Broadbent On Crystal Skull & Potter 6

Slughorn has a face.

Actor Jim Broadbent confirms not only that he has been cast as Horace Slughorn in the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” but also talked a little about his role in the fourth “Indiana Jones” as well. Here’s an excerpt from the interview which took place last week at the Toronto Film Festival:

Question: You must have a comfortable life which is hard to give up unless something comes up you want to do.

Broadbent: Yeah I had basically three months in Lincolnshire in the summer and suddenly now I’m back on the rollercoaster again and I’ve got to finish off Indiana Jones next month and I’ve got a bit on Young Victoria and it’s all been sort of stacking up and then I’m doing Harry Potter.

Question: Who are you?

Broadbent: Who am I? He’s called Horace Slughorn. He’s a retired teacher of magic who’s drawn back out of retirement because he’s got some secrets they need in the battle against the Deatheaters and he’s quite star struck as a teacher and he’s drawn back into the fold because he likes to notch up celebrity students, and he’s drawn back by Harry.

Question: Is he a comic character?

Broadbent: He is quite a comic character, yes. I haven’t started yet. I’ve had endless costume fittings and makeup and …

Question: What kind of costumes?

Broadbent: Tweedy sort of things with a bit of padding. He’s an older man, I’m aging up again.

Question: Have you read the book?

Broadbent: Yep, yep, yep. I haven’t read them all but I’ve read mine.

Question: And who are you in Indiana Jones?

Broadbent: I’m Indiana’s academic colleague at Yale. I’m his friend and colleague – there’s a couple of my scenes to go.

Question: What will you do next?

Broadbent: After that? Harry Potter goes ’til May. And that’s enough to begin with. I’ve got something of my own I’m hoping to get going and I’m not talking about ….”

Thanks to darkhorizons.com and the Indiana Jones Adventure MySpace page for the information!

UPDATE –

LUCAS Chimes in on the Lack Of Connery…

George Lucas spoke to TVGuide.com about Sean Connery opting out of returning as Henry Jones, Sr. “In the beginning, he was just in a little bit of it, and I think with the strength of Sean Connery, people would’ve wanted him to go all the way through the whole thing, and the story really didn’t work that way,” Lucas explained. “And so I think there would’ve been some disappointment that [his character] dropped out partway through the movie. By having somebody else fill that role, you lose him without any regret, so to speak, even though we got a great actor to play the part. And I mean, he’s not his father, so it’s much easier.”

Lucas added, “It’s just a completely different character, so you’re not invested in him in any way. The fact that that character, after the first part of the movie, isn’t needed doesn’t become a problem. Whereas I think with the scene we had, where [Indy] says goodbye to his dad, everybody was, ‘Wait a minute! Isn’t he coming back?’ So in the end, I think it turned out for the best.”

It’s unclear if the new character that Lucas refers to is Jim Broadbent’s character or John Hurt’s, but we suspect it’s Broadbent, who plays Indy’s academic colleague.

Thanks to ign filmforce for this update!