Grab the Butterbeer and buckle in! To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, the costume designer behind the franchise revealed what it was like to work with leads Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint behind-the-scenes.
Jany Temime was tasked with creating updated looks for Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley — as well as all the other wizards, witches and Muggles — starting with 2004’s Prison of Azkaban.
“Daniel is an incredible kid. He was preparing his exams at school, he was leading a film. He had such a [full plate] and he never complained. He was always so nice to everybody,” Temime recalls to Us Weekly of the actor, who played the Boy Who Lived. “He’s an incredible person. A really wonderful person. All of them actually. I think it was hard — what makes it so nice in the 10 years that I spent with them was that the actors were wonderful to work with. I think that helps a lot.”
Temime took part in some of the most quintessential moments in the films. She gave the Quidditch team a fresh new look, designed the outfits for the final battle with Voldemort and styled Hermione’s transformation at the Yule Ball, a striking change from her first years at Hogwarts.
“Oh, she’s lovely. She’s a wonderful, wonderful girl. I love her,” Temime says of Watson. “It was the first time that Hermione appears as something in best of the class. The first time that she becomes a thing that men could watch, that boys could watch. It was a very important dress. Somehow it became very easily. I knew what she could have and what she could wear by the time I designed it for her. The dress came out quite quickly I must say. She looked very pretty in it.”
Temime had just as much pleasure crafting Ron’s drab dress robes for the school function, but did sympathize with him — and Grint.
“Sometimes I was feeling a little bit ashamed because every teenager wanted to look cool and good and Ron was never looking cool and good. He was always looking ridiculous. But somehow [Rupert] was pulling it off brilliantly!” she gushes to Us. “He is a great actor and he was completely accepting this part and he was completely understanding of the character better than anybody else. So he was helping me a lot. He never felt ashamed to wear any of the costumes, which was very appreciated. He was a lovely, lovely, lovely boy to work with.”
She adds: “I always enjoyed dressing Ron because Rupert Grint was great and always made me laugh. He was such a lovely boy to design for.”
Ron, who was used to hand-me-downs and receiving a hand-stitched “R” maroon sweater every Christmas, was the most difficult to alter in the epilogue. In the final “Nineteen Years Later” scene of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, he wore a button-down shirt and cardigan.
“I tried to keep their character and project it 20 years later. I must say, I think it was successful. I also knew what job they were going to have, so it was quite easy. The one which was hardest was Ron because something is ridiculed when you are 14 it can be ridiculed again,” Temime explains to Us. “I didn’t want to make him like his dad. I wanted to make him as somebody who doesn’t really care about what he’s wearing. He was the hardest of the three 20 years later.”
For more, read the rest of her Q&A below:
US: Did you read the books first for inspiration?
JT: Yes, I had read the books and I was already a big fan. And that’s why when they asked me to join I was very excited because I thought the books were amazing. I was really, really happy to be asked.
US: What was the first-ever Harry Potter costume that you designed?
JT: I started with the uniforms because I thought that the uniforms should be changed and become a bit more glamorous. First we started with the colors of the house. Getting back into the ruby, the emerald, the gold, the sapphire. And then after that I redid the gowns because I added a color inside the gown and the shape of the skirt. The girls were becoming older so we had two shapes of skirts and two shapes of trousers that can be adapted to the new, adult shape.
US: Did you also redo the the Quidditch uniforms and helmets?
JT: Yes, yes. When I started Prisoner of Azkaban I redesigned them to give them more of a modern touch. I gave it more rugby elements and leather. They wanted to look strong and cool.
US: How many robes do you think Daniel, Rupert and Emma went through during the franchise?
JT: Each one of them had at least 20 robes. We produced more than 20,000 robes in total [for the entire cast]. It was huge, but that was necessary. You always want them to look good and then they were growing and they also adapted to what they were doing. Some were longer, some were shorter, so they had different ones for what they were playing and what they were doing.
US: For readers, it was special getting to know these characters and watch their progression onscreen.
JT: They went from kids to grown up teenagers. The change [in their clothing] was more subtle because their character never changed.
US: Can you describe the outfits that were made for the final battle with Voldemort at Hogwarts?
JT: It took us almost three or four months to shoot those battles. So in a way it was sad but in a way it was also very exciting because they really went for it. They loved the battles. And we shot outside and at night. It was great to do because [there was so] much action going on. It was really interesting to see the kids — they really went for it.
US: Did they often rip their costumes in scenes like that?
JT: That’s why we need all those robes! We needed lots and lots of clothes. They were going through 10 to 15 a day.
US: What was your favorite book from the series?
JT: I loved the final book because it had so much love and the last one is the most grown up one. But I loved them all. I think it’s an incredible series.
US: Did you keep any of the costumes?
JT: No, the only thing that I stole were the four ties that they were wearing and a scarf for myself. I just kept the ties because it was a nice souvenir for me. And the rest is in the exhibition.
US: What color scarf did you keep?
JT: I have the Gryffindor one.
US: What house would you have wanted to be in: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff?
JT: I think I would have liked to be a Slytherin. Especially because I was such a fan of Bellatrix.
