Sir John Hurt is etched into my memories most vividly as a wizard with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. His portrayal of the wise wand-maker ‘Gervaise Ollivander’ in the Harry Potter films brought him to the attention of a whole new generation. However his list of credits and achievements in the acting pantheon also include Alien, The Elephant Man and 1984.

In 2016, whilst shooting my first feature film ‘My Name is Lenny’, I had the opportunity to photograph John. I was told that at most I was likely to get ten minutes to photograph him.

I decided to shoot my subject against a hand-painted background, with some subtle pleating. The publicity team and I felt it would evoke a touch of John’s theatrical background and the timelessness of his work.

The lighting setup was a single speed-light into a medium sized umbrella left of the camera. Through diplomatic discussion with the necessary crew I was able to borrow a C-stand and a poly-board to use as fill on the other side. I tested the lighting setup with the help of a runner standing in for John and popped down a mark. I had with me four camera bodies, two to keep in sound blimps for shooting silently during takes and one for tethering to a computer, plus a redundancy. I set up in an unused corner of the set. This was to be my makeshift studio.

When the time came I introduced myself to John, the cameras sitting ready to go, but not in my hand. I knew I wouldn’t have much time to build rapport but I still made sure to shake his hand. As we walked over to the makeshift studio together I asked him how he was enjoying the shoot. We spoke briefly about our favourite London theatres. That was the first three minutes of our time gone, leaving about seven to shoot.

I picked up the camera to take a test shot, the flash didn’t fire. Dread started to creep in. On the outside I kept the conversation flowing whilst checking the hot-shoe. I fired another test. It still didn’t flash so I switched the radio trigger to my redundancy camera. It worked the first time. Thank goodness, ready to go, six minutes left! I asked John if he could take his mark, and instantly my subject transformed. I offered a little guidance as to what I was after, using what I was able to glean from shooting stills on set that morning as a starting place.

“In the last scene there was a line that made you chuckle, could you throw that line to the camera for me?...Great, perfect...” etc

Until that time I had never experienced having someone in front of the camera who was able to express so much range with so little direction. He was instantly expressive and emotive. It was a five-minute masterclass in acting. Then it was over. The lighting turnaround that had allowed our moment for stills was completed and John was shepherded back to set.

The RAW images were backed up straight away on to multiple hard drives. I returned to set to shoot stills coverage of the scenes being played out for the camera.

A few months later on the 25th January 2017, the sad news broke of Sir John Hurt’s passing. I felt like I had lost someone meaningful in my life, despite having only shared the briefest of moments with him. When I spoke to others who were deeply saddened by the news, I discovered that this was not unique to those that had met John, but was a universal feeling among those who had shared in his films.

He may not have been a wizard, but he did bring magic into our homes and our lives for decades and will do so for decades more.

‘My Name is Lenny’ featuring Sir John Hurt is now available to stream on Netflix.