You were part of the biggest literary phenomenon of the Noughties. How did you cope with the attention?
Well, when we made “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” there was no guaranteed sequel. It wasn’t as huge to begin with, especially not as big as it is now. I’m lucky because I come from a quiet country town; I was born in Epsom (Surrey) and raised in Leatherhead. I just recently moved to Dorking. I was never treated differently. I have three older brothers who were a bit mean to me, as they wanted to be actors too. I have normal friends who have no interest in what I do, as I have no interest in what they do. We’d rather watch the cricket. I’ve also got great parents, people think that I must have had a pushy mother but she was the opposite, she wanted me to stay at school.

How did you get into acting and was it a childhood dream of yours?
I was always that sad kid sat in front of the mirror, imitating Jim Carey. I was always quite expressive and Mum thought the best thing to do was to put me in drama club after school. We did shows like “Bugsy Malone” and “Carousel”. The teacher twisted my mother’s arm to get me an agent and two weeks later I was doing a television advert.

How did you make the transition materialise from doing commercials to being part of one of the biggest film events in history?
After a few years of doing a bit of acting, I was told about these open auditions. I was a bit out of my element, everyone else knew about the book. They were asking what our favourite bits in the book were and the kid before me said, “I love the goblins and Gringotts” and I didn’t have an answer so I just said, “the same as him”. Chris Columbus who was the director of the first two films saw straight through me and I think he found some secret amusement in my response.

Did JK Rowling attend the auditions?
She wasn’t at the auditions but I’m sure she saw our takes before approving us. I didn’t meet her until half way through the first film.

The Harry Potter books had an international fan base before the films even came out. I imagine that every single kid who had read it wanted to be in it. How many people were you up against for Draco?
I didn’t count but probably a few thousand. I actually went for the part of Harry the first four times and then Ron before Draco, so I had about eight auditions in total.

Did you realise what the role meant at the time, and how it was going to change your life from then on?
I didn’t realise what a massive success it was going to be. I just enjoyed acting so the job could have been a local play and I’d have been happy. Money wasn’t something that I, as an 11-year-old, really cared about, and I enjoyed school, so I wasn’t trying to avoid that.

words and interview: CLEO DAVIS

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