Ring*Con 2008 - Jamie Yeates is Marcus Flint
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Although Jamie Yeates stays behind the camera rather than being in front of it, he wants to come back for the Ring*Con as the actor of Marcus Flint next year.
During the Closing Ceremony he even promised to bring more of his colleagues with him then. "We'll try and get as many of the people here as we can," he said to the cheering crowd.
For Harry Potter Xperts and all his German fans, he recorded a video message:
How James deals with playing a bad and ugly Slytherin and how well the Potter actors really know each other, he tells us in our exclusive interview:
Years ago you played a part in the Mr Bean episode at the barber's. Were you the little boy with the cap that got his head shaven?
Yeah, that was when I was 13. It was my first role and my first audition and I got it instantly so that was great.
How was that experience for you?
Rowan Atkinson was pretty much the man on TV, one of these iconic characters, so I was thrown in almost at the deep end straight away as a kid. I wanted to be an actor and they said 'Okay, here's an audition for Mr Bean.' and I was like 'Great!' and then got it. I was like 'Wow, this is really happening for real.' - it was a big wake-up call. But he was not what I had expected whatsoever because obviously he's idiotic in the series but then, when you speak to him, he's the most intellectual person you can ever meet. It was a nice learning curve: people aren't always what they seem, especially in the movies and on television.
Did you wear a wig or was that actually your hair that was cut off?
Yeah, it was a wig. They cut my own hair at the back but the mohawk thing was a wig.
Mr Bean is really big here in Germany as well. Would you say that is typical British humour?
It is very slapstick. The writing in it is good because usually English television is revolved around quite good scripting. But with Mr Bean it is much more idiotic scenes and certain scenarios in which you hold your face and are like 'No, don't do that, don't cut that poor boy's hair off!'. It is very old school English humour.
What is your humour like? Is there any joke you want to share with us?
God, I always forget jokes! Every time someone tells me a joke and I end up laughing 'Remember that one!' I still forget them. Most of mine are dirty though (laughs) - they are always the funniest. I don't know... What do you call a blonde essex girl?
I don't know.
A labrador (everyone laughs).
Coming to Harry Potter, you only starred in the Chamber of Secrets. What have you been doing since then?
I've been doing a lot of television work. Over the past two or three years especially I've been behind the camera, studying to be an AD (Assistant Director). It's the absolute flipside of acting: you're looking after the actors, you're making sure it's quiet on the set, you're constantly running around. It is tough work. I want to stay in the industry as much as I can so I really have been working hard to try and establish myself.
Your character Marcus Flint is the only character in the Harry Potter books known for having to retake a schoolyear at Hogwarts. Were you anything like him at school?
At school I was really quiet. I don't think I was as much of a menace. I was always persuaded by people around me to be bad. If the bad kids weren't around, I was generally good. When you're at school everyone is sort of bad in their own way so I kind of relate to the character in that sense a little bit.
The Harry Potter books describe Flint as fairly ugly. Does that worry you at all?
No, not really. At the time I thought of what it says in the books, that he's got troll blood, is a bad guy, that he's got big teeth, horrible hair and that he's rough-looking. So being cast for it obviously doesn't boost your confidence that much but you kind of take it on the chin. It's not all about how good-looking or how ugly you are because it's all about acting.
Did they have to play your looks down?
Not really. At the time I just had to have a haircut really. It wasn't that much make-up, it was just the teeth. The teeth completely overshadowed me. It was almost like putting on a mask. As soon as the teeth were in it was like 'Wow, you look ugly!'; I took them out and was like 'Oh, you have okay teeth!'. It was amazing.
Flint is a pretty evil character as well. Did you like playing him?
Yes, absolutely! He is a real obnoxious, big-headed, alter ego character and has this presence in the book when he's playing Quidditch that everyone fears him. He is a feared character because you know that he's continously out just to hurt people. They are generally frightened by that and when he smiles they're probably frightened even more.
We always hear about how great the atmosphere on set is. Now is the whole cast really like this big family or do you get fed up with each other as well sometimes?
(laughs) It's weird really. Everyone gets along obviously because everyone respects each other as actors, as individuals. But I wouldn't say everyone knows each other inside out on a first and last name basis because unfortunately not everyone gets to work with everyone on set. I probably got along the best with Tom
(Felton, editor's note) because we were working day in and day out, whether it was on the Quidditch or the Great Hall Scene. And then you try and make the extra effort to get to know the actors that you're not working with but sometimes it's not that easy because the Leavesden Studios set is so huge that you could be working on one side of the stage and yet it would literally be a 15 minute car journey to get on the other side to speak to someone who's possibly working on the first or second unit. So the actors that you're working with personally are the ones you have a better personal relationship with but everyone generally does try and make an effort.
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