Potter boys matured now: David Yates

When the ’Harry Potter’ film series is completed, its three young stars — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — will have inhabited J.K. Rowling’s universe for half their lives.
Radcliffe, who is now 19, was 11 when he was cast as the boy wizard for the series’ 2001 debut. Watson, now 19, was 10 when she auditioned for the whip-smart Hermione Granger. Grint, the eldest of the trio, is 20.

"I’ve probably been Ron as long as I’ve been Rupert," says Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, the ginger-haired, perpetually hungry friend of Harry and Hermione.

The cast and crew have taken a break from filming Rowling’s last ’Potter’ book — to be spread out in two films — to publicize the series’ sixth installment, ’Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’.

Early reviews of the movie, the second one directed by David Yates, have been positive; both Variety and The Associated Press suggested it was the best ’Potter’ film yet. The movies have become progressively more complex, darker and realistic — even amid the fantasy world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"The three of us have been working solidly since we were 10 years old," she says. "I just need a little bit of normality for a while, just a little bit of space to work out what I want and who I am — all the usual stuff. It’s just something I always wanted to do."