‘Harry Potter’ star broke ‘Goblet of Fire’ director’s ribs while filming

James Phelps (Fred Weasley) revealed how he got a little too physical with Mike Newell while filming the 2005 movie

Harry Potter star James Phelps has revealed that he broke Goblet Of Fire director Mike Newell’s ribs during a play fight while filming the 2005 movie.

Phelps and Newell revealed the story in the new HBO special Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwartswhich saw the iconic films’ cast reunite to reminisce about the eight films and share previously unheard stories.

Discussing the unfortunate accident involving Phelps and Newell, the former said: “We were doing the scene when Fred and George are 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’.”

Newell remembered: “These two were sort of prissying about at it and I said, ‘No, come on boys, it’s a fight’. I was a tubby 60-year-old gent at that stage and I really shouldn’t have done it.”

“So he dived on me and went, ‘Like this’, so I did the same to him,” James said, to which Newell added: “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.”

Elsewhere in the HBO special, Emma Watson revealed that she almost quit the Harry Potter franchise ahead of the release of its fifth film.

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The actor, who played Hermione Granger in the eight-film franchise, spoke candidly about why she almost didn’t reprise her role.

Sitting down to talk with Grint, Watson shared how she was feeling during the time she contemplated leaving the franchise. “I think I was scared,” she said (via The Wrap). “I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point where you were like, ‘This is kind of forever now.’”

Meanwhile, JK Rowling’s absence from Return To Hogwarts has been criticised by a number of critics.

There has been speculation that the writer was shut out of the programme after her previous comments about the trans community resulted in a backlash.

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