by Brad Balfour

G21 Contributing Editor

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NEW YORK, NY, USA - When it was time to bring HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN - the third installment of J.K. Rowling's mega-successful series - to life, its initial director Chris Columbus placed the artistic crown on arch-indie Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón's head. The youthful Cuarón has already made cinematic magic with his fantastical A LITTLE PRINCESS and the provocative Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIéN. But who would have guessed he'd be so perfect for this series. Darker, and more emotionally rich, his vision of HARRY POTTER is more matured - just as Potter (and his alter ego, 14 year-old actor Daniel Radcliffe) has. Though Cuaron won't be filming the fourth film, he's left a profound and unique mark on a pretty special universe.

G21: DID BEING AN OUTSIDER BRING SOMETHING NEW TO THESE ENGLISH STORIES?

AC: I never thought about it that way but I guess then I am more irresponsible about it ...

G21: IRRESPONSIBLE?

AC: Early on, Jo Rowlings said "Be faithful to the spirit of the book but don't be literal" and the funny thing is that working with the Harry Potter Talibans [they'll ask] "What about that dot and this comma that is missing from the book ..." I couldn't care less; I am just trying to serve the spirit of the book.

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G21: DOES THAT PUT A FIRE TO YOUR BACK?

AC: Because I was coming from doing Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIéN as the artist, with freedom and all that stuff, I had my misgivings. Then I spoke with Guillermo Del Toro, director of HELLBOY - one of my closest friends - and he said "You have to do this film." And I said "But what about this ... ?" and he said, "You don't understand, you just have to serve the material and forget about the other things you are talking about." It was amazing how ... putting the ego and all these misgiving [aside] ... this creative door opened and it was the best thing that ever had happen to me because then everything became just about creating.

With Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN I had full control and suddenly, I stepped into this huge, huge Warner Brothers film and I had as much freedom as I had with my little film in Spanish. I'll give you an example. At one point, I was shooting in Scotland and things were falling behind. I called the studio and said "Whoa! I am falling behind because of the weather but don't worry, I can cut the scene out so we can catch up." The answer was "Do you want to cut as a creative decision or for monetary reason?" I said "probably monetary." They said "Don't do anything that's not a creative decision."

It was amazing! ... I had all this freedom. Early on, into the process, everybody identified that we were in the same loop, the same mindset, and then, pretty much, I was left alone and, when they saw the dailes, they really started loving it.

G21: WHY YOU???

AC: I was cheap!!! [Laughs]. I had done a film for Warner A LITTLE PRINCESS and I knew that Jo Rawlings had been a fan of it and Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIéN, and I think that helped for [the producers] to present the package to the studio. I have to say it was the best experience in my whole life; the whole ride was beautiful.

G21: YOU HAD THIS STRUCTURE TO WORK WITH --

AC: I felt comfortable with what was established and I stepped into a machinery that was so well put together that I didn't have to worry about putting together the elements from the get-go. It's as if Chris built the kitchen, bought all the tools, the food and on top of that, cooked two meals. Suddenly I'm invited to cook a meal; the kitchen is there and the food is there. It's so much fun.

G21: DID SOME OF THE CREW SAY, WHO'S THIS MEXICAN GUY?

AC: The best thing about directing British actors is that, with my bad English, they were always thinking that I was saying something genius and then they wouldn't do what I was asking them to do but what they thought I was saying. And that was great. If they had done what I was asking them to do it would have been a fiasco but they would say "Oh yeah that's a great idea" - and I didn't think of that - I'd say "Yeah it's great." When I started prepping [for this film], Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN opened in London and it was a huge hit. Suddenly they went from "Who's that Mexican?", to "Whoa, we're working with an artist."

I'll give you an example of how that perception worked. I'm working with this storyboard artist and suddenly I starting hearing comments from the art department that my vision is "genius." There was a scene in at the beginning where the camera's approaching the train and I said to the storyboard artist, "The rain turns into ice." He understood "eyes" so he drew all these eyes. Everybody was talking about my vision and then they showed me this and it was really cool but it was just ice.

G21: SO THIS MOVIE IS A RESULT OF YOUR BAD ENGLISH??!!

AC: It's lost in translation [Laughs]. It's just a product of that!

G21: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WORKING WITH MEXICAN AND ENGLISH ACTORS ?

AC: The language is completely different [Laughs]. If anything the difference is the process between Hollywood acting and English acting. The Mexican approach is similar to the English approach. You can have a bunch of English actors smoking cigarettes, doing their wit. English people are always doing their irony and then you say "Action," and they're completely in character. Then you say "cut" and they go back to their wit. With Mexicans, they're taking a siesta and then you say "action" so they do their thing and then- "cut" and it's back to --- With Hollywood, craft is very confused with position, power, and the size of the camper [Laughs]. Also the typical Hollywood actor will be asking "Why why why" and the other English actor is saying "Why not; let's [just] try it."

G21: WHY ARE THE BOOKS AND THE MOVIES SO POPULAR?

AC: Even if they are about wizards, their emotions are absolutely human. When I read this thing I see it as an adventure but it also deals with social class, and struggles that deal with racism, power, friendship, loneliness, and everything from an archetypal standpoint like all great fairy tales. They connect with human consciousness in a way that is very Jungian. It's up to each one to analyze if they chose to. You can read HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN for what it is but then you can give a contemporary reading if I strip away the whole concept of wizards, and magicians and nail [it] to a contemporary universe, [there are all kind of] references. Professor Lupin is your favorite uncle who does smack. You can find lot of references like that.

G21: WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO ANOTHER HARRY POTTER

AC: Not right now. It was amazing to work with all the visual effects things. I'm now ready to just do a movie with a couple of actors.

G21: AND THE NEXT ONE?

AC: I wrote something for Universal that is a medium to big sized [film] called CHILDREN OF MEN but I am also working on a tiny project that I want to do in Mexico. But also, one more time with Guillermo del Toro ... This [is] what Guillermo said about making [a commercial big studio] film like HARRY POTTER. When you're a kid, your mommy says if you eat all the cereal you get to keep the toy at the bottom of the box. Guillermo said the cereal was BLADE TWO and his toy was DEVILS BACKBONE . I can say my cereal was A LITTLE PRINCESS; my toy was Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN. There is a little secret that we don't tell our mommies, and that is that we love cereal as much as the toy [Raucous Laughter].

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