Bonnie Wright Is Making an Environmental Monster Movie

In a recent interview with the Tab, Bonnie Wright spoke about her time on the Harry Potter films, her move into directing and producing, and her commitment to environmentalism.

When asked about her fondest memory from working on the Harry Potter films, Wright thought back to her first day on set.

My first day on set […] was at Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross. It was such a new world that I was stepping into. I mean, I didn’t know anything technically that was happening before me. I didn’t know what we were meant to do, or where we were meant to stand and how we were meant to be.

Wright also reflected on the warmth and respect she felt on the set of Harry Potter.

Even from that moment it was such a warm environment to be in. It was so welcoming and I was made to feel like I knew what I was doing and not patronised. And I think that was a good thing for all of us. We were all so young and yet we were respected in the fact that we were acting and working too. I think that really enabled us to grow into ourselves and be confident.

After the films were over, Wright was left with a strange feeling.

I guess it was such a family on the film sets. […] When we really did never go back, it was a strange sort of reality that it was over.

Since her time on Harry Potter, Wright has moved into directing and producing.

Directing and producing my own films suits me quite well; I’m not very good at sitting still and waiting for things to happen. So I like independent film because you very much have to take on a producer role in order to make it happen.

The Tab also asked Wright about her role as a self-described “Environmentalist for the Oceans.”

I’ve always loved the ocean as an environment. I’ve pondered a lot of my ideas by the sea. There’s something, like the colour and changing tides, something about it that means it is so important to so many people. And where I live now I surf a lot, so have seen first-handedly seen [sic] the amount of plastic sadly floating in our oceans and littering our beaches. Even more so when you travel you see just how inundated with waste we really are. […] I think for me, it’s something I believe we can actually do something about. There are sadly so many causes in this world that we’re paralysed in helping – like a civil war in a country or people being forced out of their homes – there’s only so much we can do. I mean, we can donate for aid but we can’t personally change those things. Whereas single-use plastic and protecting our oceans we can.

Wright also spoke about the intersection between filmmaking and environmentalism, discussing an upcoming project.

It’s my first feature film that hopefully I’m going to make at the end of this year. That’s all about pollution, but in a very different space [from] the ocean. It’s going to be a thriller, monster movie.

You can read the full interview here.