During HBO Max’s Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts reunion special, Fred Weasley actor James Phelps shares how he broke director Mike Newell’s ribs during a fighting scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Apart from the reunion of the principal cast members, Return to Hogwarts features a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the Harry Potter series and emphasizes the mark each director made within the evolving landscape of the franchise. While Chris Columbus, the director of the first two Harry Potter films, helped establish a fun family atmosphere on set, Newell brought energy and humor to the darker coming-of-age story featured in Goblet of Fire.
In "Chapter 2: Coming of Age", the cast members discuss the new vibe on set when working with Mike Newell during the filming of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe considered Newell to be the perfect director for the film because of Newell's “excited, loud, passionate” personality and points out how his energy matched the action-packed nature of this particular Harry Potter film. Ginny Weasley actress Bonnie Wright describes Newell as “a firecracker of energy” and as having an endearing childlike quality to him. Rupert Grint, the actor known for portraying Ron Weasley, also mentions Newell’s love of humor and his attempt to bring comedy into each new scene. During the behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Newell's energetic and eccentric directing style is perhaps best demonstrated during the filming of Fred and George Weasley’s fight scene in the Great Hall.
James and Oliver Phelps, the actors who portrayed Fred and George Weasley, respectively, discuss the scene in which the Weasley twins attempt to place their names into the Goblet of Fire and illegally enter the Triwizard Tournament despite being underage. To defeat the magical age line that Dumbledore drew around the Goblet of Fire—a charm that would bar any of the students younger than 17 years of age from entering the competition—Fred and George take an aging potion to work their way around the rules. As predicted by Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), Dumbledore's charm causes the potion to backfire and transforms the twins into old men. According to James and Oliver, Newell wanted them to commit more to the scene and decided to demonstrate by tussling with one of the actors himself.
James recalls Newell encouraging him and brother Oliver to really be annoyed with each other and fight for real. “These two were sort of prissing about at it. And I said, ‘No, come on boys, really, it’s a fight,’” says Newell. The director's own attempt to make the scene more genuine quickly turned dangerous when Newell challenged James to a fight. “Well, of course, I was a tubby 60-year-old gent at that stage. And I really shouldn’t have done it,” says Newell. “I remember gripping him round the waist and trying to fling him about and so forth, and cracked a couple of ribs, and so was in absolute agony from then on. But, of course, the wonderful thing was that I had made a complete twit of myself and everybody felt much better for that.” While Newell’s method of involving himself in the action was certainly unconventional, his demonstration clearly brought more humor to the classic Harry Potter scene.
Newell’s description of his injury featured in the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special also showed his commitment to the film. Just as Chris Columbus mentioned to Radcliffe that he hid his anxiety during production of the first film so as not to affect the general mood on set, Newell similarly appears to have laughed off his injury when he states that everyone on set felt better about the situation given that his injury was the result of him making “a complete twit” of himself. In a poetic fashion that mimics the stylistic choices of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Newell took the unfortunate situation and colored it with humor.