John Lithgow has given fans their first real look at what it takes to become Dumbledore, and the answer, it turns out, involves quite a bit of digging.
The 80-year-old actor appeared on Today show on Friday, April 17 to promote his Broadway role in Fightbut the conversation quickly turned to his part as Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series.
The beard, he revealed, has been a source of some unexpected difficulties.
“The beard goes down to my knees,” he said. “It gets tangled up in my buttons and my fly. It’s just impossible.”
Beyond the wardrobe challenges, Lithgow described stepping onto the Hogwarts set at Leavesden Studios as truly overwhelming.
“You can’t even imagine,” he said.
“They’ve created Hogwarts up there at Leavesden Studios. A lot of it is left over from the film days, but they’ve just brilliantly expanded, created a world. And to get into that world, it’s breathtaking.”
He was honest about the nerves that came with his first days of filming.
The pressure of knowing he was setting the tone for a character he would play for years was not lost on him.
“The first one I worked on the show was two evening tapings in a row, and you’re always a little bit nervous doing that at three in the morning,” he recalled.
“I knew this was the first thing I did, and the first scene on Privet Drive, and I knew that whatever I do now, I’ve set the template for the next several years. I’d better do it right.”
He added simply: “I’ve done a lot of acting in my time, but I still get stage fright.”
The series, which began production in July, will adapt each of JK Rowling’s seven Harry Potter books into separate seasons, with the eight-episode first season covering the Philosopher’s Stone.
Dominic McLaughlin plays Harry, Arabella Stanton is Hermione and Alastair Stout takes on Ron Weasley. The first trailer was released on March 25.
Lithgow has previously revealed in an interview with New York Times in March that he had considered leaving the project due to its connection to Rowling and her anti-trans views, though he ultimately decided to stay.
He doesn’t agree with her rhetoric, he said, describing the series itself as “clearly on the side of the angels, against intolerance and bigotry.”
He acknowledged that it’s a topic he expects to discuss “in every interview I’ll ever do for the rest of my life.”
