PINK IS THE NEW BLACK

Returning to Hogwarts, Harry is met with suspicious glances and the headline in The Daily Prophet twists Harry’s surname from Potter to “Plotter,” accusing him outright of lying about Lord Voldemort’s return. Feeling alone and ostracized, Harry even resists the overtures of Ron and Hermione to help and support him, believing that no one can understand what he is going through, including his closest friends.

Daniel Radcliffe acknowledges, “He is perhaps being a bit of a martyr, but I think that is part of what’s so appealing about Harry—he is not perfect. He’s a flawed character; that’s what makes him an incredibly human character. He is a really good person, but one who is mired in self-doubt a great deal of the time, and I think most people can relate to that.”

Yates says, “It’s an interesting time in Harry’s life because he feels vilified by The Daily Prophet, which is the newspaper of the Ministry of Magic, and people are starting to believe what they read. So when he comes back to Hogwarts, it doesn’t feel as familiar and safe as it always has in the past. He feels like an outsider, and he has to make a choice whether he is going to be defined by that or if he is going to hold onto the friendships that have gotten him through so much during his school years. There are moments where you see he could go either way, and that is the emotional center of the story, for Harry in particular.

“It was also a really interesting journey for Dan as an actor because it was a complex piece of acting work,” the director offers. “What’s great about Dan is he is fearless and so determined. There were times we’d be doing take after take and I could see the determination in his eyes to do it better on every take. I love that about him; he just wants his performance to be the absolute best he can make it.”

The start of the new year at Hogwarts brings with it a new addition to the faculty: Professor Dolores Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, played by award-winning actress Imelda Staunton. Dressed in pink from head to toe, Professor Umbridge has a practiced smile and a honeyed singsong voice that belies her true nature.

Yates explains, “Fudge is paranoid about Dumbledore, who he thinks is after his job, so he places one of his most trusted lieutenants, Dolores Umbridge, at Hogwarts to act as his eyes and ears. She decides it’s her mission to clear out all the deadwood and conform Hogwarts to a very proper, orthodox way of teaching, staying within the box that the Ministry thinks they should all fit into, which results in a brilliant collision of values.”

“She’s definitely a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” Barron affirms. “She is nowhere near as ‘pink’ as she appears. I don’t think Fudge realizes quite what he’s doing by sending her there. I’m not sure even he knows what she is truly capable of.”

“She is all about control; order is paramount,” says David Heyman. “Anything that veers from her almost fascistic view of the way things should be has no hope of surviving in her world. She doesn’t believe that her students’ minds are vessels to be inspired but rather to be filled with the thoughts and ideas of the Ministry.”

The students at Hogwarts are not the only targets in Dolores Umbridge’s sights. The professors and staff are not any safer from her withering assaults. The Professor of Divination, Sybill Trelawney, played by Emma Thompson, could not have foreseen that Umbridge would dismiss her without a moment’s thought, while Charms Professor Flitwick, played by Warwick Davis, also falls short of Umbridge’s standards. Even the most respected professors, like Severus Snape, played by Alan Rickman, and Minerva McGonagall, portrayed by Maggie Smith, hold no sway over the pink-clad High Inquisitor. No one is safe from Umbridge’s relentless power grab. Not even Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

Heyman adds, “Her overriding aim is to discredit Dumbledore and seize control of the school in the name of the Ministry. Nothing will stand in her way. And Imelda plays that with a smile.”

Staunton states, “There are many people like that, who are outwardly charming but there is a lot going on beneath the surface, which is a nice challenge to play. I don’t believe for a moment Dolores thinks she’s doing anything wrong. She believes she is doing what’s best and, of course, those are always the more frightening people because they don’t see any other side. There is no compromise.”

“Imelda just ate up this character,” Yates declares. “She is an incredibly gifted actress with wonderful comic timing. She was able to make Umbridge a woman of real complexity and not a caricature in any sense.”

Based on the way the character is described in the book, Staunton might have taken umbrage at being cast as Umbridge. “In the book, she is said to be very ugly and toad-like, so when people would tell me, ‘You’d be great for the part,’ I’d say, ‘Well, thanks very much,’” she laughs. “But it was great being asked to do this because the role is a gem and it is heaven to be a part of this world…not to mention I have a much higher status with my 12 year old at home now.”

Staunton also worked closely with costume designer Jany Temime to craft Umbridge’s look. “We had a lot of fun creating this sort of little round person, who’s not very nice,” the actress says. “I didn’t want her to have any hard edges. I thought it was important for her to appear soft and warm because, of course, she is neither.”

To physically suggest Umbridge’s softness, Temime reveals, “We gave Imelda a lot of padding because she’s actually a very thin woman.” The designer also used soft, fuzzy fabrics for Umbridge’s costumes to add to the illusion of softness and warmth.

The color of the costumes, however, was predetermined by the book: pink, pinker and pinkest. “Every time we see her, she is in a different shade of pink,” says Temime. “As she gains power, the color gets stronger and more atrocious until she winds up in the deepest shade of cerise.”

The color scheme was carried over to Umbridge’s office, which Stuart Craig and his team decorated in shades of pink, and adorned with accents of lace and velvet and cute little knickknacks all around. The furniture style is French, which the designer says “is curvy, but has a sharpness to it,” a none-too-subtle hint to its owner’s real personality. The most distinctive feature in the office is the display of some 200 kitten plates on the walls, some of whose feline inhabitants are decidedly vocal and active.

By contrast, Umbridge’s classroom is much more austere, in keeping with her style of teaching, which is severely limiting to her students, right down to the remedial textbook she gives them. Rupert Grint observes, “Umbridge has a rather strange teaching technique for a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She believes progress should be discouraged and we should study theory with no practical application, which is ridiculous in a school of magic.”

Emma Watson agrees. “They are not really Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons anymore because the students are not allowed to use magic. And for an eager mind like Hermione’s, it’s like a slap in the face. She just can’t bear to sit there and be treated like an idiot; it just makes her blood boil because learning is everything to her. For the first time, Hogwarts, which has always been this very secure, stable place for Harry, Ron and Hermione, is not safe. It’s scary and it’s dangerous.”

Dangerous because the students are not being prepared to fight or defend themselves…especially in a world where the Dark Lord is again at large.

NEXT: DUMBLEDORE’S ARMY
As Professor Umbridge wields her escalating power at Hogwarts, new and ever- stricter Educational Decrees are posted, each one more limiting than the last.