Harry Melling on Starring with Robert Pattinson in “The Devil All the Time”, Moving Past Dudley Dursley

While Harry Melling might be known for his portrayal of Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter film series, the actor has opened up about shedding that image for his role in The Devil All the Time, which also stars fellow Harry Potter alumnus Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory).

In an interview with Metro, Melling discussed his role in the dark new mystery film. While he and Pattinson didn’t share much time on the set of The Devil All the Time, Melling explained that they didn’t meet each other while working on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire either.

We did a film in Belfast, [2016’s] The Lost City [o]f Z; that was the first time we met. I’m a huge fan of Rob; he’s an amazing actor, and I think this year has been such an amazing year for him. It’s always going to be a joy if you’re lucky enough to be in a film with him.

Melling’s character in The Devil All the Time is, according to Metro, “a religious leader in World War II-era Knockemstiff, Ohio, who’s reeled into darkness by sinister characters,” and the film was adapted from the novel by Donald Ray Pollock.

Melling expressed that he enjoyed playing the villainous role:

I think it’s always fun to play someone who is complicated. We all are. It’s always fun to play someone [who] has a lot going on, many shades of things. When you have that living underneath you, you can have fun.

On his role as Dudley, Melling added that he has found it “interesting” to make adjustments in his career path as an actor.

It was interesting growing up with the Harry Potter films and wanting to go down the theatre route and making that adjustment and making the adjustment again to more film.

He also stated that he finds that there “is a lot of ammunition in that as an actor” not to look exactly like the same person he was as a child.

One thing to which Melling did have to adjust for The Devil All the Time, according to Digital Spy, was a scene where he had to have real spiders dumped on his face.

I cannot tell you – when you’re doing a big scene like that, you’ve got a lot to say… dumping spiders on your face is such a secondary concern. It really is!

While we find this a little hard to believe, Melling added that he was more concerned with getting the scene right.

That was my main concern, making sure that room felt alive in that way, and to be honest, dumping some spiders – that apparently do not bite, so I was told – was a real secondary thing.

Looking to watch Harry Melling and Robert Pattinson in The Devil All the Time? The film is available on Netflix now!