‘Harry Potter’ actor James Phelps broke director’s ribs during filming

Los Angeles: Actor James Phelps, who starred as Fred Weasley in the blockbuster ‘Harry Potter’ fantasy films alongside his twin brother Oliver as George, injured Mike Newell during a play fight whilst filming the fourth movie in the series. The 79-year-old filmmaker recalled: “We were doing the scene when Fred and George were rejected from […]

Los Angeles: Actor James Phelps, who starred as Fred Weasley in the blockbuster ‘Harry Potter’ fantasy films alongside his twin brother Oliver as George, injured Mike Newell during a play fight whilst filming the fourth movie in the series.

The 79-year-old filmmaker recalled: “We were doing the scene when Fred and George were rejected from entering the Tri-Wizard tournament.

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“We had these wigs on and beards on what looked like old men, and Mike said, ‘OK, I think you guys are going to be really annoyed with each other, I think you should have a good fight about this’.”

Speaking on the special ‘Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts’, which celebrated the release of the first film based on the best-selling books by acclaimed author J.K. Rowling, Newell explained that he intervened to encourage the boys to fight which left him in agony, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

He said: “These two were sort of prissying about at it and I said, aNo, come on boys, it’s a fight’.A I was a tubby 60-year-old gent at that stage and I really shouldn’t have done it.

“I remember gripping him round the waist and trying to fling him about and so forth and I cracked a couple of ribs. I was in absolute agony from then on, but of course, the wonderful thing was that I’d made a complete twit of myself and everybody felt much better for that.”