-camera and can be seen on YouTube. In the clip, Hogwarts students are sleeping in the Great Hall because Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) is on the loose. As they sleep, Dumbledore (Gambon) delivers a soliloquy about dreams. That’s when the fart machine starts to go off. 

Radcliffe breaks character almost immediately and smiles. Once Gambon and Rickman break character and started to laugh, the entire Great Hall erupts with laughter. 

“That is the greatest thing ever,” one Redditor said about the video. “So interesting to watch,” another Reddit user pointed out, adding:

“I love hearing everyone laugh at the end, even though it’s probably mostly extras, it feels like everyone there is really part of this school. Kind of a thin moment between reality and the fantasy of it all.”

‘Harry Potter’ Fan, Reddit

Even more ‘Harry Potter’ set pranks 

Cuarón, Gambon, and Rickman’s prank wasn’t the only one to take place on the set of the Harry Potter films. It shouldn’t surprise fans that James and Oliver Phelps, who played Fred and George Weasley, were behind many of those pranks. 

“We were kind of given free rein because we could just claim we were method actors and we need to be able to express ourselves!” Oliver told Metro in 2020. Whether it was telling production crews to shut down early or something less serious, the Phelps twins said their pranks “range from silly to just … really out of order.” 

Stream all eight of the Harry Potter films on Peacock. 

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