Chris Columbus on walking away from directing Harry Potter movies: ‘I could barely speak’

Directing the first two ‘Harry Potter’ films left Columbus ‘emotionally and physically drained’

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter (YouTube/Warner Bros)

Chris Columbus said he stepped down as director of the Harry Potter movies after the second instalment because it took a toll on his health.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Columbus said the “ridiculously long” shooting schedules for The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets left him “emotionally and physically exhausted”.

The filmmaker said he “could barely speak” after production on The Chamber of Secrets wrapped.

In addition, the first two franchise films kept Columbus away from his family for long stretches of time.

The director said: “I wasn’t seeing my kids, who were young at the time, growing up. I was missing dinners with them. I thought, ‘I can’t do another six, seven, eight years of this. My kids will grow up and I’ll never get to know them.’”

Alfonso Cuarón directed the third film, Prisoner of Azkaban, allowing Columbus to transition to the role of a producer so he could spend more time with his family.

He noted: “As a producer, I don’t have to be there all the time. I can be on the set a few hours a day. I can sit in on certain visual effects meetings, but it means I can get home in time for dinner, to see my kids in the morning to go to school.”

“By the time Azkaban ended, my family was ready to come back to the States,” the director continued. “They missed their friends, and so it felt like the logical time to say goodbye.”

The first Harry Potter film, starring Daniel Radcliffe as the young boy wizard, was released nearly two decades ago on 14 November, 2001.