“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” opens tomorrow, and author J.K. Rowling’s seventh and (for now) final book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” comes out July 21. So when the actors come together later this year to begin making the sixth movie, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” they will have read the final book. For the first time, they’ll know Harry’s ultimate fate while still filming a cliff-hanging installment. In fact, though, during the course of filming the series, they actors have often been a book or two ahead of the movie they were shooting. How has that affected them as they prepare for their roles? Radcliffe offered his take at the Los Angeles premiere of “Phoenix.” “I try to put it out of my head. It’s easy for me to do because I have a terrible short term memory. I forget what happens to Harry after a few months after I read it. It’ll get hazier in my mind,” Ratliffe confessed. “I was on the third film when the fifth book came about, and I was still able to act with Gary (Oldman, who plays Sirius Black) even though I knew he was going to die. And I was able to act with Michael (Gambon, who plays Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore) in this one even though I knew he dies in the next one.”
At the premeire, the kids who star in the movie were never too far from at least one security guard, who watched at teens mobbed the young actors, asking them to sign books, premiere tickets, even bags. They also gave the actors gifts. Radcliffe was given a golden charm from one girl. The strangest present he’s gotten on this worldwide tour? “I got a giant rubber ear in Japan,” he laughed. “I don’t understand it. In Japan it’s this long-standing joke. It’s a classic in that country.”
