Domhnall Gleeson on “Harry Potter” Pressure

When a widely popular book is adapted into a movie, the actors know that countless fans have pinned high hopes on their performances. We know working on the set of Harry Potter is a stressful job: Daniel Radcliffe has been very open about his drinking problem due to the pressure, and Emma Watson has talked about her fears as a child star. It’s no surprise, then, that Domhnall Gleeson, who played Bill Weasley, was anxious on his first day of filming for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.  Gleeson told the Independent that he was completely starstruck and made some embarrassing mistakes due to his nervousness:

I was a Harry Potter fan, but on my first day on set on Deathly Hallows, I had a horrible day, just a terrible day. There were 300 people on the set. It was absolutely nuts; I went Australian on the accent instead of English. I kind of panicked; I met these amazing people whose work I had watched and loved for years, and the pressure got to me. I didn’t handle it well, the first day, but after that I got better, and I learnt that I’m going to be under similar pressure in the future, but I’m not going to let it get to me.

Gleeson has certainly grown quite a bit since his first steps on Harry Potter, taking on roles in Star Wars, The Revenant, and the upcoming A.A. Milne biopic Goodbye Christopher Robin. His next upcoming film is American Made, in which he plays CIA operative Monty Schafer. Tom Cruise stars alongside him as Barry Seal, a TWA pilot who simultaneously acts as a mole for the CIA and smuggles cocaine for the Medellín cartel. After such an incredible series of roles, we’re sure Gleeson hardly gets first-day jitters anymore!

American Made comes out on September 29, and Goodbye Christopher Robin hits theaters October 13. Make sure to mark your calendars!