“If only they could’ve been five-hour-long movies,” the “Harry Potter” actress said
Bonnie Wright is reflecting on what could have been for her character in the Harry Potter movies.
As the youngest Weasley sibling and the titular hero’s eventual love interest, Wright’s character Ginny has a much larger role in J.K. Rowling’s book series than in the films. The actress, who first starred in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at age 9, wants fans to know she did what she could with what she was given.
“There was just no room for much change in those scripts,” Wright, now 32, said on the latest episode of the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast. “There were a million executives going through them all.”
“I think what I maybe took, which I don’t take so much to heart now, is I kind of felt that maybe my anxiety was about like, ‘Oh, I’m going to be seen as badly portraying this character,’ rather than later realizing that I wasn’t really given the opportunity to do that,” she continued. “So it wasn’t really my ‘fault,’ exactly.”
“And when fans do share that disappointment, they do it in a way where they’re like, ‘We know it wasn’t you. We just wanted more of you.’ And that’s the same with every character,” Wright added. “If only they could’ve been five-hour-long movies, but it would’ve taken probably two years to film each one or something.”
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She recognizes how Ginny — whom she played throughout all eight films, from 2001 to 2011 — may have been affected by how “a lot of the scenes of every character were chopped down from the book to the film. So you didn’t really have as much to show in the film.”
“Sometimes that was a little disappointing, because there were parts of the character that just didn’t get to come through because there weren’t the scenes to do that,” Wright said. “So that made me feel a bit anxious or just frustrated, I guess.”
Despite her desires about what could have been for Ginny in the Harry Potter films, in June 2021, Wright told PEOPLE she still marvels at the education in acting and filmmaking she received while growing up on the sets of Hogwarts.
“I got this amazing look into the film world,” she said. “I was so interested in not just the role as an actor, but also just all the other incredible things that made the films what they are. I was so exposed to just attention to detail, to craftsmanship, and just the quality of work was really what set me up.”
“It made me just know that stuff can be made really well, to strive for that and work harder at your craft,” Wright added. “When you look at all these things and designs, all the people who were making the props and the production design were just so brilliant at what they did. And I had a lot of respect for them when I was younger.”
Bonnie Wright and Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010).
WARNER BROS PICTURES / Album / Alamy Stock Photo
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As for her next big adventure, Wright is preparing for motherhood, as she and husband Andrew Lococo are expecting their first child together.
The couple revealed the news on Instagram in April, sharing a photo of themselves amid a gorgeous, scenic landscape with her bump on display.
“We’re having a baby! So excited to share this beautiful land with them,” Wright wrote. “What a wild and humbling journey pregnancy is, transforming to make space for new life.”
She added, “Andrew and I can’t wait to meet our baby later this year and become parents. It feels like they’re coming to say hello in the little rainbow orb across my belly.”
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Source: HIS Education