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Tom Felton Shares Insights into the Film that Defined His Career and His Special Relationship with Emma Watson.
Profound Love for “Harry Potter”
No one loves “Harry Potter” more than Tom Felton. The 35-year-old actor may have lost his trademark blonde hair he once had while portraying Draco Malfoy in all 8 films, but he has never lost his passion for the wizarding world.
“I'm a passionate fan of 'Potter',” Tom answered in an interview with ELLE Australia. “Or rather Pottaahh,” he added, emphasizing the second syllable of “Potter” in a very Draco Malfoy manner. “The movies helped me rediscover the joy of reading. There were times, as I grew older, I found reading books less interesting, and then Potter helped me realize that you wouldn't be interesting if you didn't read books.”
The role in “Harry Potter” played a crucial role in Tom Felton's career. Although he had appeared in a few works before “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone”, it was only when he was chosen to play the haughty Slytherin student Draco Malfoy that he truly shone and became a superstar.
While his colleagues, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), are still striving to break free from the immense shadow of “Harry Potter”, Tom Felton is venturing down a different path.
Tom Felton's book, “Beyond The Wand” (2022), narrates the behind-the-scenes story of filming one of the greatest film series of all time, capturing his time portraying “Harry Potter” as well as the aftermath of experiencing fame too early, including two rehab stints.
“I find writing to be a form of release,” he shares and discloses that he writes almost daily. 'It's a form of meditation for me, whether it's poetry or everyday thoughts, a joke, a song lyric, a chapter of a book. So, writing this book wasn't a process of me actually sitting down and writing it, but rather I pieced together my thoughts, 10,000 pages of notes that I scribbled down over the years.”
Tom's Instagram account frequently shares gatherings with the “Harry Potter” cast, recounting the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin in the wizarding world.
“For me, the greatest thing about the Harry Potter universe is that it has brought people together more than anything I've ever seen, including sports and fans of all different kinds,” Tom shares.
Special relationship with Emma Watson
Exciting news for “Harry Potter” fans, Emma Watson has penned the foreword for the book “Beyond The Wand”. Although this pair has never officially dated, Emma Watson has described their relationship as “kindred spirits”, and they remain very close friends to this day.
“I love Emma very much,” Felton told ELLE. “And I think, I know she loves me too. She was the first to read the earliest drafts of the book, and she was kind enough to volunteer to write the foreword for it, something I will forever be grateful for.”
Their friendship originated from a “fateful encounter”, after Felton displayed his “mischievous” side during auditions for “Harry Potter”. Felton recounts: “I was a self-absorbed 13-year-old, while she was a 9-year-old girl on her first day on set. We actually auditioned together, months before we were cast as the characters.
The story goes that they were corralled together, he (Christopher Columbus, director of the first two “Harry Potter” films) auditioned us and left us there. He left us with a giant microphone on our heads, and Emma asked very sweetly, “What's this?”, then I replied somewhat irritably, “Obviously, it's a microphone”. I think, strangely enough, that arrogance of mine helped me get the role of Draco.”
Their friendship is something that Tom Felton hopes will continue for many years to come, even if the world will never have the “Dramione” (Hermione and Draco) pairing in real life that they desire.
