Hagrid Confesses: Regrets, He Has a Few

Since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone enjoyed the biggest opening weekend of all time, Robbie Coltrane has little to worry about careerwise except donning his giant Hagrid costume and make-up for the sequel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which already has begun production.

"[The process of getting transformed into Hagrid is] horrible," the actor grouses to TV Guide Online. "Big and sticky, and took one and a half hours in the morning. The costume weighed about 140 pounds.

"[But] it looked good — that's the main thing," he concedes, adding with a chuckle, "It's a fashion thing, too — 'the Hagrid look.' Armani's going with it for the winter. The leather jerkin, the leather boots... they're everywhere, up and down Fifth Avenue. Simply everybody's wearing them."

Of course, looking the part isn't all that matters to the Scotsman. Though he was hand-picked by author J.K Rowling to bring Hagrid's imposing figure to life, he interrogated the producers about their determination to remain true to the books before accepting the part. "The worst thing in the world would be to [be in] a crap Harry Potter movie," he explains. "You'd rather be dead."

Still, there is a downside to Coltrane's involvement in the Harry Potter series: It's keeping him away from another big-screen franchise. The actor, who played Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in two recent James Bond films, won't be appearing in the next one. "Can't do it," he admits sadly. "They start shooting next week, and I'll be 'Hagrid-ing' up."

Nonetheless, Coltrane does hold out hope to Bond fans who thought that his character was offed for good in The World Is Not Enough. "I'm sure Zukovsky's not dead," he insists slyly. "That's my feeling."