The Hilarious Weasley Prank The Phelps Twins Played On Rupert Grint
Across its eight total entries, the "Harry Potter" franchise and the story it tells covers a lot of ground. It introduces viewers to a world that's full of wizards, mythical creatures, and hats that assign kids to their schoolhouse. It sprinkles in hints of a rich history that dates back centuries and warns of dark forces led by Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) that seek to create chaos across worlds magical or otherwise. At the same time, though, "Harry Potter" is about family — those we're born into and the ones we piece together over time.
The main "family" we see in the "Harry Potter" series consists of our three central protagonists: Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), who all meet up during their first year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and become a tight-knit trio in the years that followed. Harry and Hermione's blood relatives get some exploration along the way, but they're mere footnotes compared to Ron's. The Weasley clan takes center stage in multiple "Harry Potter" films, for better or worse.
Led by parents Arthur (Mark Williams) and Molly (Julie Walters), the Weasley family includes siblings Ginny (Bonnie Wright), Bill (Domhnall Gleeson), Charlie (Alex Crockford), and Percy (Chris Rankin), as well as the mischievous twins, Fred and George. Real-life twins James and Oliver Phelps brought them to life and once took it upon themselves to prank their fictional brother, Rupert Grint, on the set of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
The Phelps twins messed with Grint's nerves
Despite the fact that the menacing aura of Lord Voldemort looms over Harry and Hogwarts at large, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" still found time to include an entire subplot revolving around the annual Yule Ball. This event is effectively prom for witches and wizards, right down to the awkwardness and occasional gaudy outfit. All in all, Ron Weasley doesn't do much by way of dancing or socializing when the gala finally comes, but that didn't stop the Phelps twins from using the sequence to pull a fast one on Rupert Grint behind the scenes.
As James and Oliver recalled during the HBO Max special, "Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts," they had a bit of fun with Grint before filming the Yule Ball sequences. As a young teenager, he'd never danced in front of people before, so they led him to believe there was a big dance number he had no idea about. "We were like, ”Do you know your steps? You know, right? You know, the routine? Like, we've all been doing a routine for, like, the past six weeks,' or something like that," said James, and per Grint's own admittance, the prank got to him at some point.
At the end of the day, James and Oliver Phelps were just having a bit of fun with a young, nervous Rupert Grint, building up camaraderie between them. After all, the three were playing Weasley siblings, so what better way to drum up a sibling dynamic than with some harmless ribbing?