{"id":113196,"date":"2025-11-03T15:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/113196\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T15:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:15:07","slug":"meet-the-actors-playing-harry-ron-hermione","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/113196\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Actors Playing Harry, Ron, Hermione"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhat\u2019s it like to face the daunting task of playing the three most famous characters and friends from the \u201cHarry Potter<\/a>\u201d Wizarding World?<\/p>\n

\n\tVariety recently spoke with young British actors Frankie Treadaway (14), Max Lester (13) and Arabella Stanton (11), who provide the voices of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively, in the first three \u201cHarry Potter\u201d audiobooks from Audible<\/a>. The upshot: All three \u2014 who are already accomplished actors with notable credits \u2014 were very excited indeed about the opportunity to portray the kid wizards.<\/p>\n

\n\tTreadaway, asked what his reaction was when he found out he landed the role of Harry Potter in the first three books, said it was one of \u201cjust pure amazement, to be honest. With such a famous character, associating you with him is just mind-blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStanton said for her, it was \u201ca pinch-me moment. It\u2019s like, \u2018Have I actually got this?\u2019 It was just so amazing when I found out.\u201d (Stanton\u00a0subsequently landed the part of Hermione in the forthcoming HBO series<\/a>.) And Lester confessed that his first thought was, \u201cI don\u2019t believe this is real\u2026 And still now, I can\u2019t believe that I\u2019m a part of this, and I\u2019m in this amazing role with an amazing cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAre they actual friends the way that Harry, Hermione and Ron are in the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d books? \u201cWell, yeah, of course we are!\u201d said Treadaway. \u201cI think we\u2019ve formed a bond over this period of time when we were doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first audiobook in the series, \u201cHarry Potter and the Sorcerer\u2019s Stone,\u201d is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, Nov. 4, exclusively on Audible, with each of the remaining six releasing monthly worldwide. (A second group of actors \u2014 Jaxon Knopf, Rhys Mulligan and Nina Barker-Francis \u2014 will voice Harry, Ron and Hermione, respectively, for books 4-7.) The cast of 200-plus actors for the Audible \u201cHarry Potter\u201d books includes Hugh Laurie as Dumbledore and Matthew Macfadyen as Voldemort<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Treadaway, Stanton and Lester, the amount of time they spent in the recording studio for Audible\u2019s \u201cHarry Potter: The Full Cast Audio Editions<\/a>\u201d was relatively short \u2014 about a week or so to cover all three books. Most of the time, they were not together: They recorded their lines separately with other actors speaking the other parts, but the trio did come together for some of the group scenes.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo prepare for the parts, the three said they watched (or rewatched) the Warner Bros. movies starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Stanton said she read the original books to understand Hermione\u2019s state of mind at different parts in the story. \u201cI think Hermione can be portrayed in many different ways,\u201d said Stanton. \u201cShe\u2019s quite a well-to-do girl \u2014 and she is very smart and is very keen to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Lester, one challenge was adopting Ron Weasley\u2019s rural English accent. That entailed \u201cgetting your vowels longer and making your L\u2019s longer and your R\u2019s longer,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was all new to me and it was weird, but I definitely got used to it. And I don\u2019t know, sometimes in conversations now, I kind of slip them in there because it sounds right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLester\u2019s favorite part of the project was recording the scenes in which Ron was eating: Producers prepared and served the actors real food during the sessions. \u201cIt was so real!\u201d he said. \u201cIt was even better if you did more takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe producers of the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d audiobooks also provide props for the actors to, like the characters\u2019 magic wands and Hogwarts robes. \u201cIf you had your wand, if you were doing a spell, you could practice doing that movement,\u201d Stanton said. \u201cAnd I really think all the tiny little things that they gave us really helped me personally to bring Hermione to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTreadaway, as he was recording, was cognizant of Radcliffe\u2019s line deliveries from the movies. \u201cI definitely did bear in mind what other previous things of Harry Potter were, just so people still have that familiarity with the character,\u201d he said. But he also added \u201cmy spin on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThrough the experience, Stanton gained an appreciation of the different skills required for voice acting vs. acting for stage or screen. With the former, \u201cyou have to focus more on your voice and really portray your character through your voice with more emotion,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite hard because you have to sort of not over-enunciate, but really have nice and good diction whilst you\u2019re speaking so that the mic picks up everything you\u2019re saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir families, of course, have known about their casting in the Audible \u201cHarry Potter\u201d series for months. But the actors weren\u2019t allowed to tell their friends or anyone else about the gigs until they were announced in early August<\/a>. \u201cWhen I did finally get round to telling my friends\u2026 they were properly impressed,\u201d said Lester. \u201cBut when I [couldn\u2019t] tell them, it was quite tough because I really wanted to say what I was doing!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTreadaway\u2019s West End stage credits include performances in \u201cMary Poppins,\u201d \u201cElf,\u201d \u201cMrs. Doubtfire\u201d and \u201cMatilda the Musical,\u201d while his TV credits include LJP Ltd.\u2019s \u201cMy Lady Jane.\u201d Lester\u2019s acting career has included roles in \u201cBeetlejuice, Beetlejuice\u201d (Warner Bros.) and \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps\u201d (Marvel), as well as stage roles in \u201cLes Mis\u00e9rables\u201d and \u201cLeopoldstadt\u201d in the West End and animation roles on Nickelodeon\u2019s \u201cBest Birthday Ever\u201d and \u201cBarbapapa.\u201d Stanton played the title role in \u201cMatilda the Musical\u201d in the West End at the age of 9, before joining the original cast of \u201cStarlight Express\u201d (London) in the part of Control shortly after she turned 10.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, none of the three have met J.K. Rowling, whose Pottermore Publishing is co-producing \u201cHarry Potter: The Full Cast Audio Editions\u201d with Audible. But they would welcome the chance.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI love her writing. I love the books,\u201d said Stanton. \u201cHopefully we get to meet her in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPictured above, l. to r.: Max Lester, Frankie Treadaway, Arabella Stanton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What\u2019s it like to face the daunting task of playing the three most famous characters and friends from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[73236,146,5032,73237,85,46,52928],"class_list":{"0":"post-113196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-audible","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-harry-potter","11":"tag-harry-potter-the-full-cast-audio-editions","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-what-to-hear"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}