The ‘Harry Potter’ Actor Who Said There Was ‘No Point in Reading the Books’
The entire Harry Potter franchise, both films, and books, seemed to have a chokehold on an entire generation of youth. While it’s not shocking that some young Harry Potter fans were more fond of the films than the books, it’s quite surprising that some of the key Harry Potter actors forwent reading the book series altogether.
It seems that the actor who portrayed Dumbledore was one of the rogue actors who made the bold choice to publicly announce that he had never read J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books and had no intention to do so. Get the full scoop on the Harry Potter actors who skipped their reading assignments below.
Dumbledore never read the Harry Potter books
In 2001, the fantasy film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in theaters. Of course, this film was an adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s popular 1997 novel by the same name. Both the book series and film series were quite successful and attracted a wide fan base known as “Potterheads.”
While both the books and films are centered around Harry Potter and his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, there are a number of other key supporting characters, including Albus Dumbledore.
As the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Professor Dumbledore played a large role in the series. Originally, Irish actor Richard Harris was cast to portray the character of Dumbledore.
While Harris did play Dumbledore in the first two films, he, unfortunately, died from Hodgkin’s disease in October 2002 at the age of 72. With Harris’s death came the need to recast Dumbledore to maintain the existing storylines. Much to the dismay of Potterheads, the new Dumbledore admittedly never read a single book in the Harry Potter series.
Potterheads did not give Michael Gambon a warm welcome
The recast Dumbledore, played by Irish actor Michael Gambon, made his debut in the third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. According to BuzzFeed, Gambon, who replaced Harris’s beloved version of Dumbledore, admitted to never reading a single book in the Harry Potter series before appearing in the 2004 film.
When met with pushback from Potterheads, Gambon decided to double down with the statement, “No point in reading the books because you’re playing with [screenwriter] Steve Kloves’s words.” While Gambon portrayed Dumbledore in the rest of the film adaptations, many Potterheads felt that he never quite hit the mark.
One of Gambon’s scenes that bothered many Potterheads was during the fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Dumbledore was seen storming toward Harry, yelling at him the question, “Did you put your name in the goblet of fire?” In comparison, in the book, Dumbledore calmly asks Harry this question.
Overall, most Potterheads simply felt that Gambon had no sense of the true nature of Dumbledore’s character and was often too harsh and jarring compared to how the character was portrayed in the book series.
Which ‘Harry Potter’ stars never read the books?
While Potterheads found fault in Michael Gambon’s admission to having never read the Harry Potter books, he wasn’t the only actor to make this choice. The Chicago Tribune reports that Harry Potter stars Ralph Fiennes and Alan Rickman never read the books either. According to IMDb, Fiennes portrayed Lord Voldemort, and Rickman portrayed Professor Severus Snape.
Along with Fiennes and Rickman, Tom Felton, who landed the role of Harry’s arch-nemesis Draco Malfoy, admitted that he had never read the Harry Potter books before auditioning for the role. Felton, who was just 14 years old at the time, even lied during his casting call. He was asked by the casting director, “What was your favorite scene in the book?” After hearing another boy in the audition say his favorite scene was Gringotts, Felton gave a similar answer.
