Two days ter, I had a new car and my own Alfred—ahem, I mean Roger.

  Roger Carpenter was ex-military, honorably discharged, a by a security agency that provided services for celebrities and other VIPs. He also had experien navigating crowds and simir situations. He had signed an NDA and was tracted for three years to be my bodyguard/driver.

  The car I was given for my ute to and from the sets of [Harry Potter] was a BMW 540i. Initially, I thought it was very expensive (especially when I didn't even have my first big paycheck from [Harry Potter]), but when I aired my s to my parents, Dad ft-out ughed in my face.

  "Do you know how much I'll make from the first movie alone?" he had asked.

  "Millions," was the reply when I shrugged. "Most of that would be after its release, true, but I’m guaranteed a generous minimum payout. I could probably buy you a Lambhini, Ferrari, or even a Rolls Royce, but that'd be pin stupid when you ’t even drive yet."

  I stopped any protest after that when I realized that the car cost Dad less than 1% of his paycheck.

  So it was in this new car with my new driver Roger that I came to the shooting location of the very first se of [Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone].

  Because it had to be shot at different locations all across the UK, they had initially decided to be doh the ses not involving Hogwarts first because those ses involved the preparation of a lot of props and small magical tris, for which the set designing team was w tirelessly.

  That was at least until I pointed out a major fw in their preparation.

  "Shouldn't we do the heavy CGI ses like the Quidditch match first?" I had asked Dad once when he expihe shooting logie.

  "And why is that?" Dad had asked back.

  "I don't know for sure, but won't adding the CGI to perfe take a lot of time? If it is shot first, then the VFX team would have more time to add the effects to those ses, and as far as I uand, Quidditch requires the most CGI in the whole movie." I had given my reasoning.

  Iy, it was ninal reasoning of mine. I remember watg an interview with Chris bus, who pined about this issue, which they corrected from the seovie onwards, resulting in a major improvement in Quidditch ses from part 1 to part 2.

  Dad had looked at me skeptically before asking, "How in heaven's name did you deduce that, and none of the produ team poi out? Including our VFX specialist?"

  I had just shrugged in reply.

  So back to the present, here I was at the Leavesden studios to shoot our Quidditch ses. From what I knew, it would take upwards of two weeks to plete the whole Quidditch sequence. Visual effects teology is so amazing that other than me and the older kid who pys the Slytherin Seeker, no other actor had to be physically present o on the same day. Because I was the main character, I had more ses, so my ses were to be shot first.

  I saw the Nimbus 2000 that I had to ride. It was fitted with a bicycle seat, footrests, and wires to ensure I didn't fall off.

  This was my first time doing any sort of stunt or a se, so I was a little nervous but excited at the same time.

  "Troy," Chris said as he approached me, "for this se, we are trying to replicate the same effect as Quidditch. The brooms will move only in their pce, and we will add wind using these giant fans. If you have any problem or disfort, just wave your hand or shout. Is that alright?"

  I nodded in uanding.

  "Good. Now see this se. We are recreating this."

  Chris pyed an animated Quidditch se on the monitor behind him, and I really uood what we were trying to achieve here.

  "So the camera will zoom in the opposite dire of where I'm supposed to go to make it look like I'm going forward?" I asked, finally realizing how such ses are shot in aovies and the like.

  "Yes! Exactly! e, now sit on that broom thingy and we'll begin." Chris poiowards the 'broom' that was attached to a giant mae in front of a blue s.

  I was assisted by a few people to climb up on the traption, and the shooting began.

  The 'broom' shook wildly in every dire as I held onto it for dear life. It retty unfortable, to be ho. Thank God my balls hadn't dropped yet, or I'd be a little less likely to bee a father iure. They blew wind in my face from different dires, and I had to make lunges, dives, and whatnot. I even had to fight it out with the other kid for the imaginary Snitch where our 'brooms' were pext to each other.

  That's the problem with the green s/blue s. There's nothing there to act against. Everything is so teical, and the huma is removed from the equatioirely. To remedy this, Chris had to tell us multiple times what was exactly happening around us and what we should be imagining.

  As pnned, we shot these ses for a total of sixteen days. No amount of good ag reduce your number of retakes when you're about to puke yuts out because of the excess motion of those horrid traptions. In fact, I didn't even sider this as ag. Thankfully, they mixed my ses with those of other actors to give me some respite.

  I would shoot for an hour, then take a study session. Meanwhile, others in the Gryffindor or Slytherin teams would take their shots. It was a hectic schedule, but ersevered.

  (Break)

  After the Quidditch ses and all the flying ses around Hogwarts were shot, I took a few days off to promote [The Sixth Sense] in the UK. As I mentioned earlier, in the UK, Disney marketed the film as having two leads, Brud I, with both of us featured on the posters.

  Because the UK was geographically much smaller, the promotion tour was much shorter than iates. It didn't mean I liked it any more than iates because, at the end of the day, it was mostly the same stuff we talked about ierviews, with one major difference.

  Now I was also Harry Potter, so I had to talk about that as well.

  "So how is it shooting for [Harry Potter]?" an interviewer named Gee asked me.

  "It's wonderful," I replied cheerfully. "I love the book series so much that seeing those ses e to life is nothihan magical. I hope it will get a simir respoo [The Sixth Sense]." I tried to steer the versation back to the current film iion.

  "Very subtle," Geri me. "Okay, so tell me more about w with Bruce Willis."

  "Bruce is like that loving mischievous uncle I never had. I never felt for a moment that I was w. The best part is that no one oreated me like a kid, and I just loved being o because of that."

  (Break)

  [The Sixth Sense] had a massive opening in the UK. The audience was simirly enthralled by the plot twists and the story structure.

  The opening weekend colle alone was a staggering ￡15.2 million. A simir trend was observed in most of Europe, where the film received a great opening and exceedingly positive word of mouth.

  By the time the year ehe film had already grossed 715 million worldwide and wasn't showing signs of stopping any time soon.

  The success of the film could be attributed to the genius of M. Night Shyaman. Not to mention the fact that Disney had started campaigning for the Oscars, resulting in rger media attention to an already hit film. Every news el, media house, and other reporters had started doing opinion pieces oory structure, the plot twist, and the ag of the actors, including yours truly.

  I was very baffled seeing people analyzing every bit of the plot (minus the plot twist about Bruce Willis) and the performances. From what little I saw on TV, Bruce appeared oalk show and news el regurly to talk about the film and the filming experieh Night and me.

  His move was quite an obvious one. He was getting a huge bonus for the film that would him upwards of 100 million. And his performance was good enough that he could get an Osomination if he pyed his cards right. Well, the st one depended more on others' performances, and in a year with weaker performances, he may have even gotten one. But not in 1999. Not only was that one of the greatest year in film history with amazing performances across the board, there were other factors w against Bruce.

  The reason was simple: Bruce didn't have a good image amongst his fellow actors for his ag. From what I heard o, his behavior was quite mellow in [The Sixth Sense] because of his ret failure at the Box Office. Usually, he was a little difficult to work with. Their words, not mine.

  Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Because of Bruce's stake in the box office, he was doing everything in his power to promote the film, and the results showed.

  715 million and ting. That is already more than the worldwide total of [The Sixth Sense] in my previous life. I never imagihat my presence would impact the box office colles of the film. Then again, my Emmy win had enhahe US colles in the immediately following days. Or maybe it was just the modified script of the movie with the added song? I don't think I'd ever get the ao that question, so I'll just chalk it up to the butterfly effect.

  On the [Harry Potter] front, things were going as well as they could be. Since I was doh the most taxing ses of broom flying and Quidditch, the rest of the ses were retively much simpler for me.

  At the moment, I was at King's Cross station, shooting the ses of Ptform 9?.

  I ushing forward a trolley with a bunch of stuff on it, including a trunk, some parcels ed in broer, and a beautiful white owl in a birdcage. I was wearing old, baggy clothes, that included a fnnel shirt, a loose grey t-shirt u, and a pair of equally bigger trousers held together barely ay torso by a frayed belt. The sleeves of the shirt and legs of the trousers had to be folded multiple times to make it wearable on my tiny frame. I was wearing Harry's iic gsses and a fake scar had been py forehead. I was told not to y hair, an instru that I plied with. Beside me was a giant of a man called Robbie Coltrane, portraying Rubeus Hagrid. To appear bigger than he was, he was wearing a special suit designed for him under his own shabby clothes.

  "What're yeh lookin' at?" He growled at a couple walking beside us at the train station. The extras walked quickly, leaving Hagrid and me behind.

  Robbie then took out a watch from his pocket before exg, "Blimey! Is that the time?" Theuro me and looked down, "Sory Harry, I'm gonna have to leave yeh. Dumbledore will be wanting this..." He started patting his pocket as a look of realization spread across his face. "...Well he'll be wanting to see me. Now, your train leaves in ten minutes. Here's your ticket." He handed me said ticket. "Stick to it, Harry. It's very important. Stick to your ticket." He insisted while nodding ically.

  I barely cealed my ughter as I looked down at the ticket in my hands. This was already the seventh take because Robbie is so damn hirious that I find it difficult to not ugh at his micro-expressions.

  "But Hagrid! There must be a mistake. This says Ptform 9?. There's no such thing, is there?" I looked around in bafflement as the giant was o be seen.

  "Cut!" Chris's voice rang out oation. "Very good, Troy! Let's move on to the oer a fifteen-minute break where you meet the Weasleys."

  I heaved a sigh of relief. Not just this se, but I was having a little problem shooting some of the ses portraying Harry in general. The director felt that my expressions weren't ing out as i as they could be for an 11-year-old who knew nothing about this new magical world. I guess I got a little used to pying sad, lonely, or depressed kids from my first three films.

  While Harry was also a sad and abused kid, this wasn't a literary masterpiece created for its outstanding ag where I had to accurately gauge Harry's emotions. It's a ercial movie through and through, targeted toward kids, thus the tone is meant to be light-hearted.

  Keeping that in mind, I had lightened up my emotions a little until Chris was satisfied with what he wanted from me. Longing for something that is right there but I don't know how to get it. That's what I was going for. I had to keep this mental state maintained all the time when I was shooting Harry Potter. At least for these initial ses.

  "You did good, kid," Robbie Coltraed idly.

  "Thanks, Robbie," I nodded in thanks. "So, will you be staying oo watch the se?"

  "Hell no!" He shook his head vehemently. "'t wait to get out of this monstrosity. All the best for your shoot." And with that, he left for his trailer. I didn't bme him for being so curt and wanting to get out of his tall and fat suit. I would do the same if I was in his position.

  Putting that thought away, I focused on the rest of the se. The uping se was one which I was very excited about. It was right then that I ran into Julie Walters, my co-star from [Billy Elliot], who is also pying Mrs. Weasley here.

  "Troy!" She rushed over and hugged me tightly in her rge bosom.

  "Julie," I croaked out somehow, "if you don't release me now, I'll suffocate."

  "Don't be like that," she hit me lightly over the head. "If you could say that much, then you couldn't have suffocated."

  I just settled for rolling my eyes discreetly. Some people you just 't argue with.

  "It was so good to meet you again for another movie. Have you memorized your lines? Do you o practice with me?" she fired off in quick succession.

  I groaned audibly. As far as I knew, she was deliberately doing this to get on my nerves. She be petty like this sometimes.

  "Yes, Mum, I remember my lines. Holy, woman, aren't you embrag your character too literally?"

  "Oh hush you!" Julie tried to hit me again, but I ducked successfully and decided to just keep quiet for the sake of my physical well-being.

  Julie and I had growy close while filming [Billy Elliot] together. Apart from Jamie, she was the one I was closest to o. Funnily enough, Jamie ying the role of her son now.

  I looked around the station and just khat many people, including paparazzi, were trying to sneak a peek from behind the barriers that had beeed for a single glimpse of the set. However, it was uhe produ crew would let them get away with taking any pictures.

  Special permission had been taken from the authorities, and a portion of King's Cross station had been blocked off from public view to shoot the iic ses of Ptform 9?. And the readers of the books could easily guess which se was being filmed there.

  ___________________________

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