Alfonso Cuarón did not see himself directing a Harry Potter film, but Guillermo del Toro made him change his mind in a few seconds: “You are an arrogant asshole”

It has been 20 years since what for many is the best movie in the Wizarding World was released in theaters: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. After two fairly continuous deliveries, Alfonso Cuaron took a radical turn and offered a new point of view of the Wizarding World.

However, at first, the Mexican director was not interested in making this film, since he had not read the books and did not believe that his style would fit in the Wizarding World. But all that changed after a talk with his friend and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. This is what he tells Total Film, in an interview on the occasion of the film’s 20th anniversary.

“I was confused because I didn’t have her on my radar. I speak often with Guillermo [del Toro]and a couple of days later, I said, ‘You know, I’ve been offered this Harry Potter movie, but it’s very strange that they’re offering it to me.’ He said, ‘Wait, wait, wait, you said you haven’t read Harry Potter?’ I said, ‘I don’t think it’s for me.’ In a very flowery lexicon, in Spanish, he told me, ‘You’re an arrogant asshole.'”

Unlike what Cuarón, the producer of the saga, believed, David Haymanhe thought he was the perfect man for this third installment of the franchise, since after watching Y tu madre also, he realized that the Mexican filmmaker would give a more contemporary touch to a saga that was being too adolescent.

And, after the premiere of the third installment, the tone of the saga changed completely. That adolescent atmosphere, where humor predominated, was left aside to become a film saga with more adult and serious elements that were rarely raised in the first two films.

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