Noma Dumezweni Gives Touching Interview on Making It to Broadway

by · April 28, 2018

Get your tissues ready, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child fans! Noma Dumezweni (Cursed Child’s Hermione Granger) gave a passionate and moving interview about the play opening up on Broadway. After an award-winning run at the Palace Theatre in London, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has arrived on Broadway, bringing with it some members of the original cast!

From the beginning of the interview, after the actress is asked what being on Broadway means to her, it is clear that this experience is of incredible significance. Dumezweni expands on why this is, discussing how, as a child, she expected less from herself and how she felt society thought the same way.

Dumezweni makes a particular point about how this was fueled by being a refugee child and not seeing people who looked like her in old Hollywood movies. Dumezweni was born in Swaziland, but moved to the UK when she was eight as a refugee alongside her mother and sister.

That’s who’s crying right now, because I think that’s just what’s hit me. One of the things that was brilliant for me was that I found acting and I found my tribe and I found people I could play with. I never ever thought it as a child… The representation I was given didn’t have me in the picture. And now you have me sitting in front of you and I just want to burst into tears because I am on Broadway.

After such a whirlwind experience since being cast in Cursed Child, Dumezweni has one piece of advice:

I’ve said it to other people, I’ve said it to young actors: Don’t limit yourself. You just never know when something’s going to happen.

Sounds like good advice for us all! Thankfully, no such limitations occurred to prevent Dumezweni from winning the role of Hermione. In fact, Dumezweni has already been nominated for her work on the Broadway production!

From one Hermione to another, Emma Watson sent her admiration to Dumezweni after watching the interview!

 

 

But in the end, Dumezweni summed it up simply.

It’s amazing, it’s humbling, its extraordinary, and I can’t take anything for granted.

You can watch the full interview below!

 

 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is playing at the Lyric Theatre now! You can check out other interviews with Cursed Child cast members on Twitter.