Harry Potter ultimately proved to be the role of a lifetime for the then 11-year-old Daniel Radcliffe. After producer David Heyman convinced the young actor’s initially hesitant parents to allow a meeting to cast their son as The Boy Who Lived, the rest was history. Radcliffe, now an adult with a child, is still renowned for his performance in the Potter movies. As much as the actor embodied the role in various ways, many might still notice that he doesn’t have green eyes in the film like his counterpart in the book. Well, Heyman revealed the story behind that change.
One compliment that Harry always gets throughout the books is that he has his mother’s green eyes. That sentiment about the character’s eyes remains in the films, but it’s Daniel Radcliffe natural blue eyes that are shown throughout the movies. In a video shared to the official Potter Instagram account, David Heyman explained that the original plan was for Harry to have green eyes, but a health concern changed all that:
That first day, we were trying to get Dan’s eyes to be green because that’s what they were in the book, and Dan was wearing contact lenses. But, he was allergic to them. And ultimately, we made the decision to remove them.
Honestly, I can imagine what an uncomfortable experience that could’ve been for Radcliffe. This is a particularly interesting Sorcerer’s Stone BTS fact and, as I just found out, during an interview Radcliffe did with the BBC years ago, he discussed how “excruciatingly painful” it was for him that he expressed never wanting to wear contacts again. I can’t say I blame him, as it was hard watching the David Copperfield actor in the Instagram video squinting his eyes as contacts were put in.
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If you can believe it, the first scene shot in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was the final scene on the Hogwarts Express. As David Heyman continued to talk more about why he wasn’t willing to put Daniel Radcliffe through contacts again during his run of the franchise and, after hearing this tidbit of information, you won’t watch that film’s ending the same way again:
For the first day, we tried to work through it. So, for the last scene, when he’s saying goodbye to Hagrid, you can see that almost his eyes tearing and his eyes a little bit swollen. And it feels like he’s about to cry. He probably was. But never complained. We removed the contacts, and he’s never had green eyes since.
What a trooper! On the other side of that, though, I thought Radcliffe’s eyes were reddening due him acting out that goodbye scene with Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid. So, now, I know the green contacts were actually to blame for that. However, I’d still say that in an ironic way, the puffiness around Radcliffe’s eyes worked in the production’s favor. Heyman previously recalled how “special” it was filming that early scene with Radcliffe and Coltrane, remarking how moving it was shooting it as it had been when he first read it in J.K. Rowling‘s 1997 novel.
So, whether it was the emotion of saying goodbye to a good friend or the irritation from those contacts, the final result still captured the necessary emotion needed for the scene. Watch the Instagram video in full down below, which includes behind-the-scenes footage:
Ultimately, it was a good call by David Heyman to rid Daniel Radcliffe of the green contacts due to that allergy. This stylistic choice also seems to have carried into the reboot, as first teaser for HBO’s Harry Potter TV series shows lead actor Dominic McLaughlin with blue eyes while playing the boy wizard. I’m not sure if any of that will be changed in post-production but, regardless, when it comes to Potter’s eye color, I’m more for safety than book accuracy.
Feel free to revisit all of the Harry Potter movies with an HBO Max subscription or a Peacock subscription. Also, be sure to catch the upcoming TV series, which premieres on HBO on Christmas Day.