It Does Not Do To Dwell On Dreams

Since 1997, Harry Potter has been the most talked-about literary phenomenon of our time. Ostensibly a children’s book but loved by adults too, following its initial best-selling success, it carried on to claim its place as one of the biggest and most pervasive – not to mention lucrative – cultural events of the modern era.

In 2001, the film adaptation, of JK Rowling’s original novel hit our cinema screens and the decade since has been punctuated with the release of eight films, each one as hugely successful as the last.
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the last in the franchise that launched the acting careers of James and Oliver Phelps and Evanna Lynch, AKA The Wesley Twins and Luna Lovegood – and turned them into bona fide stars.
“It’s mixed emotions at the moment,” says 20 year-old Evanna Lynch, the Irish actress who beat 15,000 auditionees to play space-cadet witch Luna Lovegood. “At the London premiere last night everyone felt a bit tearful. Even JK Rowling was crying. No matter how much you talk about it and acknowledge it, the end is overwhelming. It’s all gone by so quickly.”
But, much like their prankster characters Fred and George Weasley, Oliver and James Phelps weren’t letting anything get them down.
“Nah, we didn’t tear up,” says Oliver, before adding cheekily. “Unlike Daniel. What can we say, we’re just harder men than the little guy. Not to mention taller!”
Not that this was always the case. The actors were aged 14 when they joined the cast, so they experienced first hand how the Harry Potter films function as a somewhat embarrassing documentary of the cast’s journey through their awkward teen years.
“Ugh, I know!” groans Oliver, cringing. “How was it physically possible for my voice to be that high (laughs)?”
Don’t ask me!
For Evanna, being thrown into the spotlight at such a young age could have been dangerous. Having suffered anorexia for two years before she first auditioned for Harry Potter, the highly pressurised and in many ways image-focused lifestyle might have been difficult for her.
“I think if I had joined the cast when I was any younger, I would have found the press side impossible,” she reflects. “I came to it after I had dealt with all those body issues. Having so much support around me constantly helped.”
The Phelps make the point that the media and Harry Potter fans alike have always been very supportive.
“They’re so lovely,” James says of the fans. “And civilised. Not as hormonally-charged and mental as the Twilight fan-girls!”
However, their profile as young stars means they’ve necessarily had to become somewhat more wary than their peers of people’s motivations. Evanna Lynch admits that missing so much school disrupted her social life and she is conscious of anyone who might want to coat-tail on her success. The lads, meanwhile, have had to put up with being used – well, sort of! – by some of their more, ahem, industrious friends.
“We don’t really do the whole showbiz parties scene or anything like that,” says James. “It’s more our friends who trade on it. They draw girls over with the promise of meeting Harry Potter stars – then say that they’re our casting agents. They benefit from it more than we do!”
Don’t worry lads, I believe you...

If you’re growing up on a film set, you might as well do it around the most esteemed professional role models imaginable. The young members of the cast have had the opportunity to work consistently alongside legendary thespians like Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson, Julie Waters and Michael Gambon and others. What was that like?
“When I started it wasn’t the veteran actors who scared me, but the younger cast!” admits Lynch. “Someone like Daniel Radcliffe was the intimidating one. I was 14 and had been a huge fan. But working with the older cast was amazing. It wasn’t like they were taking you aside and telling you how to do something – they respected us as actors. But if you had any questions they were happy to help. And I suppose we learned by osmosis also – for example, from the actors who were method actors.”
Which apparently included Alan Rickman, who swept around the set terrifying the younger cast with his never-ending performance as the intimidating Snape.
“I respect him greatly,” says Lynch. “But he is scary!”
Indeed. Not that this was the hardest lesson to be learned along the way.
“No-one ever teaches you how to be a celebrity,” Evanna reflects. “No-one tells you how to pose or what to say and what not to say. That was the really difficult thing for me: it’s something we had to figure out as we went along.”
With an action-packed plot, the three actors don’t get as much screen-time in Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as fans might like. And, as readers of the books will already know, some of their characters suffer harsher fates than others.
“Yeah, this film is really all about Harry, Ron and Hermione defeating Voldemort,” says Evanna. “The final scene we shot was one of the large showdowns in the ruins of Hogwarts Castle. Very few of us had lines – but it was a lovely scene to finish on because everyone was there, like Maggie Smith and Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent. Mark Williams joked that it was the most expensive set of extras ever hired for a film!”
Will we be seeing the three actors on screen again? The answer is a tentative “yes!” Evanna and James are currently looking at scripts, while Oliver has a role in an upcoming film about Pablo Picasso, entitled Latin Quarter. But for now, the hectic press junket surrounding the culmination of the Harry Potter saga is staving off the grieving process.
“Yeah, I’ll have to wait until all this is over, to see how I’m really coping,” says Evanna. “Look out for me curled up under desks, rocking with the effects of post-Harry Potter syndrome!”