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Musings #14: London and New York Goblet of Fire Premiere Reports
by Matthew Vines
January 2, 2006
I'll admit it - I'm terribly late with these premiere reports, and some of the finer details from both the sixth and twelfth of November have probably slipped my mind by now. But, onward I shall trek anyhow, and hopefully I can recall enough details to make this at least a somewhat engaging read. We'll see.
London II: Nov. 2 - Nov. 7
Unfortunately, I had to miss a huge amount of school for this trip, which is the main reason this report is so late in the coming. Not that I'm a fan of school by any means, but missing three and a half days of IB classes takes its toll on your sanity. (Tip of the day: never do IB. Ever. Only the silly ones - myself unfortunately included - opt for torture in high school.) Couple that with having some truly dreadful teachers whose main goal in life is to ensure that you graduate from high school hating it, and you don't have the happiest homecoming in the world.
But! Enough ranting about the horrors of IB for now, and onto the enjoyable part of my vacation, which was pretty much every second spent within the borders of England. That country is incredible.
I took my mom - or should I say mum? - along with me this time, as my dad came along on the junket trip in October. We had a quick layover in Chicago, and by the time I woke up (Thursday now), we were landing at Heathrow Airport in London. And it wasn't even raining this time! (In fact, we had beautiful weather every day except for the day of the premiere.)
I have no recollection of how we got from Heathrow to our hotel - not that it really matters - but I do remember our first unanticipated sight-seeing on the trip: St. Paul's Cathedral. We had only just stepped out of the tube station before we were smacked in the face with this stunning view. I was at a loss for words then and still am today trying to appropriately describe its grandeur, but I suppose gorgeous will suffice for the time being. I think I took fifty pictures of its exterior alone in the four days we were there.
Later that night, we went to Mary Poppins (incredible!) and stopped by Leicester Square to soak in the view before it was completely overtaken by dragons, mermaids, and, most notably, fans. After that, we walked around the heart of the city for a couple hours and then crashed at the hotel.
Friday, November 4, 2005
The first thing we did Thursday was ask the hotel clerk for directions to Paddington train station, which was highly uneventful until a bus drove by outside with a massive Harry Potter poster on its side. I hadn't spotted a single one the day before, so I pulled out my camera, ran outside, and chased the bus until I got a decent picture of the poster. I'm a dork, I know, but that made my morning.
So really, what's there left to do in London after seeing a Harry Potter bus? Wasn't that the reason I came? Aha! More pictures of St. Paul's. Especially of the pigeons on the steps, because I had just seen Mary Poppins, and I definitely gasped when Mary Poppins sang about feeding the birds on the steps of St. Paul's. So cool.
Four hours passed, and I was back on the steps of St. Paul's, after climbing to the topmost observatory deck, stopping at the Whispering Gallery along the way, and making a sincere effort to come back down again. On the way down, though, we were held up by a massive traffic jam caused by a group of Danish tourists who randomly stopped and sat down on the already cramped staircase to chat in Danish for fifteen minutes. They paid no heed to requests to get a move on it by the English folk behind them, but eventually packed up and left. That remains a mystery to me.
Saturday Night Fever that night (decent, but nowhere near as spectacular as Mary Poppins, which is really a must-see if you're anywhere near London), as well as the first sighting of a Cedric Diggory bus (and twelve more Harry/Horntail ones).
I'm getting to Harry Potter-related things, I swear.
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Gloucester or bust! Saturday morning, we hopped on a train headed for Gloucester (pronounced "gloster," not "glow-chester" or anything along those lines), where quite a few scenes in the first, second, and fourth Harry Potter movies were filmed. I was outrageously excited to be on a train in England as the English countryside rolled by in the (English) window, even if we weren't near the Hogwarts Express track. I did eventually pass out on the train, though, because I'd stayed up until 4 AM the previous night posting my pictures of the HP buses and was still a bit jetlagged anyway.
When we arrived at Gloucester, we met up with Thomasina Gibson - who, if you recall from my junket report, is a really awesome lady who not only is a freelance reporter for more than five media outlets, but also was on the set of all four movies as they were filmed. She was kind enough to show my mom and I around Gloucester Cathedral, better known as Hogwarts to Potter fans.
From the actual stained glass window ghost horses crash through in Prisoner of Azkaban to the courtyard the trio has walked through so many times on-screen to Dumbledore's "Welcome, welcome to another year at Hogwarts" podium, Thomasina gave us a fantastic tour of the cathedral along with her unique insight into various things. (She was there when it all was filmed, so she was able to point out exact places where certain scenes were shot, parts of the cathedral that had to undergo alterations to more closely mirror Hogwarts, etcetera.)
On the way home that night, we took a bit of a detour and stopped in Oxford for an hour, but that was all it took for it to become my dream school. Actually, the bulk of that hour was spent at the Turf Tavern, but it's all cool. It was too late to actually go in, but we did stop by the Bodleian Library as well, which is where they filmed the Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson in GOF.
It was well past twenty three o'clock by the time we arrived at the hotel, but I thought I should probably spend an hour or so coming up with brilliant questions for all of the cast members attending Sunday's premiere so that I wouldn't be scrambling for questions the day of. Well, um….yeah. That didn't happen. I accidentally fell asleep with no more than four questions written down, three of which were for JKR. Whoops.
Sunday, November 6, 2005
Well, that's not such a disaster, I thought the next morning. I've got, what, three hours of nothing but standing along the red carpet waiting for arrivals this afternoon. Surely that's enough time to jot down some decent questions? Ah, but who would've guessed that there'd be a downpour that very afternoon, and the only thing that would come from having the arrivals list in my hand would be smeared pages? Not me, evidently. The beautiful London weather we had over the junket weekend and since that Thursday spoiled me rotten.
I met up with staffer Darren late Sunday morning, and by the time we'd finished lunching at Pizza Hut (not exactly the most English restaurant I could've eaten at, seeing as it started in Wichita), it was time for press check-in. We were given TV passes to dangle around our necks, and it was probably a good thing I'd previously corresponded with the man handling the check-in, or else he might've thought I was a random HP fan trying to talk my way into getting on the red carpet (which, if he's reading this, I was not). All in all, except for a few unpleasant bodyguard-types in New York, I was quite surprised at how few incredulous glances I was thrown by the Warner Bros. folk running the whole shebang. I had expected to be the subject of a bit more skepticism than I was, considering I was two or three decades younger than most of the other media representatives present, but all of the WBers were exceptionally welcoming.
After press check-in, Darren and I headed back outside, where there were now a good five to ten thousand fans huddled under their brollys (umbrellas), but looking thrilled to be there all the same. Gigantic television screens with booming speakers played trailers for the movie every ten minutes, and a much-larger-than-life Triwizard Cup was positioned augustly above the theatre entrance. Two Goblet posters, which also served as bus advertisements over the next two weeks, were on both sides of the Cup, and there were clearly many more GOF-themed decorations within the center of the square, but it was mostly blocked from public view by large white barricades. The press pens were just about to open, so we unfortunately had minimal time to chat with the fans, a couple of which shouted something about Veritaserum as we walked by (we were well-labeled, of course!).
While waiting in the press line, we met staffers from DanRadcliffe.com, DanRadcliffe.co.uk, and HPANA.com, who were all just as excited as we to be there. The gates opened a few minutes later, and the real fire-breathing dragon used during filming was the first treat that awaited us on the inside. (The dragon in the chase scene was all CGI, but they employed four mechanical dragons for the scene in which Hagrid gives Harry a sneak peek at what he's up against in the First Task.) We were more than thirty feet away from it, but could still feel the heat of the flames quite well.
The dragon was the source of mass hysteria for the first half hour after the gates opened - it would remain idle for ten or fifteen minutes, but when it began to spit fire and thrash about convulsively, forty or fifty photographers and videographers sprinted over to it to capture it on camera, as if that was the main attraction of the evening.
Other interior décor included Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang banners, hung elegantly from trees and on statues, GOF posters lining every square inch of the flimsy metal gates separating press and "talent," and a green ramp covered with pictures of mermaids in the Second Task (but, thankfully, not the creepy "Only One" mermaid with the afro).
It didn't take long to get situated in our pen, which was regrettably labeled the "fanzines" pen. I about died when I read that, and not in a good way. Fortunately, though, the WB rep in charge of our pen was a joy to chat with - outgoing, genial, and eager to help and see things through. But for the life of me, I can't come up with her name at the moment - so if she's reading this, my apologies!
It was now ten minutes past two, and we had another three hours to go before the stars showed up, so we passed the time by talking with the other fan site reps in our pen and shivering under our umbrellas. (Reps from the-leaky-cauldron.org and MuggleNet.com soon showed up as well, so it was a bit cramped, but still fun.)
At around two thirty came the most unfortunate event of the entire weekend: our WBer told us that JK Rowling was no longer attending. What what! Well, her husband's fallen ill, she said, so she's opted to stay in Edinburgh with him. We then suggested that they fly him and Jo down anyway just so that we could cheer him up. Laughter is the best medicine, you know, and who wouldn't want tens of thousands of maniacal fans screaming their heads off for you?
Apparently he didn't. As if in response to the dreary news, the mist overhead suddenly turned into a downpour, and we were all drenched within minutes. Well, shoot. It felt like that scene in Down With Love when Renée Zellweger walks out on Ewan McGregor after ruining his exposé and it starts raining cats and dogs. Alright, not quite like that - we still had heaps of fun ahead of ourselves; we were just disappointed she couldn't make it.
I proceeded to scratch off my questions for Jo on my list, so at this point I was left with just two questions - one for Dan and one for Robert. I was able to come up with several more deep-ish questions (as in, not "how old are you?") pretty quickly, but before I knew it, it was five o'clock! Here we go…!
Pedja Bjelac (Igor Karkaroff) was the first to arrive. Thankfully, he wasn't much like his character at all, and he joked about Karkaroff's return in book seven, despite the revelation that his body was found in Half-Blood Prince ("Are you sure he's killed?" he asked, noting that Harry never actually saw his body.) As he left, he flashed us a peace sign.
Jamie Waylett (Vincent Crabbe, one of Malfoy's cronies) stopped by next. He said that he'll be back for Order of the Phoenix in February and also talked a bit about the ferret scene (in which, if you don't remember, ferret-Malfoy scurries about in his pants).
Up came Afshan Azad, who plays Padma Patil in the movie. She was charming, and in addition to talking about the Yule Ball and her close friendship with Dan, she told me that she got the part "through auditions in school. Casting agents went 'round England, I think, to look for the two twins, and I went in as a complete joke with all my friends, you know. Who thinks they're ever going to get into a Harry Potter film? And all of a sudden, you know, one by one, I got through all the auditions, and here I am now! So even if you don't think you're gonna get it, go for it."
The ever-affable Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory) was our next visitor. He was the first actor who I'd met before - at the junket a fortnight earlier - so I was most pleased when he recognized me. I asked him four questions, ranging from fan reactions to his Avada Kedavra stunt, and he laughed a total of eight times in his responses. (I counted.) It's a crying shame he's only in this Harry Potter movie.
Clemence Poesy (Fleur Delacour) waltzed along next in a stunning dress. Just like her cohorts, she was fun and sociable - noticing a trend yet? After her came Director Mike Newell, who stated quite vehemently that he would love to return to direct movie number seven, as well as Devon Murray (Seamus Finnigan), who was getting splattered by the rain despite his white umbrella (each of the actors had one).
And who should stop by two minutes later but Daniel Radcliffe (do I really need to say who he plays?), who, like Robert, I'd only met for the first time two weeks before. Considering how many interviews he does per day this close to a movie launch, I was kind of surprised that he remembered me from the junket, but thrilled all the same. Both my question and his response are below:
VTM: When you were writhing on the floor in agony in the graveyard scene (under the Cruciatus Curse) - where did you pull those emotions from?
DR: I sort of imagined an electric charge coming up at my...shooting through my spine, simultaneously while my skeleton is trying to burst out of my skin, because that, I would imagine to be the most painful thing I could sort of imagine, and so that was sort of what was in my head, rather disturbingly. Um, sorry!
Not only was I impressed by his answer, which showed that he actually put some thought into the scene beforehand and didn't just decide to roll around on the ground and twitch his eyebrows, but also by his attentiveness, which must be difficult to master whilst there are tens of thousands of your "number ONE" fans going absolutely insane all around you.
David Bradley (Caretaker Argus Filch), who said that he "hopes to be back" for Order of the Phoenix but confessed that he's only read the first two Harry Potter books, came after Dan, and he was immediately followed by the jovial Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas), who shared with us his favorite filming experience - going on location. He also said that Mike Newell "has worked in a totally different style" on this movie and has "made it his film." And lastly, he told us that he'll be back for Order of the Phoenix in February and said that he "looks forward to doing it."
Literally five seconds after Alfred left, Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) walked over, saying that she'll be back for the fifth movie and that she's excited about the budding romance between Harry and Ginny, and Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick) came up just a few minutes later. He said that he "had one of the best days of [his] filming career on the set of Goblet of Fire" while shooting the Yule Ball sequence, partly because "we shot it very near Christmas-time, so we were all in the Christmas mood, and then to do a scene like that, it was just really, really wonderful."
When James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley) stopped to chat a bit later, they revealed that their song about Krum in the Quidditch World Cup tent was actually ad-libbed and also shared some behind-the-scenes secrets about their stunts (namely, the Age Line). I caught Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) next, and it's a good thing I did, because he couldn't make it to the New York premiere, as I heard from girl after girl after girl there. Like Pedja Bjelac, he was nothing like his character, though I didn't expect him to be! He said that Draco is a "little bit shallow," and therefore was pleased that he "stepped up his game" in Half-Blood Prince and "tried something a bit more interesting" character-wise.
Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew) came along after Tom, and he kind of cracked me up. I asked if he was a fan of the books, and he responded negatively, but with the same, enthusiastic tone of voice as if he'd just said yes and couldn't have been happier about it: "No! No, I'm not! I haven't read 'em!" He went on to say that although he hadn't read them, his daughter (who was with him) was quite the Harry Potter aficionado and kept him updated on all the latest on his character.
Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) next! He was the first person that night who actually reminded me somewhat of his character, but luckily for him, Hagrid's a good guy. He joked about eating beetles in beards as being perfectly normal giant behavior and also said that he expects that Hagrid will "nip up to Paris" to see Madame Maxime every now and then.
Stanislav Ianevski (Viktor Krum) came after Robbie Coltrane, saying that Mike Newell was "absolutely amazing" to work with, and he was soon followed by Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), who also remembered me - how cool! She started off with some general Yule Ball discussion, but then about had a heart attack when she saw Madonna standing behind her ("Oh my God…[screams]…oh my God, that's Madonna!").
Our last visitors of the evening were Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle), Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley), and Katie Leung (Cho Chang). Ms. Henderson discussed the challenges playing a 14-year old girl posed for her (she's forty, if you didn't know), Mr. Williams shared with me in detail how they filmed the Portkey scene (in a nutshell: "it was split up into a lot of different sequences"), and Katie responded incredibly sweetly when I asked if she thought Cho should've broken up with Harry: "Well, I think Harry was supposed to be with Ginny all along, I mean, I knew from the start, so I don't want to break their relationship apart! But I would definitely make her a much nicer person than she was in the fifth book, because she does become a bit annoying."
And that was it for the night! All of the actors still hanging around (except for Dan, who stayed and signed autographs for fans for another ten minutes) walked up the mermaid ramp and into the theatre over the next few minutes. All of the reporters in the press pens slowly trickled out, as did Darren and I, but I stopped to ask one of the security guards if I could have one of the GOF posters hanging on the gates before I left. (He kindly obliged.)
I was famished by this point, so Darren, my mom, and I stopped to eat at the nearby Burger King, and while there, we ran into Jo from Emma-Watson.net and her friend Camille.
I made a quick update to the site when we got back to our hotel (the Club Quarters St. Paul's - I highly recommend it) around eleven o'clock, but then opted to spend my last night in London actually in London rather than on my laptop uploading pictures and videos, which I knew would take hours upon hours upon hours to get up anyway.
My mom and I walked from our hotel to Tower Bridge - stunning lit up at night - and on the way there, came to the realization that London literally has no night-life. In the three hours we were out that night, we saw no more than fifteen people. But we were fine with that, actually - it was almost like having the whole of London to ourselves.
Monday, November 7, 2005
Monday was far and away the worst day of the trip, so I'll try to avoid delving into too many details. Basically, a mishap at the tube station caused us to miss our early-morning flight and we then had to sit around for six hours at the Chicago airport. Oh, and I spent the entire day lugging around that monstrous Goblet of Fire poster from the premiere, which was a major hassle on the planes. But it came home successfully, amazingly enough, and I had a very stressful three days to catch up on all of my schoolwork before I left for New York on Friday.
Friday, November 11, 2005
After staying up far too late on Thursday night in a desperate (and ultimately vain) attempt to get more pictures and videos from the London premiere online, I was woken up by my obnoxious alarm clock much earlier than should be allowed. I never really had a chance to unpack from the London trip, so I was ready to go for the most part, which was a blessing, because we ("we" being my mom and I again) came very, very close to missing our flight. (We had to cut people in two lines - we asked politely, of course! - and literally run across the airport in order to hop on our plane about eight minutes before it took off.)
Once in New York, we had a sickeningly long taxi ride to our hotel, filled with more sudden stops and starts than I thought were possible. But at least we found relief at our hotel, which had the most extravagant lobby I've ever laid eyes on, bursting with stunning sculptures, paintings, plants, and a 20-foot waterfall to boot. And to top it off, our room was massive - two king-size beds, a dazzling bathroom with every amenity one could wish for, etc. - and boy, did it come with a view.
Alas, I am kidding. We stayed at the West YMCA. Yeah, I know what most of you are thinking - the YMCA has hotel rooms? Well, they do in New York, but they aren't all that impressive. The paint was peeling, the window wouldn't close, the key only worked after you tried it ten or eleven times, and the only "amenities" we had were a mirror and a trash can. (Shared bathrooms.) The upside: just $100 a night! Was it worth it? Probably not. But it was certainly an experience, to say the least.
Well, if we're in New York for two days, we've got to at least see one Broadway show, right? But where to buy tickets? In London, there were small ticket booths every twenty feet, but I didn't spot a single one in New York. A grocery store cashier suggested the "TKTS" stand, situated in the center of Times Square, so we walked there and waited in line for an hour and a half. The highlight of this otherwise-boring wait was seeing and taking way too many pictures of a huge Goblet of Fire billboard in the square, which I thought was one of the cooler things since sliced bread.
When we reached the front of the line, we were snapped at by a petulant woman who'd apparently had a very long day. I really was not all that interested in seeing The Musical of Musicals, Altar Boyz, The Woman in White, or some other musical that is not remotely well-known, so we unfortunately walked away empty-handed.
We met up with VTM staffer Aris and Jeff from HPANA a few minutes later and stopped by Starbucks for a quick bite to eat. Afterwards, I purchased what I now call my New York scarf from a street vendor for a mere $10, and we then ventured to the renowned Hershey store to gaze at their spectacular array of chocolates.
It was now 7:20, and our window of opportunity to get tickets for any show was rapidly thinning, so we set out on a last-ditch attempt to at least see something that night. Standing room only tickets for Mamma Mia! were available for just $20, so we bought them and headed inside.
Our seats - er, standing areas - weren't bad, but at intermission, my mother - who, if you don't know her, is one of the more gregarious people on the planet - unknowingly befriended the theatre manager, who then moved us up to fourth row center just as curtain was rising for the second act. Whoa! The show was great, and a very-intoxicated-looking man in the third row actually stood up in front of us and started dancing at one point, but it really is time to get on with the Harry Potter loving, so I'll fast-forward to….
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Fortunately, we had perfect weather that day in New York - a stark contrast to premiere day in London. Like I mentioned earlier, though, the security officials there were much keener to push us aside in New York, but we triumphed in the end! Once we finally got past security and checked in, several people who I don't even think worked for Warner Bros. tried to tell us that we weren't allowed to cross the street and chat with the fans. What what! We crossed anyway and didn't hear from the bossy non-WBers again.
Aris and I walked up and down the entire row of fans for a good 45 minutes, stopping every few feet to interview a new group. There were probably only a couple thousand fans in New York, quite a bit smaller than the London crowd, but they were all crammed on one side of the road, so it probably would've felt like more than that had I been standing over there.
It was nearing two o'clock, when the press pens were scheduled to open, so we crossed the street once again and got in line. When the pens opened, I was most pleased to see a change in labels - each site had its own designated spot along the red carpet, so there was actually a label that said "Veritaserum.com" rather than just a collective "fanzines" sticker.
In less than an hour, red carpet arrivals began! Unfortunately, several stars arrived late, so we didn't end up catching nearly as many as we did in London. Here's who we did talk to, though, in a bit more concise version than the play-by-play from the London premiere:
Jamie Waylett (Crabbe), who said it took 13 takes to perfect the ferret scene, Tolga Safer (Karkaroff's Aide), who mentioned that he filmed a scene with Stan Ianevski in which they run across the snowy Hogwarts courtyard just before the Yule Ball that was cut, and Tiana Benjamin (Angelina Johnson), who said that she expects to return for Order of the Phoenix.
Director Mike Newell stopped by next, followed by Katie Leung (Cho Chang), who just might be my favorite newbie in this movie. She is too sweet for words. Anyway, after chatting a bit about Cho's relationships with Harry and Cedric, she stopped and said, "And I've met you before! You're Matt! Yeah? Cool!" That would be the highlight of both premieres for me. I didn't have a nametag on, nor did I tell her my name at the London premiere, so she must've remembered it all the way back from the junket three weeks earlier. I was more impressed than I can properly convey at 4:30 in the morning.
Our next visitors came in the form of Producer David Heyman ("you, I've met before; you're the Veritaserum"), who talked quite a bit about OOTP, Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter), who revealed that Rita has unfortunately been axed from the fifth movie, and lastly, Daniel Radcliffe, who must've been completely exhausted by this point, but still managed to give coherent answers.
Those weren't the only actors in attendance, but unfortunately, the others had to be ushered inside quickly (the movie was set to start in just a few minutes), so we missed them. We, too, then packed up and headed on in the theatre, where fifty or sixty photographers were snapping ten pictures a second (collectively) of a smiling Dan, Emma, and Rupert in various poses, and where free pop and popcorn was being given out in the room adjacent to all of the picture-taking madness. You can't pass up free popcorn at a Harry Potter premiere, so I took some while marveling at the fact that it was actually free and then walked into the actual theatre itself.
I ended up sitting in Row H (after switching seats with a 16 year-old girl who wanted to sit next to her sister) and was mostly surrounded by fangirls from Brooklyn who just happened to be in the right place at the right time a few minutes earlier and ended up with tickets. All but one of them vacated their seats in a frenzy when Robert Pattinson sat down a few rows back, so I was actually left by myself until they all came back a few minutes later with autographs.
A few minutes later, Mike Newell, David Heyman, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint walked down our side of the theatre and gave some quick speeches before the movie began. (All of the Brooklyn girls rose to their feet and shouted "Rupert!" at the top of their lungs several times over, but he probably didn't hear them amidst all the rest of the noise in the room.) David spilled some set secrets: Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) wears his street clothes underneath his costume, while Robbie Coltrane wears nothing underneath his. A few speeches later, they walked back to their seats, the lights dimmed, and the WB logo flashed on the screen to wild cheers from the audience.
This was by far the best audience I saw the movie with. They screamed, laughed, and cried at all the right parts, but it was the screaming in particular that livened it up so much. For example, when Cedric first appeared on screen, all of the girls screamed. More cheering when Moody turned Draco into a ferret (plus applause), and when Hermione walked down the steps at the Yule Ball, and when Dan took his shirt off in the bathtub scene, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But the best (and most appropriate) audience reaction of the evening came just after the graveyard scene, which was perfect in every facet. As Voldemort's scream of rage faded away, the audience cheered, clapped, and cried to the loudest degree possible - their way of letting Newell know that he did the scene justice, which he most certainly did.
On the way out of the theatre, I talked to Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) for a minute or two, threw away my empty popcorn bag, and went back outside, utterly thrilled with the day's events.
And that was that! I flew home the next morning and had a blast staying at school until 11:00 each night the following week (rehearsals) and then coming home and trying to make up all of the homework I missed while vacationing. Alright, so the bit about school being exciting is a lie, but both of the premieres could definitely be classified as blasts.
So, in conclusion….
If you didn't feel like reading my novella and just skipped to the end, here's the gist of it (plus a few things that I never mentioned, actually):
- IB does not deserve to exist.
- England is awesome.
- Mary Poppins is an absolute MUST-see - brilliance times ten.
- St. Paul's Cathedral is gorgeous.
- Thomasina Gibson is a cool cat.
- Due to the rain on premiere day in London, they never actually laid out the red carpet, as it would've been overcome by leaves, wind, and rain. They would've had to have a circular red carpet to fit the area the actors walked in rather than just a straight one, so perhaps they didn't feel like making one and just used the rain as an excuse.
- "What what" is a really fun phrase to use to express disbelief in writing, but writing is really the only setting it works in. Try saying it sometime. It doesn't work that well.
- Pretty much all of the actors are funny, sociable, and down-to-earth.
- The red flowers that a good number of them were wearing in London were to promote the Poppy Appeal, which "raises funds to support ex-servicemen and women who
have served in the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force" (PoppyScotland.org.uk).
- The Club Quarters St. Paul's is a fantastic hotel.
- The West YMCA in New York City is not.
- If you want tickets to a Broadway show, don't waste your time in line at the TKTS stand - just go to the theatres themselves.
- The New York premiere audience went wild every two or three minutes (and justifiably so!).
So which premiere was better? Probably London, for two main reasons: A) it was the world premiere, so WB spared no expense with the decorations, whereas in New York there were just ten large character posters along the red carpet, and B) I caught twice as many people in London as I did in New York. But both of the premieres were fantastic, and I very much enjoyed meeting so many of you all in New York, which is one thing the London premiere lacked (not fans, but the accessibility of them).
I suppose 6,000 words are sufficient to describe both of the Goblet of Fire premieres to all of you, so I'll leave you here. Until next time!
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