The Weasley twins talk Alex McLeish, Jedward and dubious music taste on the Harry Potter set

James and Oliver Phelps, who have played the Weasley Twins in the Harry Potter films since it all began, talk football, late nights and Rupert Grint's Ricky Martin fetish.

By Nick Bradshaw

Straight after the big Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 World Premiere in London, James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley) made the short trip to Dublin to take part in the Irish Premiere and to savour the last gasps of Pottermania after a decade of Harry Potter on film.

Theirs are two lives full of coincidences - they met in the maternity ward where they both happened to be born 25 years ago, they ended up going to the same school, they take the same size clothes and when they both auditioned for a part in the first Harry Potter film, not only were they both succesful but they were cast as brothers. What are the chances of that!

The two lads don't however share the same taste in football - hailing from Birmingham, one, Oliver, supports Aston Villa whereas the other, James, supports Birmingham City.

We caught up with them in the Merrion Hotel for a chat about the world's biggest ever movie series, twins, their post-Potter futures and Alex McLeish.

JOE: Afternoon gentlemen.

James and Oliver Phelps: Good afternoon.

JOE: We know you've flown in from London to talk about Harry Potter, but before that we've more important stuff to discuss...

Oliver: Which is...?

JOE: Alex McLeish, of course. As rival fans, what do you think about his switch from the the blue of Birmingham City to the claret and blue of Aston Villa?

Oliver: I think he’s got off to a good start. So far, anyway. There were Villa fans not keen on the idea, and I was one of those not too keen on the idea. But now he’s here we’ve got to get behind the manager, so hopefully he’ll do well...

James: He won Birmingham their first major trophy in the club’s history, pretty much. That was an amazing day to be at Wembley and I was lucky enough to be there. I guess that he ran his course as a manager when we got relegated.

It’ll be great to see attacking football down at St Andrews now.

JOE: So the filming of Harry Potter is long behind you, the final World Premiere is now behind you, is it strange to still be talking about the film? Does it feel like you've been saying goodbye to it all for ages by now?

Oliver: There are different stages to the finishes. We knew that the London premiere was where everyone would be getting back together for the last time. People flew in from all over the world and it was amazing just being there in the middle of all that. But we’ve still got three or four more places to visit for publicity and premieres before it properly finishes for us.

JOE: Talking of the premiere. I'm guessing it was a good night...?

Oliver: It was a great night and it was a late night – it’s probably a good job that we’re meeting in a dark room today, although we didn’t go mad because we knew we had this to do today. There was an aftershow party that went on until the early hours of the morning, and then there was another party that went on after the aftershow party.

James: We’ll sleep after we finish these promotional tours, as these tours are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We’ve been wanting to come to Dublin since we started doing the Harry Potter films. We’d heard from other cast members how loud it is and we really wanted to experience it for ourselves.

JOE: My extensive research tells me that it's no coincidence that you look so similar to each other. You are, in fact, identical twins. Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) has said that Potter author JK Rowling has done a lot for gingers, has she done much to advance the film image of twins?

James: I suppose so. Obviously, just because we're twins we're still individuals and I think that comes across in the books and the films, although we do dress the same.

Oliver: We were always raised to be individuals, to express ourselves differently and not to always rely on each other or to wear the same clothes as each other.

A lot of people who read the seventh book and who have now seen the films will see that it’s been written very much to show that the Weasley twins are individuals.

JOE: But you concede that twins aren't always portrayed that way in film. They can be a bit sinister.

Oliver: They can, but not always. Look at Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film Twins. They were quite distinct from each other and they were twins.

JOE: Eh, yeah... But back to sinister twins: have Lucan's very own Jedward set the cause of twins in the media back a fair few steps?

Oliver: They’re not my kettle of fish or my idea of how twins are, but they’re successful at what they do and good luck to them.

James: If they have destroyed the image of twins, we’ll rebuild it.

MORE>>

JOE: So having been involved in the Harry Potter franchise from when you were in your mid teens up until now when you're in your mid twenties, have you left behind all the on-set pranks that you would have done when you were still all school kids? Are most of the cast too grown up for pranks now?

James: Not at all. Well, we're not too grown up. If anything, our pranks have just got more grown up and complex.

Oliver: Oh we carried on, including some pretty elaborate ones.

James: On the red carpet in London we did play a joke on Rupert [Grint]. We were live on BBC Radio 1 and they asked us to tell us something about another character. So I told them how Rupert is a really die-hard Ricky Martin fan. I think I was convincing because they were pushing him to sing Living La Vida Loca live on air later.

I won’t repeat the message he sent me, but it was along the lines of ‘You nasty person’.

JOE: He didn’t want people to know about that then?

James: Pretty much. That was pretty much it.

JOE: Could it be annoying when he was singing Ricky Martin songs on set during what were meant to be serious moments.

James: On set he tended to sing Britney Spears songs. He’s a massive fan of hers too.

Rupert Grint, clearly dreaming of Ricky, with the twins on set

JOE: For your entire careers to date you've always worked together and appeared together - with the exception of the final Potter instalment when only one of you is in certain scenes. Was that odd, or did you both turn up anyway, for old times' sake?

Oliver: There were a couple of days when I’d be filming and James wouldn’t be. It was strange to begin with because throughout the filming we’d normally go in at the same time, wait around for the same length of time and be in the same scenes.

To not have James there for a while did take a little getting used to. But it was yet another learning curve to come from being part of the Harry Potter school of life experience.

JOE: What will you miss from your involvement in Harry Potter? Apart from the pay cheques, obviously.

Oliver: Well yeah, the pay was obviously a really nice part of it! We had such a great relationship with the crew, so we’ll miss that. As for the cast, we still keep in touch with a lot of the guys.

We won’t see much of them all that often, especially the ones who’ll be all over the world filming. But there are a lot of people with whom we share common interests, so that should bring us together from time to time.

JOE: So what does the future hold for you both? James, haven't you done a bit of dabbling behind the camera?

James: I’ve had a little dabble on the other side of the camera, but acting is definitely the way we want to go. Whether it be a small indie film or a massive production, we’re really open to what comes next – and not just centred comical roles.

And we’ve got individual stuff that’s coming up, starting very soon. Stuff that doesn’t involve the two of us working together.

JOE: Talking of working together (or not), do you think the days of casting twins as twins in films are numbered now that in The Social Network one actor was cast to play both Winklevoss twins?

James: Actually we saw that script for The Social Network before it came out. Unfortunately we were doing Potter, so we couldn’t press forward with getting involved in that project...

Oliver: I think you need two individuals to do it properly. I think when one person is playing both twins, the person taking the role will inevitably blend the two of them together.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is on general release.