Freddie Stroma Talks “UnREAL”, Life After “Potter”

If any of you have been watching Lifetime’s UnREAL this summer, you’ve probably recognized a familiar face – Freddie Stroma, whom most Potter fans know better as Cormac McLaggen (and the best part of the sixth movie, if you ask me). If you haven’t been watching, UnREAL is well worth checking out – it’s a critically acclaimed dramatization of what goes happens on and off screen during the production of reality television shows like The Bachelor. The show’s first season ended earlier this week, and Freddie sat down with MTV to discuss the show, his character Adam, and of course, life after Potter.

MTV started out by going after the elephant in the room, asking what it’s like to be a part of a small-screen hit like UnREAL after being a part of huge productions like Harry Potter and Pitch Perfect:

I mean, it’s a different thing. Having a smaller role in one of the bigger budget movies is… it’s fun to be part of something that’s that size and has that much love around the world, but it is very enjoyable to have a much bigger role. You can kind of have more influence on the piece.

They also asked the heavy-hitting question – does Stroma think there is more to Cormac than just “the guy who tried to mack on Hermione”? Not really, as it turns out!

I don’t think he was misunderstood at all. It’s funny because there are different [H]ouses, and at the end of the day he’s a Gryffindor, but he’s probably the worst side of Gryffindor that you can have… he’s a bit arrogant about the talent he has. I don’t think he’s really misunderstood; I think he’s very confident and really egoistical.

The interview also covers the fact that, despite UnREAL receiving critical acclaim, Stroma might not return for Season 2. When asked if he was considering returning, or if he’d want the show to keep its current format, Stroma replied,

I don’t really know. At the moment, they still don’t really know what they’re doing yet. They’re juggling a bunch of ideas in the air, [but] I think it will be good to try different shows. I don’t know if I’d like it going outside of the romance reality shows because I think the romance is so cheesy, and there’s so much material there… It’s very difficult to know where they’d want to go [-] whether it’s having a whole other season with everyone back again or whether you think changing it up again is better — I’m not really sure. I’d have to see. Or they could to do a ‘Big Brother’ or they could do like a ‘Survivor’ or one of those.

If he does decide to return to UnREAL, there have already been hints of a direction the show could take – a spin-off for his character Adam called Royal Renovations, which would follow Adam and the winner of the current show-within-a-show Everlasting fixing up a winery. The funny thing is, Adam’s character isn’t royal (or is he?) – he just has a British accent. Here’s Freddie’s take on the attractiveness of British accents and America’s obsession with them:

[T]here’s actually a line — I guess I can’t say exactly, but there’s a line [in the finale] that addresses exactly what you’re saying; he makes a joke about it. People have said, ‘oh, well, Americans love the British accent,’ but I haven’t really experienced it myself. I’ve always said [that] I think the Australians and the Irish sound way cooler. I think they’ve just come out of a bar fight, and they’re just these awesome manly men, and I always find I sound more like a math teacher.

The interview also addresses, of course, if Freddie’s views on reality television have changed since he became a part of UnREAL.

You know what’s funny, I don’t really watch reality TV shows — [but] the one that I did watch was ‘Big Brother’ in England, years back now, five or ten years ago. I think at the time it all looked pretty real to me, but… not only doing ‘UnREAL’ but also acting in general, you start to realize that certain cuts between certain takes… they don’t add up. And then you start to realize, certain reactions look pretty fake.

I think it’s harder in ‘Big Brother’ to do that because you can’t ask certain questions to get a rise out of someone and cut that reaction and put it somewhere else because they’re on their own in there. But you can definitely have someone say something and then cut to a reaction from someone else earlier in the day and then put it in and try to convey that they’re upset or whatever. I think ‘Big Brother’ is harder to fake, but you can still do it.

Be sure to read the full interview for more of Freddie’s thoughts on UnREAL. Whether or not he returns to the show, we’ll be excited to see what he does next!