From the perspective of Matthew Lewis, there is one thing young Harry Potter The cast can thank for keeping them all on the straight and narrow.
The actor, 35, opened up about his time working on the beloved film series during a solo panel at Rhode Island Comic Con on Sunday, Nov. 3. Amid the Q+A portion of the panel, Lewis shared his belief about why the franchise’s young cast — which also includes Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — has avoided the problems many former child stars experience in the public eye.
“We’re very good at hiding all those stories,” he joked at first, before noting that “it was awkward” as they made the transition from child actor to adult in the industry. The All Creatures Great and Small star also said there was “absolutely a lot of trepidation” about whether he would “be able to hack it in that bigger pool.”
“Though I said I was very excited about the opportunity. I have a pretty short attention span, so that’s probably why I never picked the right career,” he continued. “[After] 10 years in Harry PotterI was ready to do something else and I also didn’t want to do anything that would lead to multiple series.”
Still, Lewis said he had “no idea what was next” after his time on the job Harry Potter and “wasn’t ready at all”. However, he deserves special credit for the “friendships” he developed with his young people Harry Potter castmates as something that helped keep the group grounded.
“One of the questions that was asked earlier about the pitfalls of being a child actor that we seem to have avoided, I would say a large degree of that was because we were all in there together,” he explained. “You often hear a lot of stories about how they were the only actors in that movie and how they had to carry that movie alone and all the pressures and anxieties that come with that. While we were all kind together.”
(L-R) Tom Felton, Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch, Bonnie Wright and Matthew Lewis are pictured reuniting in December 2019. Tom Felton/Instagram
Lewis added that “many of the fears we had were all shared and the thing is no one else in the world will ever be able to truly understand what we went through and how it affected our personal lives except for each other.” He also pointed out that it was “wonderful” and “a lot of fun” to work with them over the years.
“One of the things I carried with me was those friendships,” he said. “I don’t go back and read the books. One of the things I still kind of hold on to are the relationships we built through those movies.”
Tom Felton reunites with Harry Potter Costar Matthew Lewis and stuntman David Holmes at a charity cricket match
Lewis played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter film series that had eight film debuts between 2001 and 2011. He recently spoke with PEOPLE about whether he would reprise the character
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(L-R) Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Matthew Lewis, Daniel Radcliffe and Bonnie Wright in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2009 Courtesy Everett Collection
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In April 2023, it was announced that Harry Potterbased on the popular book series by JK Rowling, is being rebooted as a television series in Max. Following the news, Lewis recently told PEOPLE that he’s “in no rush to get back into the world.”
“It’s not something I’m looking at or looking to do, but I wouldn’t turn my nose up at it,” he says. “I’d be very interested to see if it was Neville as a grown man – a completely different vibe. That could be interesting. I’d definitely look into it and think about it.”
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Source: HIS Education