HOLLYWOOD -- According to Robbie Coltrane, little wizards can be little imps.

Coltrane, who plays the gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, says the film's star, Daniel Radcliffe, is quite a prankster.

"Daniel is a technology wizard. One day, he translated all the text messages on my mobile phone into Turkish," recalls Coltrane, who also stars opposite Johnny Depp as a Scotland Yard detective in From Hell.

"Getting into a cellphone memory and translating it back into English wasn't easy. At one point, I thought I was going to have to find someone who spoke Turkish to set it back."

Radcliffe had the crew in a tizzy the day he came to the set with bloody bruises on his face.

"He told us he'd been in a fight. It was actually plaster that he had painted red, but the makeup girl had a minor heart attack before she figured out it was a hoax."

Coltrane says his character Rubeus Hagrid is "halfway between the wizard school and the real world. He lives outside and he's half giant. He was in the school himself, but was thrown out.

"He adopts creatures as part of his new life. He has several small dragons and also knows how to control huge beasts.

"I've seen the finished movie and, believe me, it looks fantastic and is so true and honest to the book."

This is his first real family film, so Coltrane knows when the movie comes out Nov. 16 he is going to have a whole new fan club.

His own children are more excited than they've ever been about one of his films.

"I've been in two Bond movies. You'd think that would be cool to any kid, but when I took the role in Harry Potter, my kids sat me down and told me I better be careful to get my character right.

"They warned me kids would write and let me know if I wasn't successful. Boy talk about pressure."


More Artists