The Weasley Twins are back on-screen.
James and Oliver Phelps, who played Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter franchise, returned to Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, where the films were shot, to host a new competition series that’s right up their (Diagon) alley: Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking, premiering tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network.
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“It was so cool to go back there. I mean, it’s definitely had a facelift since we were filming Potter there,” Oliver told Parade in an exclusive interview with his twin brother. He added that being on the sets again was “like you jumped on a time machine and just gone straight back like with no time in between.”
James was flooded with memories as they filmed the first-ever Harry Potter-themed baking competition, including an episode in the iconic Great Hall. “I had a hundred memories come back in one second,” he recalled. “There’s not many places in the world where people can go and reminisce like that. I learned that was my little space.”
The Great Hall, Platform 9¾ and Gringotts Wizarding Bank are among the famous locations where teams of pastry chefs and cake artists presented their spellbinding creations. James and Oliver are joined by culinary judges Carla Hall and Jozef Youssef on the Food Network series, as well as by guests from the Wizarding World: Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley).
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“We had a great time,” James said about the on-screen reunions. “We speak normally anyway. We say it’s like friends from high school or college or something like that. You may not speak every day, but you stay in contact in your life.”
This past September, the Harry Potter family lost a beloved member, Dame Maggie Smith. In a wide-ranging interview with Parade, Oliver and James reminisced about working with the late Academy Award winner and other legends in the magical movies.
Did you ever think that you’d return to that set to host a baking competition?
Oliver Phelps: Yeah, definitely not. [Laughs.] When the producers put it to us and asked if we’d want to get involved on the project, it just ticked all the boxes for us. Actually, of all the projects I’ve done, it’s the one that my wife and daughter are both like, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, baking show, yes, yes, yes!” That was a really cool crossover as well. We’re able to be ourselves in it as well. We’re able to be our own personalities, but also see these bakers who have come onto it, who are top of their game ,and just see the amazing things that they make is so cool.
What piqued your interest in the show? Was it the Harry Potter connection, or the fact that it’s a baking competition?
James Phelps: A combination of a lot of things, to be honest with you. We love baking shows in general. That’s always a big thing in our household. Being on Potter as well. That was good in regards [to] we can talk about it pretty easily because we’ve done it. T be honest, we’ve always wanted to do hosting and this kind of stuff. It literally was like a “tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.” And then when we really started talking to the Food Network and Warner Brothers and everybody else involved, nothing was going to be done by halves. The contestants are the best of the best at what they do. So, having the opportunity to be up close with them and see how they’re making things. We actually asked them during the show, “So why are you putting that flavor with that flavor?” And they literally go into kind of like the science of it, of eating and food and all that kind of stuff. It really is a great learning curve as well.
How would you define your hosting style?
Oliver: At the end of the day, the contestants are the main focus of the show. We’re there to kind of bridge the gap between the audience and them. But it was just really cool to be able to do, and we were encouraged to just be ourselves and bring our own humor to a point to it. But we know that these guys are working under quite a stressful time constraint to get these bakes done, so we weren’t going to be hiding any utensils from the contestants, that’s for sure.
The Weasley Twins were known for pranks, after all!
Oliver: They would! Definitely.
James: They would. We generally wanted everyone to win. We got such a great rapport with them because we were filming for long hours of the days while they were [working]. So we got to know them very well and know their stories and hear about their families back home and all this kind of stuff. We generally wanted everyone to win. Obviously, that wasn’t possible. But we were really egging them on to do— that was a bad pun wasn’t it?—[Laughs.] to do as best as they possibly could.
Are they big Harry Potter fans, the bakers?
James: Some of them are some of the biggest I’ve ever met. There’s one lady, Lisa, we called her the “encyclopedia.” If you had any question on anything Potter, she would tell you everything about it. When we say these guys are Potter fans, they genuinely are. So that’s good as well.
Food Network
You guys were joined by some familiar faces on the show, Luna (played by Evanna Lynch) and your onscreen sister, Ginny (played by Bonnie Wright). Were they equally excited to return to where it all started?
James: Yeah. I think so. We had a great time. We speak normally anyway. We say it’s like friends from high school or college or something like that. You may not speak every day, but you stay in contact in your life. It was cool just being back at the studio, reminiscing about times. The kitchen that they built for the show, that was on B-stage, which, completely by coincidence, was where the Great Hall used to be. So we were joking, like you said earlier, “Could you imagine 24 years from now we’re gonna be on this stage, seeing these guys bake things, which we grew up with?” So yeah, it was cool to be sharing time with them.
I love that you all keep in contact. Is there a Harry Potter WhatsApp group or a Weasley family group?
James: There is, actually.
Oliver: There is a WhatsApp group. Sometimes it’s really busy, and sometimes it’ll just drop off. But normally around the holidays, everyone will jump in and just wish everyone the best and stuff. So no doubt there’ll be some guys hopefully watching this and getting some inspiration and maybe doing some baking themselves.
What’s it like when members of the cast reunite? Is it a lot of reminiscing, or do you agree, “We’re not going to talk about Harry Potter today”?
James: We don’t talk about the films as in the stories per se. You kind of reminisce on what it was like when we were doing, “Do you remember when we were filming the Yule Ball in the fourth movie? Do you remember when we had to learn how to do that dance and all that kind of stuff?” But for the most part, we talk about the here and now. Obviously, a lot of us all got families and are settled down in that regard. If you’ve been traveling somewhere, you compare notes on where you’re going. For us, it’s just a normal friendship with guys that we just so happened to have this amazing experience with early on.
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The Harry Potter family recently lost a member. Do you have a favorite memory with the late Maggie Smith?
James: I’ve got a few, actually. One which I’ll always remember was when we were filming the first movie, there’s an eating scene. And there are quite a few feast scenes in those. And I can remember the first take, we’re told just eat what you want. So I was literally eating as much as I can. I look over, and I remember looking straight at Maggie, and she literally had like the tiniest thing to nibble on on her fork. And I was like, “Why are you not eating as much as you can?” And she laughed, “Oh you’ll see.”
And then, come later that day, when we’re on take 30 of a different angle, I still had to do the same amount of eating that I did the first take. One thing that we learned from Maggie and all the other adult actors was not just their preparation in the actual acting part of it, but actually the craft of when you’re there. And one thing, they’re always on time. They’re always professional with the crew and the cast and everybody. So that’s definitely something which we’ve always tried to take forward from that time.
Was it intimidating or inspiring to work alongside a legend like her?
Oliver: I think at the age we started, maybe we weren’t too aware of just what a scale of actresses and actors a lot of the other older members of the cast were as well. But, as James said, just feeling part of it, we never felt like there was a “them and us” type thing. We’re all part of the same thing. In the makeup room together and stuff like that, just talking about whatever, like a soup recipe or something. It was just something where in hindsight, you look back and think, “Wow, what a special time.”
Do you think back to those days, “Wow, I worked with Maggie, Alan Rickman, all these legends!”
James: Kind of. I wouldn’t say we look back and be like, “Wow!” We watch it [and] it’s cool to think, “Yeah, I worked with that person.” And not just worked with them, but you interact with them. No one was kind of on their own, “Don’t talk to me.” We very much were made to feel like we’re their colleagues and part of the same team. So that was always something which I’ll always really treasure.
Food Network
Since the contestants on Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking were Potter fans, were they freaking out when they stepped onto the set of the Great Hall or Platform 9¾?
James: Yeah. Well, you see this in the show, don’t you?
Oliver: Yeah. You see the total authenticity of their reaction to being in there and just seeing, “Oh wow, this is where this happened, this is where that happened.” And obviously, because the sets are dressed still looking like they are with the tour as well, so they can kind of just walk straight into it. To be able to film it in Gringotts, for example, that was so cool. And then there’s a couple of surprises on a few of the sets as well. So you can see they’re not just in it to enter a baking competition. They’re there as well because they’re quite literally in the middle of the Wizarding World.
James: And they were the first people to bake for these. So that’s always an accolade of, “How does it feel to be the first people ever to produce an edible Golden Snitch?” That’s something you can never take it away from them.
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Is there one set in particular that, to this day, blows your mind or takes your breath away?
Oliver: I think the Great Hall. That’s where the final episode is based around. Just walking into it, they had the candles; they had it all dressed. It took a moment. I was there for a second. It suddenly just suddenly hit me like, “Wow, I never thought I’d ever be back in here filming.” I thought this was done. I thought that I’d shut that whole door. But seeing the cameras in there, seeing the lights and everyone ready to go, I remember just standing there like for a brief second in my head, just like, “Wow, this doesn’t feel like it was 14 years ago. It feels like yesterday, almost.” And that was the cool thing.
Do you remember your very first day on set?
James: [The] first thing we ever shot was the last scene in the first movie. So that first of all taught us that filming isn’t done in [the] order that it appears. So it was when everyone gets back on the Hogwarts Express to leave to go home. And I can remember being very nervous. All I had to do was stand on a train. [Laughs.] But I remember being very, very nervous at that thing. In fact, you went back there, didn’t you?
Oliver: Yeah. Up in Goathland. I had a family week away in the Yorkshire Dales. So it was beautiful countryside. And where we filmed it on Goathland train station was probably about a 20 minute drive. So I said to my wife and two girls, “Come on, let’s go and have a look.” My kids have never seen the films, really. So we got there and walked and just went and had a walk around onto the platform. And that was really cool to be there like with them as well. On the opposite side of the platform, there was a train in. It was still busy. It’s almost like a pilgrimage for a lot of Potter fans to go to. And you see this guy on the train carriage and his girlfriend’s next to him. And the girl suddenly looks across the opposite side of the tracks and sees me standing there. And she suddenly is pulling him; you see him just not wanting to listen. And the train suddenly pulls away. And I’m just thinking, “He’s never gonna believe you.” [Laughs.] So it was really cool to go back and see that.
When fans see you, what do they say to you? Do they say a line from the movie, a spell?
James: We’ve heard absolutely everything there is to hear. [Laughs.] To be honest, the great thing about playing the characters that we did, they’re the good guys. They’re the fun guys. So we normally just get people just wanting to say hi. And you’re normally asked, “What was it like?” Everyone wants to know, “Did you have as much fun as you’d hope?” The honest answer is we had more fun than probably is realized, because we were there with people that we made very strong friendships with, such great opportunities. And they still continue. We’ve been to theme parks all over the world, exhibitions. We’re now hosting this baking show, which the whole family, again, can watch. So yeah, it’s been really cool.
We talked about how the Weasley Twins were known for their pranks. Were there any memorable pranks that you pulled on set back then?
Oliver: Back then…that can be told in public? We did. Yeah. We used to have a lot of fun actually when we were filming because there’s so much waiting around. Whereas, I think, I don’t know if we’ve just matured a bit or we’ve just gotten a bit more quieter with the pranking thing. So on the show, I think the most we ever pranked was we gave a fake time call when they had maybe two hours left. And we said, “You’ve got 10 minutes.” That was probably about the worst it got to on this one. So we’ve definitely calmed down a bit in that regard.
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What do you think is the biggest lesson you took away from working on such an iconic franchise at a young age?
Oliver: The biggest lesson is that it doesn’t matter where you go in the world. The people who we meet who are so into Harry Potter all share the same outgoing nature of being able to talk to people like from all different backgrounds, all different ways they’ve grown up, everything like that. It’s just opened my eyes to [the fact that] there’s a lot of nice people on the planet to talk to and have a commonality with.
James: See, he’s gonna say that. I’m going to say I learned that you can get your hair dyed every three weeks, and it will still be in your hair 20 years later. So I’m very happy for that. [Laughs.]
Food Network
What do you think it is about the Harry Potter franchise that continues to inspire and connect with people all these years later?
Oliver: For people of an older generation, they had the books, they had the films as they were coming out. And they maybe think back to a time that they would read the books with, say, a grandparent, or go and watch the films with a parent or a date or something like that. And now fast forward all these years later, it takes them back. It reminds them back of that connection with that person or that event, that friendship group they were with at the time, or where they were living or something like that. So there’s definitely a nostalgic element to it. But then you’ve got the new side of things where people are still getting hooked in from what the original fans were as well. My daughter, one of her friends is a huge Harry Potter fan. She’s 8, and she’s absolutely massively into it.
James: Didn’t she have a party?
Oliver: She had a party, yes! I sent my daughter to a birthday party, which was a Harry Potter-themed, which was really odd and a bit awkward. But it was quite funny though, just seeing this generation who’d never known the films to come out. They’ve always just been there on Max or on the TV. So to be able to see them with that new generation is really cool, which is why we’re sure so many multi-generations will be into watching Wizards of Baking.
Did you stick around for that party?
Oliver: So I was in the corner. And I bet some people who were there thought, “God, he’s boring, isn’t he? God, he doesn’t want to do anything.”
James: Some other parents probably thought, “Wow, it’s a great party. They paid [for this cameo]. [Laughs.]
How often do you guys have Harry Potter marathons?
James: We don’t.
Oliver: We don’t.
James: Simply because I cannot. Not just Potter, but any job I’ve done, I can’t watch it for what it is. I remember what we were doing when we were filming, what was going on in my life at that time. When it’s on, it’s cool to see, apart from the first movie because my voice is really high [and] it’s really embarrassing. But it’s cool to watch it knowing that you were part of it and seeing your friends on screen, as well, that’s always fun.
Murray Close/ Getty Images
Does one of the films stand out as your favorite?
Oliver: Again, as James said, there are different ways to look at it in terms of favorite film to watch or favorite film that we worked on and stuff. I mean, the one we worked on, which [has] just got so many good memories, is of The Goblet of Fire. That was so cool to be able to do that with all the different characters who came into it. We were slightly older as well, so there was a really good social scene on that film as well. I remember like we’d all hang out after filming and stuff. So it was, yeah, really special.
If you could go back and give your younger selves any advice while filming, what would it be?
James: I don’t think I’d change anything. Because it was all about learning whilst you were there and the adults that were around us. Not just the adult actors, but the adult crew members, our parents, everybody. Everybody looked after you. No one was left out to go off the rails, as it were. Probably I’d say try and have more say in the haircuts that you get. Because the mullet was a bit of a random one at one point. But I think, for the most part, I wouldn’t go back and say much apart from just make sure you enjoy it, which, luckily, we do.
Oliver: Yeah, as James said, probably have more of a say in the haircut. Because some of them were shocking, weren’t they? My God. That would probably be the one thing I’d go back to. But as James said, the rest of it was- we’ve just got so many good memories over the years, which I think just shows that we really enjoyed it and made the most of what happened when we were doing it.
Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking premieres Thursday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m. ET on Food Network.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Next, here’s everything to know about the new Harry Potter TV series coming to Max.
