‘Harry Potter’ Director Says ‘British-Only’ Rule Was So Serious His Child Couldn’t Even Speak in Film

When Chris Columbus signed on to direct “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” he agreed to adhere to J.K. Rowling’s mandate that only British actors star in the big-budget fantasy adaptation. The “Brits only” rule famously resulted in Robin Williams being rejected from the film. As casting director Janet Hirshenson once told HuffPo, “The ‘only British’ rule was so important that Robin Williams was even turned down to play Hagrid…Robin had called [Columbus] because he really wanted to be in the movie, but it was a British-only edict, and once he said no to Robin, he wasn’t going to say yes to anybody else, that’s for sure.

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