Summary
Harry Potteris one of the most successful movie franchises. One of the stars revisited their role and explained their purpose.
Harry Potterfeatures rich and complex characters throughout the eight movies —Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone(2001),Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets(2002),Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(2004),Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire(2005),Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix(2007),Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince(2009),Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1(2010), andHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2(2011). Among the most unforgettable characters are, of course, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs), Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis), and Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) to name a few. One of them spoke about their role in the movie series.
Isaacs played Lucius Malfoy, Draco’s father, with a pure-blood wizard superiority complex. Lucius is known for his arrogance, wealth and influence. Isaacs reflected on his role in the hit franchise and admitted his character’s purpose. According to him, his job was to “explain to the audience why Draco was such a little s*** at school.” Isaacs wasn’t proud of his character, whom he called “racist.” However, he acknowledged that Lucius' way of raising his son was a result of how his parents raised him, too, and his goal of making the boarding school for young wizards and witches prominent. He explained:
He came from a loveless home, and I came from a long, unbroken chain of loveless parenting. And to play that popinjay and that racist, it might be magical, but the parallels are pretty transparent: someone who doesn’t think that Muggles should mix blood with wizards, and somebody trying to make Hogwarts great again.
Although Isaacs' Lucius is not a great father to Felton’s Draco, in real life, the two actors share a close bond. Isaacs and Felton regularly speak to each other. Felton also shared that the originalHarry Pottercast members have aWhatsApp group. In another recent interview, Isaacs shared how theHarry Potterdirector Chris Columbus initially turned down his approach to voicing Lucius with his “most irritating voice.” However, Radcliffe, who was only a child at the time, reportedly stepped up and supported him, telling the filmmaker his voice as Lucius was “kind of cool,” and people in the playgrounds would likely imitate it. At that point, Columbus reportedly agreed. Isaacs also suggested an actor to portray Lucius inHBO’s upcomingHarry Pottertelevision series. He suggested Meryl Streep becauseThe Devil Wears Pradastar can reportedly do anything.
Isaacs is somewhat correct to call Lucius racist because the latter is into pure-blood supremacy. He believes that wizards and witches from pure magical bloodlines like his are superior to Muggle-borns. For instance, he despises Hermione for being a brilliant Muggle-born and looks down on the Weasleys for their association with Muggles. He even went too far by sabotaging Hogwarts inHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secretsby slipping a small black diary into Ginny’s secondhand cauldron books in the hopes of reopening the Chamber of Secrets to create chaos, discredit Dumbledore and target the Muggle-born students. Due to what he did, Ginny was possessed by the diary and Dumbledore was temporarily removed as Headmaster. However, Harry Potter destroys the diary and frees Ginny. Additionally, Dobby, a house-elf serving the Malfoys, exposes him about the diary incident and as a result, Lucius is humiliated and lost some power and influence. Lucius is not the best character inHarry Potter, but he definitely leaves an impression.
