UPDATED: Harry Melling discusses his stage career, “The Angry Brigade”
UPDATE Mar. 30: It has recently been announced that the actor, who will be attending MuggleNet Live! on April 18, will take to the stage again for the London transfer of The Angry Brigade at the Rose Theatre next month.
Melling will reprise his role in James Graham’s 1970s-set thriller, which plays at the Shepherd’s Bush venue from 30 April to 13 June. You can purchase tickets by clicking here.
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Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley) has embarked on an impressive stage career in recent years. In a new interview with The Stage, the actor talks about his role in The Angry Brigade and discusses why he wanted to undertake formal acting training.
Talking about his role in The Angry Brigade, Melling said,
I play lots of different people, which is something I’ve never done before. It’s something that terrified me because I liked the idea of hanging on to one person and making sure that story is charted throughout. If you’re playing lots of different people, you’re juggling a lot of different balls. Sometimes, I feel that when you watch that style of acting, you see the skill of the actor as opposed to the character, so in that respect it’s a very interesting challenge to try to make each character as defined as the others.
The actor also wrote his own one-man show, Peddling, which he performed in last year. Discussing the process, he said,
I just knew that I had to write this story. It wasn’t necessarily that I wanted to be a writer, but I knew I had to try to tell the story of this kid I met when I was very young. But from that experience I’ve got another idea that I want to do, so it’s just a question of finding the time. It’s something that a lot of my actor friends are doing, and it’s a welcome change of pace. Having that power is the crucial thing. It’s completely yours, and you can make the choices you want because you’re the person at the helm. It’s a very different responsibility to acting, which I like.
Melling happens to come from an acting family, so when asked if it felt inevitable to him in some respects that he would embark down the same path, he said,
I grew up watching theatre – that was the thing I loved, and I knew, I wanted to do it. I got into it very young, and because I’d been introduced to it at such an early age, I kind of latched on to it. I’ve been very lucky, really, in having access to it so young. I’d like to think that had I not been within the same family that I’d still find it, but who knows?
Melling also revealed the reason why he decided to seek formal actor training at a drama school, saying,
I really wanted to bridge that gap between being a child actor and an actor. I’m not saying drama school is always the way to do that, but it made sense for me. I always wanted to be as good as I could be, and I think drama school teaches you how to fall on your arse, which is exactly what I needed.
You can see Melling in The Angry Brigade at the Watford Palace Theater from October 21-25. Check out a trailer for the production below.
For more details, click here. Have you been to see Melling on stage in the past few years, or do you plan on going to see him in The Angry Brigade? Let us know in the comments.
