Sunday Mirror:
Interview with Devon Murray

It seems 12-year-old Devon Murray was born to play a part in the new Harry Potter movie. His parents, Michael and Fidelma, thought they'd never have children then, hey presto, he appeared. Devon has become the apple of their eye. This is not his first film either — he had a part in Angela's Ashes starring Robert Carlyle, This Is My Father and Yesterday's Children.

The family live in a four-bedroom house in a small village near Dublin, so Devon can be near his two horses — paid for thanks to those roles. Not that he's had much time to enjoy them this year — he has spent seven months at secret locations filming Harry Potter. "He was born to act," says Fidelma. "He just turns it on so easily. He's always had plenty of confidence. I don't know where he got it from, maybe being an only child has helped him.

"Where we live people have at least four children, so just to be seen in Ireland you have to shout louder, and Devon probably decided he wasn't going to be left out. We sent him to a stage school on Saturday mornings when he was little and he loved it, went to auditions and always got the part."

Now comes his biggest part yet — as loveable Seamus in £100 million movie of Harry Potter, alongside the likes of Richard Harris, John Cleese, Alan Rickman and Dame Maggie Smith.

"I'm one of Harry's best friends — the kids who do everything they're supposed to and don't get into trouble," says Devon, his high chirpy voice just about to break. "But my character's a bit stupid, he can't get anything right, especially magic homework. If he's supposed to be doing spells he points at the wrong thing, his wand goes haywire and everything blows up on him. In one scene he has to make a feather rise and the whole thing explodes."

"My favourite bit is when someone puts a curse on Neville Longbottom and he can't walk. I've got to sort it out and he says, 'That's all I need, you to set my kneecaps on fire.' I walk away, he falls down and we all laugh. I also loved it when we did a scene in the rowing boat in a lake and it all went wrong. We nearly all fell out and I was desperate not to fall into the water because it was full of blue dye to make it look shiny and sparkling."

Work on the sequel — Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets — is due to start as early as next month [October 2001], and Devon's part is set to become more prominent. "It's great being signed up for the second film, but I hope they have better menus next time," he says. "The food in the five-star hotels was horrible — carrots, parsnips, and cabbage — what adults call 'good food'. So we begged them to put me in a three-star hotel right next to McDonald's." The luxury limousine they sent for him also made him feel car sick, so they changed it to a Lexus.

Fidelma says: "We're all down-to-earth people here. Devon's made a lot of money on Harry Potter, but we've put it in a separate account where he can't get at it for six years. My life is more difficult now, being away from home for so long — to promote the film we're going all over the world — and Michael gets very lonely. I don't dare think about all this getting any bigger — that would be weird, already so many people in our village know who he is. Though for Devon's sake I'd like it to go far."

So how has it felt for such a down-to-earth family to meet the big stars? "At first we were intimidated," admits Fidelma. "But they were so nice that I soon relaxed. They got on great with the children and treated them like colleagues. I was most frightened about meeting Richard Harris and Alan Rickman — I thought they'd be really austere and just couldn't believe how nice they were. Richard Harris was talking about his home in Limerick and Alan Rickman is a real gentleman — he'll always hold the door open for you."

"Devon and Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, became best friends — laughing and joking. I think it will be a fantastic film," says Fidelma. "When I saw the clips I was amazed at how brilliant the children were and it just looked terrific. But none of it has changed Devon at all. We're very ordinary ourselves, so we'd never let him be any different."

Devon agrees: "Doing Harry didn't change me, I'm still plain old Devon. I love horse riding, playing my computer, roller blades and skateboard." But there is one difference. "I'm a rich man now, I've got enough to buy a car." And you just know that it won't ever be a limo.

Sneak previews:

Robbie Coltrane plays half giant Hagrid the ground-keeper. He looks a bit like a biker, all that frizzy hair and beard. The Weasley boys have lots of fun blowing things up and flying around. The director got them to fly using a special hydraulic broomstick. It went really slowly on set, but when you see it on the film it's going really fast — they speeded it up using a computer. The goblins, who work in the bank, are really scary. They wear these weird rubbery masks with big noses and orange and black spots on them. If I hadn't known it was make-up, I'd have been frightened.

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