Why Rupert Grint ‘Had a Full-On Panic Attack’ on the Set of 1 ‘Harry Potter’ Movie
Rupert Grint captivated fans with his performance as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter franchise. But the actor’s experience on the set of one movie was unexpectedly harrowing, as Grint recently revealed he suffered a full-on panic attack concerning one beloved scene.
Like his ‘Harry Potter’ character Ron Weasley, Rupert Grint is an arachnophobe
Grint portrayed Ron Weasley from 2001 to 2011, appearing in all eight Harry Potter movies. In J.K. Rowling’s books and films, his character is terrified of spiders. According to Grint, ginger hair isn’t the only thing he shares with Ron. The actor admitted he also has a great fear of eight-legged insects.
“I’m arachnophobic,” Grint told Attitude Magazine in 2011, as reported by Yahoo. “It’s really affected my life. I check my shoes every time I put them on. I check my bed sheets and pillows. I’m going to Australia in a few weeks. I’ve never been before — spiders have always stopped me.”
Rupert Grint had a panic attack on the set of a ‘Harry Potter’ movie
In a recent fan Q&A for British GQ, Grint talked about his experiences filming the Harry Potter films. In one query a fan addressed his fear of spiders and wondered how he shot the forest spider scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The 34-year-old admitted that it wasn’t at all easy. Grint revealed that during filming, when the crew placed a real spider on him, his arachnophobia got the best of him.
“Well, the giant ones don’t have the same effect,” Grint said, referring to creatures like Aragog that appeared in the scene. “It’s the kind of little ones that can get in your clothes and kind of crawl all over you.”
“At one point they were going to use a real spider in a scene and we did a few tests where they put one on my leg,” he continued. “I had a full-on panic attack and we never did it again. Got better now I’m a dad, I kind of force myself to deal with them, [but it’s] still very much one of my biggest fears.”
Rupert Grint admits the mechanical giant spider in ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ made him feel uneasy
The tiny spiders Grint encountered filming Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets caused him to have a panic attack. While the large mechanical Aragog didn’t have the same fear-inducing effect, it did make Grint feel uncomfortable.
“I’m really scared of spiders, so I didn’t know really what to expect,” he said in Creating the World of Harry Potter. “But when I saw Aragog, it was really scary because he was massive.”
“It really made me feel uneasy,” Grint added. “I didn’t like looking at it at all. We saw that scene in the cinema, they kind of added visual effects — all these kinds of movie ones of the ground. I still can’t watch that scene. Absolutely terrifying.”
