Harry Potter star Harry Melling has revealed that people look at him in a different way after his weight loss – which he said wasn’t a ‘conscious decision’.
Melling, 33, featured in the Harry Potter films as the titular wizard’s bratty cousin Dudley, who is spoilt by his parents and bullies others.
The character is depicted in the movies and original books as overweight, with Melling himself previously describing Dudley as ‘very piggish’.
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The actor, who first portrayed Dudley when he was just 10, later went on to lose a lot of weight – a move that he says saw others react differently to him.
In an interview with the Independent to promote his latest project, Coen Brothers film The Pale Blue Eye, the actor spoke about how, around the time of his weight loss in 2009, the press cruelly made references to there being no trace of ‘piggy eyes and double chins’ anymore.
“When you’re 10 years old and you play a role like that, people are going to think of you as that thing, and are going to want to hold on to that thing,” he said.
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“Obviously, that was 23 years ago. And obviously, that writer was trying to hook an audience in, so I understand why they’re saying those things, but I just have to read that and accept that that’s their way into the interview. There’s nothing really else I can say.”
Melling said he had ‘no control over that narrative’, saying: “But I went to drama school and I lost some weight, and that’s it.
“[…] And people will find fascination with that. They want to ask why and how I did it, but that’s not of any interest to me whatsoever. People want to hold on to these experiences of when they saw the film, so I get why that becomes the opening gambit.”
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He argued that you can be an actor ‘in whatever shape you want to be’, but said losing weight at the time ‘was not a conscious decision at all’.
"It was just something that happened,” Melling continued.
“And of course that makes people see you in a different way, and maybe that opens up different casting opportunities. I don’t think that was a conscious decision.
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“I mean maybe in hindsight, somewhere in me, I’ve always been interested in the actors that transform... so maybe that’s where the instinct to do that came from.”
Melling also said he is not in touch with former Harry Potter co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Tom Felton – not that he actually had many scenes with them, as he was usually filming scenes at 4 Privet Drive with Mr and Mrs Dursley (Richard Griffiths and Fiona Shaw).
“We did it when we were so young,” he said.
“I think everyone’s sort of gone off and done their own things. A lot of them have left the UK, which is interesting. I’ve kind of stuck around here.”
Topics: Harry Potter, Celebrity, TV and Film
Jess Hardiman