Katie Leung on her BAFTA award, acting, and “One Child”

Last week, we revealed that Katie Leung (Cho Chang) had been chosen by BAFTA as a 2014 Breakthrough Brit. In a new interview with The Daily Record, Katie discusses receiving the award, acting, and her upcoming role in One Child.

On her choice to pursue acting as a career, Katie said,

I wasn’t getting any auditions to start with, and also, I just wasn’t sure whether I was right for this kind of career.

I fell into Harry Potter, and I was just lacking in confidence. I went into photography and did that for four years, which I still love and am passionate about, but I just happened to get this part in a play at the Young Vic, and that kind of set it all off again.

She further stated,

I fell in love with being on stage and just gave it a shot, and now being at drama school I know I’m making the right decision.

On receiving the BAFTA award, she said,

It feels amazing. I’ve known about it for a month but couldn’t tell anyone – it was a bit like when I got the role of Cho Chang and couldn’t tell anyone. It’s a great honour. I’m really grateful.

In the past decade, I wouldn’t say I’ve done a considerable amount of work; it’s just that I’ve been lucky to get the opportunity to have done quite a few gritty interesting roles, such as Ying in Run and Mei in One Child. It’s great for knowing that I’ve made the right decision in choosing the right roles as well.

Katie also commented on the way that being surrounded by highly trained actors on Potter made her feel insecure and what she has learned since:

Being surrounded by actors who had trained, I felt [like] such an amateur because some people try [to] get away with not training, and I think when I was younger I felt like that was the case.

I thought I didn’t need to train because I was already taking part in something that was so huge, and only better things could come of it.

That’s not the case at all. Having trained now and coming into the last year of my degree, I see the benefits and the difference it has made. It requires craft; you can’t learn without training.

She also revealed how relieved she was to be able to settle into drama school without any fuss:

Maybe for the first few hours, people would say, ‘I’ve seen you somewhere before,’ but after that, I was like anyone else, and they have been so supportive. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.

Finally, Katie shared more about her upcoming role in the two-part drama One Child:

It’s about a girl who is adopted at birth by Anglo-American parents, and it’s down to circumstances around the one[-]child policy, which was in place in China in 1970. Because girls are less desirable and not able to support their parents the way boys are, she, like many other girls, was adopted.

She is asked to go back to China to save her brother from execution because he has been convicted of a murder he didn’t commit. It’s down to corruption in the government and the connections you have and the divide between rich people and those in poverty. It’s very dramatic.

She further said,

This is a very poignant story coming out at an interesting time.

Read the full interview here, and find out more about the BAFTA Breakthrough Brits here.

Congratulations once again to Katie on this wonderful award and fantastic achievement.

One Child is due to air on November 28 and 29. Are you looking forward to watching One Child? Let us know!