John Lithgow gave fans their first real look at what it takes to become Dumbledore, and it turns out the answer involves a lot of unraveling.
The 80-year-old actor appeared on Today show on Friday, April 17 to promote her Broadway role in Giantbut the conversation quickly turned to his role as Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series.
The beard, he revealed, was a source of unexpected difficulties.
“The beard goes down to his knees,” he said. “It gets tangled in my buttons and my fly. It’s just impossible.”
Wardrobe challenges aside, Lithgow described walking onto the Hogwarts set at Leavesden Studios as something truly overwhelming.
“You can’t even imagine,” he said.
“They created Hogwarts up there at Leavesden Studios. A lot of it is a holdover from the movie days, but they’ve expanded it brilliantly, created a world. And walking into that world is breathtaking.”
He spoke candidly about the nervousness that accompanied his first days on set.
The pressure of knowing he was setting the tone for a character he would play for years was not lost on him.
“The first time I worked on the show, it was two night shoots in a row and you always get a little confused doing that at three in the morning,” he recalls.
“I knew it was the first thing I did and the first scene on Privet Drive and I knew that whatever I did now, I had set the template for years to come. I better do it right.”
He simply added: “I’ve played a lot in my day, but I still have stage fright.”
The series, which began production in July, will adapt each of JK Rowling’s seven Harry Potter books into separate seasons, with the eight-episode first season covering The Philosopher’s Stone.
Dominic McLaughlin plays Harry, Arabella Stanton plays Hermione, and Alastair Stout plays Ron Weasley. The first trailer was released on March 25.
Lithgow previously revealed in an interview with The New York Times in March, he considered leaving the project due to his connection to Rowling and her anti-trans views, although he ultimately decided to stay.
He disagrees with its rhetoric, he said, and described the series itself as “clearly on the side of the angels, against intolerance and intolerance.”
He acknowledged that it’s a topic he plans to address “in every interview I do for the rest of my life.”
