Rik Mayall explained how, after filming for three weeks, he was deleted from the final version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
The late humorist and actor, who died in 2014 at the age of 56, was hired in the first Harry Potter film as the mischievous Hogwarts ghost Peeves.
Mayall died of a heart attack on June 9, 2014, after coming home after a normal morning exercise in Richmond-upon-Thames, London.
Years before his death, he was set to appear in the Philosopher’s Stone alongside fellow British comic icon John Cleese, who played the ghost Nearly-Headless Nick.
Peeves was a minor character in the first book who was notorious for wreaking havoc on the pupils, and his agent alerted Mayall about the position.
Peeves, on the other hand, did not make the cut and never featured in any of the Harry Potter films, with the character being entirely deleted from the series.
Mayall divulged several behind-the-scenes facts about his time on set after the story become one of the highest-grossing franchises of all time.
In a newly-resurfaced video that is now doing the rounds on social media again, Mayall explained: ‘All the kids at my kids’ school were saying “Oh hello, Rik, have you read Harry Potter? It’s fantastic!” and I go, “What? What’s that?”.’
‘I said, “Of course I’ve read it”, when I hadn’t. Then my agent says, “You wanna be in Harry Potter?”‘
He was cast as Peeves before he realised it.
However, after Mayall came on set, his inherently amusing personality began to cause issues, with several of the youngsters giggling too much while filming.
‘I played the part of Peeves. But I got sent off the set because every time I tried to do a bit of acting all the schoolkids kept getting the giggles.’
‘I did a little bit of filming – then I went home and I got the money. Significant. Then a month later they said they were sorry, they’d cut me out of the film.’
He continued: ‘I was in the film for three weeks, then they cut me, but I still got the money. It’s the most exciting film I’ve ever been in – and I wasn’t in it.’
After watching the final film with his children, the Young Ones actor stated that they mistook him for Hagrid instead of Robbie Coltrane.
In response to the footage that has been re-shared on social media, one Mayall fan wrote: ‘Any person who believes that a film would be enhanced by the non-involvement of dear Rik needs to reassess.’
The footage was recorded while Mayall was filming 2011 horror film Evil Calls: The Raven (in which he also plays a ‘menacing’ ghost, ironically) alongside Jason Donovan.
On the tenth anniversary of his death, actor Michael Warburton, who co-starred with Mayall in the 2003 film Chaos and Cadavers, posted the footage online.
