Tom Felton: All the Harry Potter revelations from Draco Malfoy actor’s memoir
From his ‘s***ty’ treatment of Emma Watson to Rupert Grint being ‘fined’ by director
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Your support makes all the difference.Tom Felton has shared a bunch of new Harry Potter details from behind-the-scenes of the hit franchise.
The actor played Draco Malfoy in every instalment, from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone through to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.
Felton has opened up about his on-set experiences alongside co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson in a new memoir, titled Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard.
He also shared additional informationy while promoting the new book, including in an interview with The Independent.
Find the highlights of Felton’s revelations below.
He feels ashamed of laughing at a young Emma Watson
Felton recalled a “painful” memory of laughing at Watson, whom he met when he was 12 and Watson was nine, in between takes.
Remembering how there was a divide between the actors who played members of Gryffindor and Slytherin, Felton said: “I suppose we thought we were a bit cooler,” Felton wrote. “We’d spend our free time together listening to rap music – Wu-Tang, Biggie, 2Pac.”
He said that he was “predictabliy dismissive” of a dance show that Watson wanted to perform for her castmates.
“We sniggered our way down to Emma’s show, and the sniggers grew louder as she danced,” Felton said, adding: “We were just being s***ty boys, largely out of awkwardness and because we thought taking the piss was cool, but Emma was visibly upset by our thoughtless reaction. I did feel like a bit of a d***, and rightly so.”
He called it “a stupid, teenage act of thoughtlessness, the sort of thing that happens every day”, and added that he feels “ashamed by the memory”. Felton apologised to Watson at the time.
He is Emma Watson’s soulmate
As part of the memoir, Watson gave her opinion on her enduring friendship with Felton, which has repeatedly fuelled romance rumours over the years.
She wrote: “Like Tom, I always struggle to explain to people the nature of our connection and relationship,” she wrote. “For more than 20 years now we’ve loved each other in a special way, and I’ve lost count of the times that people have said to me, ‘You must have drunkenly made out, just once!’ ‘You must have kissed!’ ‘There must be something!’
“The answer? ‘But what we have is far deeper than that.’ It’s one of the purest loves I can think of. We’re soulmates, and we’ve always had each other’s backs. I know we always will.”
Daniel Radcliffe used a photo of Cameron Diaz to help with his flying scenes
Felton revealed that, for the flying scenes filmed on greenscreen, the young actors added photos to personalised tennis balls being dangled in front of them to help improve their performances.
Radcliffe used a photograph of Cameron Diaz, who was his celebrity crush at the time. Felton wrote: “The broomstick was a metal pole fitted with a deeply uncomfortable bike saddle. There were stirrups for your feet and a harness to stop you falling. They strapped you to the pole, so you couldn’t fall, and they had a more elaborate see-saw device to move you up and down, left, and right. They blew fans in your face to make it look as if you had the wind in your hair.
“When the first assistant director shouted ‘Dragon!’ or ‘Bludger!’ you had to look at the tennis ball like it was, well, a dragon or a bludger,” Felton said. We chose pictures of something or somebody close to our hearts. Daniel Radcliffe had a picture of a particularly beautiful Cameron Diaz.”
Rupert Grint was fined £2500 for laughing during filming
Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter films, devised a way of ensuring the child actors did not ruin takes: to “fine” them if they laughed.
However, Grint especially struggled with this during a scene in Professor McGonagall’s (Maggie Smith) classroom involving “a rather ill-mannered baboon”.
According to Felton, the baboon was “unaware of what behaviour is appropriate to exhibit in front of a bunch of kids”, The actor continued: “Which is my roundabout way of saying that we had to cope with the distracting intrusion of a self-pleasuring primate during the filming of the scene.
“Any time one of us disturbed a take, we were given a red card. A red card meant you had to put £10 into a bag and, at the end of the shoot, all the money was donated to charity. It was a good plan to keep us on the straight and narrow, but it didn’t always work.”
Felton said that Grint had to “put in over £2,500 during the first two films alone, such was his inability to control himself when the giggles hit”.
Alan Rickman scolded him when he stepped on Snape’s cloak
While promoting the memoir, Felton shared the stern warning he was given by Professor Snape actor Alan Rickman.
“Eventually, I was told in no uncertain terms by Alan Rickman: ‘Don’t step on my f***ing cloak’,” Felton said, adding: “[I] sort of giggled, death eaters and I looked at each other and thought, ‘Is he joking?’ It quickly became apparent: he’s totally not joking.”
He continued; “Next take, the director was very keen for me to walk as close as I can to Alan. We got about halfway through the Great Hall before [mimes stepping on Rickman’s cloak]. You have to bear in mind his cloak’s attached around his neck – I nearly killed the poor man!”
Felton said after stepping on his cloak after being warned, Rickman “turned around and gave me a look you never, ever want to see”.
The Draco star said another actor then stood on his cloak on the next take, which “kind of took the heat away from me”.
But I’ll never forget those words: ‘Don’t step on my f***ing cloak’.”
Emma Watson encouraged him to write the memoir
In a recent interview with Louis Chilton for The Independent, Felton revealed that Watson was one of the chief reasons he decided to write a memoir.
“I was encouraged by a few people, Emma Watson specifically, to tell the whole story and not just sort of cherry-pick the fluffy bits,” he said.
“Not just because it was cathartic for me. But also in the hope that sharing those parts of my story will help others that are maybe not going through the best time.”
Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton is out now, published by Ebury Spotlight.
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