The love-triangle between three cast members of Harry Potter. Photo / Supplied
The love-triangle between three cast members of Harry Potter. Photo / Supplied
It was the children's film franchise that converted the world into lovers of magic, but behind the scenes there is always drama when you go looking for it.
The franchise went on to have some of the biggest names in cinema on their screens; Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Helena BonhamCarter, Emma Thompson and even Kenneth Branagh.
However, it was those last three names who were part of a huge love-triangle affair in the '90s.
That would have made for a very awkward encounter on set, no?
As you may or may not know, Emma Thompson – who played Professor Trelawny – and Kenneth Branagh – who played Gilderoy Lockhart – were married in 1989, two years after they first met.
They were known as the golden couple of British cinema in the early '90s, fondly nicknamed "Ken and Em".
Enter the iconic 1994 movie Frankenstein, where Branagh directed, and starred alongside Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter), and you have yourself a huge affair.
Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh at the 18th Annual LA Film Critics Association Awards, Bel Age Hotel, West Hollywood. Photo / Getty Images
Branagh played Victor, with Carter playing his love-interest Elizabeth with their on-screen romance spilling into a real-life relationship which lasted until 1999.
A devastated Thompson ended up finding out about the couple's affair, divorcing from Branagh in 1995.
Famously, Thompson used her heartbreak from their affair to play her fantastic role in the 2003 film Love Actually (where she starred alongside Alan Rickman – Snape in Harry Potter).
In the film, she suspects her husband is being unfaithful.
"I've had so much bloody practice at crying in a bedroom, then having to go out and be cheerful, gathering up the pieces of my heart and putting them in a drawer," she said to The Sunday Times.
The actress revealed why she thinks the heartbreaking scene in the movie resonates with so many people in a recent interview withBBC Radio 1.
"I think it's just because everybody's been through something like it," Thompson said about the famous crying scene from the 2003 movie.
"I think what really gets to them though is that she has to pull herself together. It's not that she's upset … it's the fact she has to pull herself together and that's Richard's (Curtis) writing.
"You've got to carry on and just be normal, especially for your children."
She also confessed that she had since "made her peace" with Carter, describing her as a "wonderful woman".
"You can't hold on to anything like that," Thompson, 61, said to The Sunday Times. "It's pointless. I haven't got the energy for it."
British actress Helena Bonham Carter with actor and director Kenneth Branagh, circa 1998. Photo / Getty Images
In theBBC Radio 1 interview, Thompson was touched when she was told that Game of Thrones star Kit Harington considers the scene his favourite moment in any film.
"She goes into her room and she cries, she settles herself, and she comes back," Harington said in a 2016 interview.
"And by the time she'd left the room and come back, everything in her life has changed, but nothing has at the same time. It's beautiful acting."
The actress even acknowledged how similar she is to Carter.
"Oh we are. Being slightly mad and a bit fashion-challenged. Perhaps that's why Ken loved us both. She's a wonderful woman, Helena."
Branagh debuted in the franchise in the second instalment (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002).
