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Adaptation Dye Job / Harry Potter

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He isn't as bright as in the book, but at least he isn't hogging all the screen.
In addition to making the characters more attractive, the Harry Potter films have also changed the colors of many characters' hair, eyes and even some outfits.


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    Hair Color 
  • Hermione Granger's hair is brown in the books. Emma Watson's hair could be described as light golden brown or as dark honey/caramel blonde. In the film of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Hermione's hair is especially blonde, because Emma Watson had dyed it that way for Ballet Shoes.
  • A mild example; Tonks can change her hair at will and usually favors it pink in the books. In the film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix its mostly purple (but turns red when she gets angry, and white when she apparates), which is only at the start of the book. The reason for the change was because pink was already associated with Umbridge in the film.
  • Luna Lovegood's hair is described as "dirty-blonde" in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In the movies it is platinum blonde.
  • Dudley Dursley went from blond in the books (possibly to distinguish him from Harry) to dark-brown/black in the films.
  • Aunt Petunia's hair is also changed from blonde to dark brown.
  • Young James Potter has brown hair in the fifth movie.
  • Neville Longbottom is supposed to be blond according to Word of God, but this was never mentioned in the books. Thus he was cast as a brunet in the movies, which seems to be the dominant mental image fans all have of him. He was also supposed to be short and chubby - then Matthew Lewis shed his puppy fat and made like a beanstalk....
  • Minerva McGonagall is introduced as black-haired in the books, but is portrayed by Maggie Smith and her natural greying blond hair. We must assume that her students are even more dreadful in the films.
  • Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody has solid gray hair in the books, in the films he has graying strawberry blond hair.
  • Horace Slughorn is strawberry blond in flashbacks to him as a younger man in Half Blood Prince, but his younger self is black haired in the film.
  • Cormac MacLaggen is the other way around; black haired in the books and blond in the films.
  • Firenze the centaur, described in the book as blond with a palomino body (i.e. quite light overall) becomes pitch-black in the movie. This is probably because blond hair is harder to animate with computer graphics.
  • In the Harry Potter games for Game Boy Color, Professor Sprout is a redhead and her hairstyle is different from other adaptations.
  • All three of the Dumbledore siblings got changed to brunettes. Albus and Aberforth are both described as redheads but are played by the brown haired Jude Law and Richard Coyle in the Fantastic Beasts series. The published screenplay even describes Albus as having red hair. Ariana was changed from blonde to brunette all the way back in Deathly Hallows: Part II. However, her actor (whose name is unknown) from the second Fantastic Beasts was blonde but she didn’t make it into the final product.
  • Barty Crouch Jr. is described in the book as having straw-colored hair, but David Tennant keeps his natural dark brown hair.
  • Seamus Finnigan has sandy blond hair in the books and dark brown hair in the films.
  • Penelope Clearwater has dark curly hair in the books and straight blonde hair in the films.
  • Narcissa Malfoy is fully blond in the books, but has a strange combination of blond and black hair in the films (specifically, the top of her hair is black, while the strands that hang loose are blond). Helen McCrory was fully blond when she was first seen on set, as well, but it did not take off. This actually ended up giving a clever visual exposition, as it signifies her connection to the Black and Malfoy families.note 

    Eye Color 
  • Ron Weasley's eyes are blue while Rupert Grint's eyes are a blueish green.
  • Ginny Weasley's eyes are described as brown in the books while they are Bonnie Wright's natural blue in the films.
  • Young Lily Potter's eyes are brown in The Prince's Tale during Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, despite the adult actress having blue eyes. In other words, Lily and Harry have both had an Adaptation Dye Job, and Lily had one twice.
  • While Lord Voldemort's eyes are mentioned to be red in the books, Ralph Fiennes' natural blue eyes are used in the films. This was done because the filmmakers believed that "if you don't leave in a huge part of the human in him, he's not going to scare you."

    Both 
  • Harry Potter's eye and hair colour are changed for the films:
    • His eye colour changes from green in the books to blue in the films. Daniel Radcliffe's natural eye colour is blue and they tried to give him green contacts to match the books' description of Harry, but they were too uncomfortable for him to wear. If you notice, Harry has green eyes in the scene at the Hogsmeade station in the ending, because that was the first scene shot and Radcliffe used green contacts then. The change doesn't affect the books' mentions of him sharing his mother's eyes, as the actress who played her also has blue eyes (though not the one playing her younger self, who has brown).
    • Harry's black hair colour is changed to Radcliffe's dark brown.

    Other 
  • A number of dress robes changed color and design from the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to the film of The Goblet of Fire, most glaringly Hermione's periwinkle blue dress becomes pink (because the costumers thought blue didn't look good on Emma Watson), Harry's bottle green dress robes become black with a white collared shirt, Ron's maroon velvet robes trimmed in lace become multicolored brown with pinkish lace, an off-white frilled shirt and a fraying green bowtie, Parvati went from wearing just pink to wearing orange, and Padma went from wearing turquoise to pink.

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