I went backstage at Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, where Broadway stars Aidan Close and Emmet Smith shared behind-the-scenes stories, hilarious mishaps, and what it’s like bringing Scorpius and Albus to life every night.

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Serving as a canonical epilogue to the series, it picks up right where the seventh novel leaves off. We get to reunite with characters like Harry, Ron, Hermione, McGonagall, and more, and the illusions and visual effects truly immerse you in the world.

Upon my recent visit to the Lyric Theatre, I had the treat of getting a backstage tour from Aidan Close and Emmet Smith, who are making their Broadway debuts playing Draco and Harry's sons, Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter.

From finding Easter eggs on the stage, to learning about how the water drains from the lake scenes, it was mind-blowing to see the level of detail that goes into pulling off a show of this scale.

Aidan and Emmet are two of the sweetest people you could meet, and we had a hilarious chat about behind-the-scenes stories from Cursed Child, their favorite moments in the show, and how their characters' friendship translates offstage.

(Note: This interview has been slightly modified for length and clarity.)

Aidan: I started doing theater when I was around seven or eight, doing Shakespeare in Maryland. My older brother was doing it, and my parents needed somewhere to put me on Wednesdays, so they put me into this after-school Shakespeare program.

BuzzFeed: Casual after-school Shakespeare.

Aidan: Casual, right? We'd do all these inventive games, like pretending we were the elements, and playing with sanguine and melancholy, and all these things I wouldn't understand until I was older. We'd put on shows, and I was always in the chorus with a bunch of other 7-year-olds trying to remember our lines. 

There's one memory I have of running onstage as a messenger, saying one line, and just immediately running off. (Laughs) 

Aidan: Like actual facepalm. And I'm sure that muscle is still in me today. But that's how it all started.

Emmet: I have a similar story. My brother, Ian, and I did almost everything together. He started playing guitar, so I started playing drums. My dad's a music director for the theater, and my brother loved it too, so I was around theater a lot. I think for a while that drove me toward it, and then eventually, in my tweenhood, drove me away from it. 

But in my sophomore year of high school, I visited Ian at Ithaca College where he was going for musical theater. I saw the program and thought, "This looks so fun! I want to do this." So I ended up also going to school for theater.

Aidan: What's cool is that when we were rehearsing for the Cursed Child tour two summers ago, we'd come to the Lyric Theatre to learn how to do things like fly, work on the turntable, and a myriad of other magical things. 

This building is completely bespoke, and beautiful, and custom-built for this Harry Potter world. Even right now, we're talking in a vibrant Slytherin-green room. This whole theater has been renovated to make you feel like you're stepping into a magical school.

Emmet: I actually remember the last morning Aidan and I spent here before going to Chicago to open the tour. I walked out of this theater with him, wondering if we'll ever be back. 

Aidan: Little did we know! To add to that, while on tour, we spent a year with a company that was a mix of Harry Potter veterans and newbies, and we were working on a new version of the show. So it feels surreal to be making our Broadway debuts in a show that we've really put our 10,000 hours into.

Emmet: Our opening night at the Lyric Theatre was our fourth opening of the show in a new space. I can remember that night in a way that I can't remember my very first performance. The very first time I did the show, I totally blacked out. 

With our Broadway debuts, the dial was turned to 11, but we had our feet under us a bit.

Emmet: To refuse to be indifferent. We've done the show hundreds of times, and there has never been a day when he has been passive or indifferent about clocking in and performing.

Also, finding ways to see other people's work, lift them up, and let them know that you saw their moments. For example, Tom has a moment with an actor, Isaac, and he'll find them and be like, "So how do we make this moment even better?" 

They have maybe a two-second exchange on stage, but he's so invested. I think that's really inspiring. He knows that for someone in the audience, it's their first time seeing the show, so there's always something new to discover.

Aidan: I don't know if I can say it any better. At every show, Tom and I have some father-son bonding time while Emmet's running around onstage with a wand. We get to talk about how our day is going and what we're working on for this show. 

Every moment we have in the show, I feel the same as Emmet said — refuse to be indifferent. Every moment is alive, right? It can always be made better.

Let it be known that the lights in the room just dimmed.

Emmet: The interview just got very serious.

Aidan: That's a really good question. I'll say that I felt our energies clicked right away. Recently, Emmet was over at my house celebrating my birthday, and a good friend remarked, "You guys are so similar." That surprised me because in this building, I've always thought we are so different. But pretty immediately, we realized our similarities and differences complemented each other.

On tour, we had a third musketeer, Julia Nightingale, who played Delphi. We lived in LA together, all three of us, and we found that our friendship living together mirrored our friendship onstage. I was injured for two months, but I was still living with them. They'd leave for the show, and I'd be like a dog, being in the same spot when they got back, like, "How's the show? Let's hang out!"

It feels almost impossible to sum up. The amount of love I have is — well, I've just seen Romeo and Juliet, so I'll quote it, "As infinite and boundless as the sea; the more I give the more I have."

I don't know if I've ever been as grateful for a partner in crime, and we're a perfect yin and yang.

Emmet: I usually say one of the final two scenes, because all the illusion stuff is done, and you can just act, which is nice. But right now I'm having a moment with the library scene because it has everything.

New York's hottest club is the library scene. (We laugh.) There's an apology; there's a fight. That scene is its whole own play. It's just so satisfying, and it's the white whale — you can never quite get it perfect.

There's so much going on — Scorpius is spewing all sorts of information, it's really high stakes, we can't be overheard, and we are fighting over a very important object. 

In that scene, we have a moment when we're hidden under the invisibility cloak. Aidan and I usually have a couple of seconds to talk about what has just happened.

Aidan: Or we'll say something really profoundly stupid to make each other laugh.

Emmet: Sometimes we'll be like, "That was really beautiful," and sometimes it'll be a fart joke.

Aidan: Emmet has mentioned all my favorite scenes, so I'll just add this — the top of Act 2 is not one to miss.

Aidan: Everything is perfect. No, there's something improvised all the time.

Aidan: What's so wonderful about this show is that you have to stay on your toes. One of my favorite examples — I won't spoil anything, but there's a moment in the play where we have to jump off a high-moving vehicle. There was a time when it just couldn't happen. There was someone in the wings, arms above their head, you know, the classic symbol of "do not jump." So we're screaming in character, and then Emmet just carefully climbs down and walks off. 

Then I carefully climb down, walk off, and slip and fall. (Laughs.)

Emmet: You have to find a way to make the words work, because they're often the cue for the next part. If you say Incendio and fire doesn't happen, or if you say Engorgio and nothing gets bigger, yeah, it doesn't make sense, but you have to find ways to sell things. 

I try to find one moment every show that I am disarmed by something wrong, because that's where a lot of life happens. If you can find one surprise and respond to it, that's a successful show.

Emmet: Oh, I'll be playing Albus Dumbledore. (Aidan cracks up.) I'll never leave this place. 

But definitely the people. Something about this show and the intergenerationality —

Emmet: — brings a very specific love, which is also a quote from the show. You have to literally depend on each other for your safety and for the heart of the show to keep beating. The bonds we form onstage translate to offstage connections.

We just lost a dear member of the company family [rest in peace, Ebony Blake], and I witnessed the incredible amount of love, memories, and life that were shared among a group of co-workers. She was able to instill that in all of us.

Aidan: It's the people. Any other answer would be secondary to that.

Catch Aidan and Emmet in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Lyric Theatre.