‘Harry Potter’ star shares near-fatal incident from the sets
Harry Potter star Martin Bayfield shared a shocking moment from the set.
In an interview with Mirror, Bayfield, who played the stunt double of Hagrid, shared that he nearly accidentally killed the late Verne Troyer, who played goblin Griphook in the franchise.
The actor recalled how he almost stepped on Troyer, “do you remember there was an actor called Verne Troyer, he was only about two foot and I nearly killed him. I stepped backwards and I heard this little yelp and I pretty much trod on him.”
He also talked about Hagrid’s costume, saying, “the biggest challenge initially was trying to not overheat because it was really hot and we had this cooling system built into it, but actually one of the people I worked with who designed it said look, ‘we’ll use this as a last resort, get hot, stay hot and you’ll be fine.”
Additionally, Bayfield, who also played young Hagrid in Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, also revealed how he landed the role.
“Well, I was giving a speech at an event in London and someone connected to Warner Brothers was in the audience, and I got a phone call the next day saying, would I like to do a screen test to be the body double for Hagrid. I thought it was a wind-up because it’s all the ingredients for a wind-up. The guy convinced me it was genuine, so I went to Leavesden Studios to do a screen test and got offered the part and took part,” he recalled.
