Alfonso Cuarón Says He Directed 'Harry Potter' After Guillermo del Toro Called Him "An Arrogant Bastard"

In the filmography of acclaimed director Alfonso Cuarón, there is maybe one film that sticks out from the rest — “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” Not that the film is bad, as many ‘Potter’ fans would contend that it’s right up there with some of the best of the bunch (if not the best, itself). It’s just that when you see films like “Y Tu Mamá También,” “Children of Men,” and the upcoming “Roma,” ‘Azkaban’ just feels…different. And the filmmaker admits that if it wasn’t for Guillermo del Toro, it might not have happened, at all.

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Cuarón opens up about his career and how everything has led up to his most recent film, the upcoming Netflix feature “Roma.” While discussing his incredible filmography, the question arose as to how the filmmaker, coming off the universally loved “Y Tu Mamá También,” would decide to tackle the Wizarding World. According to the filmmaker, it’s all thanks to del Toro.

“I talked with Guillermo, as I always do, and he says, ‘What’s happening? Any projects going on?’ And I said, ‘I’m going for ‘Harry Potter,’ can you believe it?’ And I even made fun of it. I hadn’t read the books or seen the films. And then he looks upset with me. He called me flaco, that means skinny [in English]. He says, ‘Fuckin’ skinny, have you read the books?’ I said, ‘No, I haven’t read the books.’ He says, ‘Fuckin’ skinny, you’re such a fuckin’ arrogant bastard. You are going right now to the fuckin’ bookshop and get the books and you’re going to read them and you call me right away,” explained Cuarón.

He continues, “When he talks to you like that, well, you have to go to the bookshop. At that time, the fourth book had just come out. And I read the first two, and I was halfway through the third, [and] that was the one they had offered me. And I called him and said, ‘Well the material’s really great.’ He says, ‘Well, you see you fuckin’ …’ I mean, it’s just untranslatable from the Spanish…. As a filmmaker, it was almost like a lesson of humility, of saying how am I going to do it my own, but at the same time, respecting what has been beloved in those couple of movies?”

Now, depending on your views of the ‘Potter’ series, you may question how much Cuarón respected the previous works by filmmaker Chris Columbus. Not that Cuarón disrespected the series at all, but watching the first two films from Columbus, followed by ‘Azkaban,’ it’s clear that the Mexican filmmaker had a wholly unique take on the franchise. And some might say that the uniqueness went away after Cuarón left the series. But I digress.

Regardless of your thoughts on the acclaimed filmmaker tackling major franchise work, Cuarón’s success in the ‘Potter’ universe led him to do more “respected” works like the aforementioned “Children of Men” and “Roma.” So, we have Guillermo del Toro to thank for that.