Tom Felton Didn’t Believe That the ‘Harry Potter’ Cast Was Hired Because They Were Good Actors
Harry Potter actor Tom Felton has been a fixture in the film franchise since the first movie. As part of the original cast, however, he didn’t feel he and his co-stars were hired because they were great actors. Rather, he felt they were cast for reasons completely separate from their acting abilities.
Tom Felton thought the ‘Harry Potter’ cast would be replaced after ‘Goblet of Fire’ with decent actors
Felton already had a little acting experience before he auditioned for Harry Potter. He featured in commercials and starred in films like The Borrowers and Anna and the King. Eventually, he’d move on to Harry Potter, a franchise he admittedly knew little about when he rehearsed for it.
“I was also one of the only ones who had no idea what Harry Potter was at the time,” Felton told The Guardian. “Anyone could try out for it, so many excited kids went along who loved the books deeply.”
They tried him out for both Ron Weasley and Harry Potter before giving him the part of Draco Malfoy.
“I reckon I got the part because I was nonchalant,” Felton said. “And had no idea what anyone was on about. Wizards in cupboards under the stairs? And with three older brothers, you learn to be confident quickly. I think Chris Columbus, the director, recognized this slight disinterest and arrogance in me, which he thought could work for Malfoy.”
Although Malfoy would nab the part, he didn’t expect it’d be a role he’d be playing for over a decade.
“We were going to make two initially,” he continued. “If after the second, the kids still looked young enough, maybe we’d do a third. Then a fourth. It went on like that. We never signed up for 12 years. At some point I just assumed they’d replace us with decent actors, but they never did.”
Tom Felton didn’t think they were hired because of their acting abilities
Felton didn’t feel he or the rest of the cast were great actors when they were first picked for Harry Potter. But the young star believes their abilities weren’t the reason they were hired for their roles in the first place. It was their close resemblance to the characters that won over casting directors.
“Let’s be honest, we weren’t picked for Harry Potter for our acting ability – it was because we looked like the characters as they’d been written,” he once told Live (via Contact Music). “We started out as rank amateurs, and we’ll be lucky if we’ve learnt something over the past 10 years. It’s a question of what we do with that now, where do we go from here?”
Chris Columbus didn’t cast Tom Felton as Harry Potter because of his hair
Although Felton may not have believed they were good enough actors back then, director Christopher Columbus thought otherwise. Columbus directed the first Harry Potter film The Sorcerer’s Stone, and had a huge say in casting the lead role. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Columbus revealed that Felton’s acting almost nabbed him the part. But it was his physical experience that disqualified him from being Potter.
“Tom was a great actor as well, so we thought, let’s just dye Tom’s hair, give him a scar, give him the glasses and let’s see,” Columbus said. “He did a great Harry Potter reading. The problem is you can really kind of tell when an 11- or 12-year-old kid’s hair is dyed. He was so good at Malfoy. I just couldn’t pass that up. I knew Tom had to play Malfoy.”
