Matthew Lewis Is a Troublemaker, and Tom Felton Ships Drarry – Wizard World Portland and ECCC Roundup!
Perhaps one of the most joyful times in a Potter fan’s life is getting to meet actors from the films. There are many opportunities for this to happen, with conventions like Wizard World and the various Comic-Con’s taking place all over the United States. We had the honor of attending both the Wizard World Portland convention in February, where we met up with Matthew Lewis, as well as Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle in March, where we saw Tom Felton. In addition to loving both of these talented actors even more than we already did, we learned some things we didn’t know about their time on the Potter set and about their upcoming projects.
Having played Neville Longbottom throughout the entire Potter series, in real life the actor might surprise fans who are meeting him for the first time. Matthew Lewis is incredibly tall and abundantly charming, catching fangirls and fanboys throughout the entire convention off their guard. Matt had a slight hiccup in his travels to Portland and was forced to wear the same outfit for a second day because his checked luggage ended up in Pittsburgh instead of Portland! That didn’t stop fans or MuggleNet staff from getting photos taken with the star after his panel, which lasted nearly an hour. He engaged with the audience on what felt like an intimate level, even though he was up on the stage and under the gaze of hot spotlights while fans taking a shot at asking questions were queuing up in the aisles.
Matt revealed that he was a bit of a troublemaker on the set of the Potter films, which doesn’t really surprise us all that much. He confessed to the audience that he took his false teeth and Neville’s costume from the final movie, covered in blood and dirt. Additionally, he also admitted to stealing, of all things, a bush from the set of Goblet of Fire. Not his wand, not the sword of Gryffindor … a bush.
Oh, Matt, you’re adorable.
He’d also be interested in reading the “further adventures” of Neville Longbottom, but he doesn’t think he would necessarily be involved, and would struggle to go back and find the character.
Whenever you play a character for a long period of time, it becomes difficult to keep motivation and to keep trying to find something new and to tell something new. Luckily with Neville, I had a really great story arc to cover and the evolution was something I really enjoyed portraying on-screen, but then I felt we really drew a line under it and the story for me personally as the actor and the story I wanted to tell was completed and being able to come away from that feeling like I’d done a job and telling a story, and inhabit completely drastically different characters from Neville and enjoy that process, I think it would be very difficult for me to go back.
He also revealed that he thought it was a shame to lose the scene from St. Mungo’s Hospital where readers of the books found out about Neville’s tragic backstory, stating that director David Yates had actually written the scene and kept telling him once a month that they were going to try film it, but it never happened.
I remember reading that and it was completely illuminating. It suddenly cast a light on so much of his history and his character and why he is as he is, why he’s so … you know, why he’s quite shy, why he’s quite introverted but also so fiercely loyal and courageous when it comes down to it, and why he believes in goodness and righteousness and I just thought that was such a powerful scene. I remember reading it and almost choking up for the character. It meant a lot to me as an actor to get that in. Not only for the character but also for me personally as an actor because to be able to get into that mindset and do that scene, it would have really helped me kick on for the next few movies with that as a platform. I know David Yates was really, really keen to get that in. It just got away from us, it just slipped away, we just never … I mean, the parents were cast, and we were hoping to get to it but we just couldn’t get around to it time-wise.
Check out the entire panel below, where he also reveals which Harry Potter character other than Neville he would play and where talks about his audiobook work!
The following weekend, we had an awesome time attending Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle, where the cosplay for all fandoms was off the charts! Our main draw for the convention however was the amazing Tom Felton, who charmed fans both in his panel and during his photo ops.
What we noticed during the panel is that we could probably start a drinking game based on the number of times Tom sweetly uses the endearing terms “darling” and “lovely” when answering questions from fans in the audience. Hosted by actress Clare Kramer, the panel was humorous and Tom had the audience eating from the palm of his hand! We’ve heard so much about his kindness and it was absolutely amazing to experience it person. We have a bit of a crush now, really.
Tom told us all about his new role in The Flash as Julian/Dr. Alchemy and how he binge-watched the show after accepting the role, although he didn’t know he was actually Dr. A until just before they shot the reveal.
I honestly wasn’t really looking to get involved in such a big chunk of work as the Flash, but like I said, I watched a few episodes and just got turned into one of those fanboys. I literally went around the Cortex taking pictures of myself next to the Flash suit and playing my guitar between scenes to the Flash suit. Everyone thinks I’m really weird.
He also told us that Julian would definitely be sorted into Slytherin, of course!
It turns out Tom has the same Muggle troubles as the rest of us when it comes to computers, especially when he’s trying to share his own music, which Clare called a “leisure activity”.
It’s one that I am desperately keen to share and pass on. I’m just, I’ve got so crap with computers over the years. I can’t figure out how to upload stuff onto various bits and pieces, to convert the m4 to the mp … what? It’s confusing! So, it’s not an excuse, but I have deep desire and passion to get it out there. In a weird way it’s quite tough to keep writing new songs if you haven’t really like, let go of the old ones, and it’s hard to let go of the old ones without releasing or sharing them.
Tom talked about his new film, Stratton.
It’s always been a dream of mine to be an MI-5 agent. I always wanted to be James Bond growing up. So this is as close as I’ve been so far. I’ve a gun issue. I haven’t seen that and to be honest with you, I semi-forgot that we even did it! You just reminded me. I haven’t seen it, I haven’t seen the trailer, I haven’t seen anything. It was a lot of fun, we were in various places across the country and yes it was my first time filming in England since Potter, so that was nice. I’ve literally revealed nothing over the last minute there.
When the fan revealed that he was in the trailer quite alot, Tom was tickled!
Is it? Alright! My mom and me will need to see that! Thank you! Stratton, coming out this year! Maybe.
Regarding the possibility of Harry and Draco getting together romantically, the crowd went wild when he revealed his stance.
Daniel and I have been getting in on for years. We kept it on the sly, because we didn’t want to turn on the light too early. Drarry, is that right? I’ve seen some rather horrendous pictures over the years, which Daniel and I definitely did not share with the world. My brother had it as his screen saver. It’s a beautiful thing. I celebrate love of all kinds, I don’t discriminate. [Crowd cheers] I mean, Drarry makes mores sense than Drapple, right. [Crowd cheers] See? Every time. I’m not getting it on with a fruit.
He also revealed what he would like to steal from the Potter set.
Radcliffe. We actually have an ongoing joke. The answer is no, of course I didn’t steal anything. I did borrow quite a bit for the next four years. It did get quite bad at one point where they actually had to have searchers on the vehicles leaving the studios to make sure no one was stealing anything. I had an ongoing joke with Daniel that I was going to tape him up, chuck him in the boot of the car, and gag him, and then let the security guy open it up and Radcliffe’s in there like [puts wrists together like they’re taped up and makes a muffled cry for help] but we never got around to it. He was up to it, he was up for it. Other than that, no. Someone tried to steal a Nimbus 2001 but I couldn’t possibly tell you who that is. It was me. I’m pretty sure I was the reason that they had to do the car search.
He also told a very funny story about working with the late Alan Rickman during the scene where they flee Hogwarts after Snape has killed Dumbledore.
He was a wonderful, wonderful man. It did take me more than six years to say anything to him, because he was bloody terrifying. It was like … [In a high, squeaky voice] Morning, Alan! [In Alan Rickman’s style of speach] Hello, boy. [Crowd laughs] He was brilliant. I’ve got a short one and a long one, but I’ll try to get through the long one, because I think it’s better. There’s this great scene in the sixth film where just after he’s knocked off Dumbledore, we all march down the Great Hall in a sort of like wing-like formation as if we’re sort of geese and the director David Yates says, “Get as close as you can to Alan, like your right up behind him so it looks like your trailing behind.” Now, Alan insisted on having this like 3 foot gown that swung behind him like a wedding dress. Straight away, I was aware that this was gonna be tight and it looked like my feet were gonna step on it, and he turned round before shooting and he said [in Alan Rickman’s style of speaking] “Don’t. Step. On my effing. Cloak.” Me and the Death Eaters were like “[makes funny, yet scared laughing noises], is he serious, he’s definitely serious. Don’t step on his cloak.” So my first take and I’m walking down, trying not to look at my feet and I’m just like keep walking really fast and lo and behold, like straight away, it’s attached to his neck, so, [motions to stepping on the cloak and Alan being yanked back] I ripped him down to the floor. I’m like, “This is so awkward.” Alan’s on the floor, Death Eaters are trying to get him up, he’s [making motions as if waving away all help], and he just didn’t say anything. He just looked at me and sort of walked off. Luckily, two takes later, one of the Death Eaters did exactly the same thing and Alan managed to sort of smile about it. He had an incredibly good sense of humor but an even better ability not to show it. He would just stay completely blank and you would be like, “That was a really funny joke but does he know he’s told a funny joke?”
Check out Tom’s panel below. Tom reveals what it was like to film his last scene as Draco, if he’s read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and how he felt about watching Emma’s new movie, Beauty and the Beast!
