Broadbent on Slughorn in Half-Blood Prince: "A Good Man, A Decent Man, but a Weak Man"
HBP Film
Posted by: sue
January 09, 2009, 09:33 PM
The LA Times has posted a new feature on actor Jim Broadbent and his role in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The Oscar winning actor joins the cast this year as Potions professor Horace Slughorn, and Jim Broadbent says of his character: "a good man, a decent man, but a weak man." Jim Broadbent goes on to praise the trio of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint ("so contained and brilliant and professional,") and also has high marks for the care and dedication to the original source material found in the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling. Quotage:
"I saw the first film when it came out, and it was so brilliantly
conceived," Broadbent said. "You read the book and then you see the
film and every moment you think, 'That is exactly how I imagined it.'
It was not absolutely faithful because you cannot be when you take it
to film, but the feel and look of it was terribly meticulous. That care
led to this great success. The reading audience has been satisfied with
it and wanted more and gone along with it."
As released last year and just recently, you can see several high res photos of Jim Broadbent as Professor Slughorn here, here, here and here via our image galleries.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released July 17, 2009. Thanks Kristina!
31 Comments
I like Jim’s opinion on the character, so it gives the me the impression he knows what he is doing with Slughorn and the character. I have to say, I didn’t imagine him like that, but that’s fine. I imagined him as a fat chineese man for some reason. Anyway, I always like that graduation hat they put on him, good idea…
correction; the trio of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.
“correction; the trio of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.” by m.a boon. Errr, why do switch the nameplaces if I may ask?
…..so Emma’s name comes last, of course. Ha. You get used to the anit-Emma crap on these sections after while, sigh………………………………
Great interview. I must admit that he’s not how i imagined Slughorn. In my mind i see a fat man, but, you know, just my opinion. In the end, what is fundamental is the interpratation.
@m.a boon and all the other trolls, their names are listed in order by popularity.
redbeard: This probably isn’t the forum on which to get into this, but there is something to be said against those who sit back and allow evil to happen without standing up to it…as in WWII. Inaction is easy, comfortable; action hard, messy & dangerous. Ignorance of a law (or the existence of a law) is no legal excuse for breaking it; similarly, a society that allows for the rise of something like Nazism has to be held accountable, even if its individual members may not have been directly linked. There is such a thing as a national psyche. It’s the American national psyche that got us into the economic/mortgage mess, this culture of more more more for less less less. And now we’re all paying the price. Slughorn not acting against evil (and therefore enabling it) may not make him evil himself (as popularly defined), but one could make a great argument for his inaction being as dangerous as the actions of those who actively collaborated…If that makes sense!
BTW, to add to my earlier post, I always got the feeling that that was Rowling’s whole point re the Slughorn character: That inaction is, in itself, a dangerous choice in dire times.
I cannot wait for the scene in the movie when Harry, hopped up on the Felix Felicis, gets the final memory from Slughorn. I’m picturing pure brilliance from Jim and Daniel – “She gave me her life, but you won’t give me a memory”. Chills
i think he makes an ok slughorn but needs to be much fatter!
When I first heard Jim Broadbent was going to play Slughorn, I was very excited. Jim Broadbent is a brilliant actor, Ive loved him in all his recent movies. “Hot Fuzz” and “The Cronicles of Narnia”. When I saw him playing Slughorn, I was a little baffled. Slughorn has a walrus mustache and a big round belly. Our slughorn doesn’t have these, but Jim will play the part perfectly, as he is an incredible character actor. I can’t wait to see the new movie. I hope they don’t delay it further.
Well, I do absolutely agree with you dcrazmo. I just can’t help but thinking that I wouldn’t have been more brave in such situations then Slughorn (or nazi Germany for that matter. Just try being brave with a gun to your head. I think Slughorn represents the majority of the people, because honestly, most people would hide away too if they thought their lifes were at stake.
But ofcoarse you’re right, fear doesn’t excuse it.
redbeard: Hope I didn’t imply that I would necessarily “do the right thing.” I don’t think I’m any braver than you or anyone else. I live a very comfortable life, and don’t really know how far I’d go to protect that. I can’t imagine — thank God — ever being in the position that people were in during WWII, or that Rowling’s fictional characters found themselves in. I do think that good people make bad decisions, and that their weaknesses don’t automatically make them evil. I’d just love to think that there is in all of us that little bit of courage that would help us go, like Harry, into the woods.
Amen to that.
wow, that HBP clock is just crawling…I think the next film will be the best of them all, only to be BLOWN out of the water by what they do with Deathly Hallows…God, I can’t wait!!!!!!!!! Good or Bad, Slughorn comes through in the end, just as Dumbledore knew he would….Slytherin folk are none I could call friend I think, but I respect them for coming though in the end! :0)
I like Jim’s opinion on the character, so it gives the me the impression he knows what he is doing with Slughorn and the character. I have to say, I didn’t imagine him like that, but that’s fine. I imagined him as a fat chineese man for some reason. Anyway, I always like that graduation hat they put on him, good idea…