One of the most memorable moments in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and the entire Harry Potter series involves a sad Hermione, a tired Harry, and a Nick Cave song, Showbiz reports.
No one was expecting the two friends to drop all of their worries about lost loved ones, Horcruxes, and Dark Lords to dance to the music of a haunting yet inspiring ballad from the king of emotive lyrics.
Daniel Radcliffe even admitted the scene is completely random during the recent Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special. Meanwhile, Emma Watson revealed that the dance was one of her favorite moments.
But how did a Nick Cave song land in a Harry Potter film?
Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and Daniel Radcliffe stand together at the UK premiere of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.' Grint wears a black suit and tie, Watson wears a white dress, and Radcliffe wears a grey suit.
Director David Yates said (per Insider), “Harry and Hermione’s relationship is about true friendship. We wanted to do a scene without words that kind of caught that relationship. There’s just something really tender and moving about seeing them trying to alleviate the pain by dancing.”
Besides dancing, the only way to alleviate pain is to listen to Nick Cave, “an artist whose work has been steeped in lechery, sin, and redemption, characteristics not necessarily associated with a holiday-season family blockbuster,” the LA Times wrote.
But how the song came to be in the film is a different story. It’s strange that a breakup influenced music supervisor Matt Biffa’s decision to add “O Children” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
“I was separating from my wife at the time,” Biffa told the LA Times. Biffa came across “O Children” in 2004 and “hoarded it.” He knew it “would be a great song for something, but I didn’t know what. I had forgotten all about it and started listening to it because I was splitting up from my wife. I was really terrified that we were going to hurt our little boys, who were 1 and 3 at the time. So it was like a love letter to my kids.
“There was something really uplifting about that ‘O Children,’ with lyrics like ‘rejoice / lift up your voice,’ and all that stuff. I was thinking of my kids. The lyrics are saying, ‘Forgive us for what we’ve done.’ It started out as a bit of fun, but then there’s weeping. It was horribly on the nose for me. At the same time, it was giving me hope. It’s not the same as writing a song for my children, but this is the closest I can get.”
