The Real Reason Harry Potter Is Only Shown From The Waist Up At The Yule Ball
Through the many adventures at Hogwarts, we were lucky to witness an array of dangers cross Harry Potter's path ever since he was brought to screen in 2001. Not only were there Death Eaters, dragons, and feared Dark Lords who look great in black (come on, we all know it), but one of the biggest challenges the Boy Who Lived ever faced was the dreaded Yule Ball in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
The formal event that was part and parcel of the ill-fated Triwizard Tournament (RIP Cedric) saw the converging schools' students take part in awkward teenage flirtation and closely monitored dancing. The interesting thing about this particular moment in the film, though, is that whenever the camera catches Daniel Radcliffe busting elegant moves with the rest of the students, we only see him from the waist up, making you wonder what kind of wizardry was being applied off camera. It turns out, not a lot — the high demand for Radcliffe's higher half was mainly because he missed out on a class that the rest of the cast had to study hard for. Typical Potter.
The camera hid Daniel Radcliffe's bad dancing in Goblet of Fire
As part of the training for "Goblet of Fire," the cast playing the witches and wizards in training at Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang were tasked with learning how to dance for the highly anticipated Yule Ball. However, Daniel Radcliffe, being in such high demand for other sequences that needed to be shot as Hogwarts' star pupil, had to take a crash course that was nowhere near as long as the classes the rest of the cast took. "Everyone else had about three weeks, and I only had about four days to learn because I was doing another scene," the actor revealed in the "Goblet of Fire" DVD extras.
As a result, carefully placed shots for the beginning of the ball, which the four Triwizard contestants would kick off, predominantly showed Radcliffe's top half, carefully keeping his doe-like footing off camera. "I'm quite proud of what I managed to do. ... I got to about halfway through and then I would just lose it completely," Radcliffe explained. "I would've liked to be very impressive. In my mind, I could see everyone going, 'Oh, he's such a good dancer. Wow!' and it didn't happen."