Happy To Be Hagrid

As excited as we all are to see Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, we can only imagine how thrilling it must be to actually star in the film. Luckily though, Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane, who plays Hogwarts groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid, was on hand to tell the about the joy of Potter. Likening the film to kid's classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he told the paper: "I was watching it for the four millionth time the other day and thought, 'Wouldn't it have been fantastic to have been in this - and to know your children and grandchildren will watch it?' That's how I feel about Hagrid. It's like being the lion in the Wizard of Oz." "It's funny, when you have kids you watch all the children's movies and I thought, 'God, if they get Harry Potter right, it'll be the best children's film ever'. And I really think it might well be that." Coltrane describes the way he portrayed the giant as being akin to a hell's angel with a heart of gold, "You sometimes see these guys in pubs who wouldn't think twice about plucking your eye out - then pull out a picture of their three-year-old daughter and go, 'Isn't she lovely'." Personally picked by author JK Rowling as the only actor to play Hagrid, it never occurred to Coltrane to turn down the role, mainly because his children would have killed him. "Can you imagine me refusing? 'Oh, they've offered me Hagrid but I'm not doing it, children.' - Large Scottish actor found at the bottom of a loch."