Harry Potter Star Opens Up About Dark Side Of Making The Movies
Harry Potter star Rupert Grint played Ron Weasley for 11 years and now admits how difficult the process was as a young actor.
Whenever a star is lucky enough to land a career-defining role, the type that will forever hold a place in the hearts and minds of the audience, it’s a double-edged sword. Harry Potter star Rupert Grint was fortunate enough at age 11 to land just such a role when he was cast as Ron Weasley, best-friend to the Boy Wizard, and became an international star overnight. In an interview with Bustle, the 34-year old father of one explains that only the select group of core actors, himself, Daniel Radcliffe, and Emma Watson can truly understand.
On the process of filming Harry Potter, Rupert Grint admits that “Potter was so full on — [filming] all year, then we’d promote the rest of the time. It was quite suffocating, I wanted a break, to reflect on everything… It was an out-of-body experience for a while, but I think we finished at the right time. If we continued, it could’ve gone downhill.”
Fans of the Wizarding World often overlook just how young the main stars were when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone started filming in 2000. Rupert Grint started then filming, promotion, filming again, promotion again treadmill at age 11 and wasn’t able to stop until he was 22. The constant grind wore on the actor and fed anxiety that he was being overshadowed by the character of Ron.
Filming the later Harry Potter films was especially difficult according to Rupert Grint, saying to Bustle that “In the movies, we merged into one. By the end of it, I was playing myself. The lines were blurred.” Even today, the Knock at the Cabin star will answer to “Ron” whenever it’s shouted in public.
The stars of Harry Potter grew up together and saw each other almost every day for 11 years which has led to another part of the movie-making process that bothers Rupert Grint: comparing careers. Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson have had very different careers after leaving the wizarding World, as has Grint, with each actor working on smaller scale projects while focusing on their personal lives. The media is to blame says the Servant star, for trying to foster competition when there’s no need for it when each of the stars is happy for the success of their friends.
Working on Harry Potter and the resulting media scrutiny was so bad that Rupert Grint almost didn’t attend the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwart’s special. The star thought 11 years wasn’t long enough to merit a reunion, but he admitted that seeing his friends and looking back at the craziness was a lot of fun. Amazingly, Grint confessed that he hasn’t seen all of the movies yet, since he’s one of those actors that doesn’t like seeing his own performance on screen.
Almost as far removed from Harry Potter and Ron Weasley as it’s possible to be, Rupert Grint is starring in M. Night Shymalan’s latest thriller, A Knock at the Cabin, as one of four strangers that presents a couple with a terrifying offer. Co-starring alongside Dave Bautista, the film is the latest collaboration between the star and director, as the two worked together on all four seasons of the AppleTV+ series, Servant.
