Evanna Lynch admitted she thought she was ‘set for life’ after starring in four of the legendary films
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson became household names thanks to the success of the Harry Potter franchise – but not all of their co-stars were as lucky.
The so-called ‘golden trio’ each boast enviable movie credits and net worths, however, the same can’t be said for some of the secondary characters.
Take the memorable Luna Lovegood, for example, who played an integral part in the plot after joining the gang for the first time in 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
But the actress who took on the role revealed that despite working on four of the eight incredible films, she drastically overestimated how it would impact her career.
Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Credit: Warner Bros.
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It’s been over a decade since Evanna Lynch last rubbed shoulders with Radcliffe, Grint and Watson on set, but Harry Potter remains the most high-profile role she has secured.
The 33-year-old, from County Louth, Ireland, beat out more than 15,000 girls at an open casting call to score the role of Lovegood when she was just 14 years old.
During a recent appearance on the Talking Tastebuds podcast, she opened up about how she wrongly assumed that a successful career was pretty much guaranteed after she got the part.
“I think I over blew it, I think I thought, ‘Great this is me set for life, this is my career’,” Lynch said. “I didn’t think it would be as hard to be an actor as it actually is.
“I noticed a lot of fans have that same reaction to me.
“Sometimes I’ll meet them at conventions and at plays, and I’ll meet them after that and they’ll be like, ‘Why are not you doing blockbuster movies?’
“And I’m like, ‘Yeah, why am I not? I don’t know, I just didn’t feel like it, that’s all’. They have no concept of how cut-throat the industry is.”
Lynch admitted she mistakenly thought she was ‘set for life’ after playing Luna Lovegood (Warner Bros)
Lynch found that life outside of the wizarding world was a lot tougher than she had imagined – especially as she went from being an ‘obsessive’ Potterhead to becoming a pivotal character.
Some fans might not be aware, but the actress has an extremely special connection to Harry Potter, as she previously credited J.K Rowling‘s books with saving her life.
Lynch suffered from anorexia during her school years and found solace in the novels, seeing her eventually write to the author to thank her for ‘making her want to live again’.
She knew everything there was to know about the magical franchise and it’s cast, before becoming a part of it herself.
“I wasn’t prepared for fame,” Lynch continued. “I was ready for the story-telling part, but it was so weird to go from being a fan that used to stalk Daniel Radcliffe to being someone people send fan mail to.
“I was a really obsessive Harry Potter fan. I started reading them when I was about eight, and that was just my whole identity for a while.”
Although her affection for Rowling’s work ended up doing her a favour in the end, Lynch reckons it is ‘not healthy’ to be so consumed by fictional things.
“It’s quite embarrassing,” the My Name Is Emily star went on. “I did everything – I queued up for the books, I wrote fan mail to Daniel Radcliffe and got his autograph.
The actress, 33, also discussed what it was like going from a Harry Potter superfan to starring in the film (Tristar Media/Getty Images)
“I wrote fan mail to JK Rowling and we became friends,” Lynch said. I completely manifested it. All my energy was focused on this.
“But the thing I found is, the whole fan culture is not healthy…being obsessed with someone.”
As a self-proclaimed Harry Potter expert, Lynch found it difficult to form organic friendships with her co-stars.
She explained: “When I met Daniel, Rupert, and Emma, I knew everything about them, their pets’ names, birthdays, I knew their parents’ names. I had to pretend I didn’t.
“It also meant I had nothing to say to them, I just adored them.
“I was suddenly confronted with ‘who am I’ and when they asked me what I was interested in, I realised I didn’t even know myself, I didn’t know what to say.”
Lynch said although it’s okay to admire celebrities, she doesn’t think youngsters should view them as ‘amazing and godly’.
“Being an obsessive fan is disempowering,” she added. “And now, I get people messaging me saying, ‘I think you’re my best friend and you just don’t know it yet’.
“And I don’t respond to those people, as I don’t think it’s healthy.”Featured Image Credit: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images/Warner Bros
Topics: Harry Potter, TV and Film, UK News, Celebrity, JK Rowling
Olivia Burke
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Published 19:28 16 Dec 2024 GMT
Danny DeVito made honest admission about how his height has impacted life
The legendary actor, 80, stands at 4ft 10ins tall
If there is someone who proves that good things really do come in small packages, Danny DeVito has got to be the man.
The 80-year-old, from New Jersey, is an actor who people hold very close to their hearts, thanks to his incredible talents on screen and his ability to make us belly laugh.
His roles in the likes of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Matilda, Jumanji: The Next Level and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia have made him one of the most loveable stars on the planet.
So it’s no wonder that he was crowned ‘the king of short kings’ by social media users last year, as he’s everything a monarch should embody.
The fact he reacted to this news by saying it ‘gives him joy’ just proved his appointment as the overlord of all petite men was justified even further.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Tries To Prank Danny DeVito
Back in the 80s Danny Devito got Arnie high when he gave him a cigar laced with cannabis. Now Schwarzenegger has tried to get his revenge. Credit: YouTube/Arnold Schwarzenegger
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However, DeVito‘s unique height hasn’t always been applauded, as being on the shorter side made him an ‘easy target’ for bullies throughout his life.
He previously said that he ‘took a lot of lumps’ during his school days, before adding: “I was plagued; I couldn’t slow-dance with the girls I wanted to, but because my face would be in a spot where I might be thought of as moving too fast.”
DeVito was born with a rare genetic disorder called multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED), which is commonly referred to as Fairbank’s disease.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, this form of skeletal dysplasia affects bone growth and the development of cartilage, particularly in the arms and legs.
Those with MED usually experience symptoms such as problems with their hips, knees or ankles and premature arthritis, with the majority of people having ‘minimal short stature’ as a result, averaging between 57 to 67 inches in height, or around 4.5ft to 5.5ft.
DeVito stands at 4ft 10ins tall.
Danny Devito opened up about his height during a 2017 interview (Taylor Hill/Getty Images)
In March 2017, he sat down with CBS News correspondent Martha Teichner, who wanted to find out if he thought that his height had impacted his career.
As we all know, the actor’s size has often added to the character he is portraying – such as in the 1988 film Twins to comedically contrast against Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But when asked if he had felt a need to lean on his personality to get where he wanted to in life and in his career, DeVito admitted he had ‘never thought of it’ in that sense.
Reflecting on his younger years, the Ruthless People star said that for starts, he didn’t really grow up with an idea of ‘what the life is that he wanted’.
“You know, you want to be comfortable and you want to have friends,” DeVito said. “The early days of being like short, being five feet tall, well… after a while, you start getting used to it.
“And in social circles, you start thinking you may be able to compensate with your personality.”
The actor, 80, says his size has helped him ‘stand out’ when auditioning for film roles (Universal Pictures)
And for DeVito, there was only ever reason that he questioned his height – as he wondered whether it would affect his abilities with the ladies.
“It’s always about women,” he laughed. “Don’t you think? I mean, is it about anything else?
“Your whole life is like basically [about women]. As a kid, when you’re a teenager, all it is is about going to the dance.”
DeVito explained he often found himself connecting with the ‘really tall’ girls who also felt ‘self-conscious’ about their height during his childhood.
He added: “Why not? The idea is that we would have a good time.”
In previous interviews, the screen star has revealed that being short actually helped him ‘stand out from the countless hopefuls auditioning for the same parts’.
“No casting director is gonna forget the 5ft guy,” DeVito said.
So, I guess that settles it folks – size really doesn’t matter.Featured Image Credit: CBS/Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Topics: Celebrity, Celebrity News, Health, TV and Film
Olivia Burke
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Published 11:38 13 Dec 2024 GMT
Harry Potter directors had to leave crucial plot point out of movie which impacted the entire storyline
They left out a scene from the books which meant they needed a bit of a re-jig in the final movie
There are a number of scenes from the Harry Potter books which didn’t make it to the movies and this has pretty much been a point of complaint for fans since the films were released.
While Harry Potter fans generally like the movies, there are some who think it’s a bit unforgivable that certain moments like Hermione’s establishment of S.P.E.W didn’t make it onto the big screen.
While some of these cuts are understandable from a movie making perspective since they don’t have enough time to fit everything in, there will always be fans lamenting the loss of moments from the books.
Then there are the cuts, which actually mean they have to put new things in later movies because they sliced the explanation out of a previous film.
In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry grievously wounds Draco Malfoy with the ‘sectumsempra’ spell which he read about in his heavily annotated copy of Advanced Potion Making, which actually used to belong to his teacher Severus Snape.
Harry learned where this was earlier in the books than the movies. (Warner Bros.)
Harry doesn’t know what the spell does, only that it’s ‘for enemies’, and ends up giving Malfoy some serious bleeding wounds which almost killed him.
Snape steps in to cure Malfoy and in the book he then orders Harry to bring him his copy of Advanced Potion Making, which Mr Potter doesn’t want to do.
Book Harry takes his textbook to the Room of Requirement to stash it there and passes off Ron’s copy as his own, and while he’s in the room, he takes notice of a bust with a wig and a tiara on it – which sticks in his memory.
Fast forward to the next book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Harry learns that Lord Voldemort is a complete moron because instead of making his horcruxes random objects nobody could ever find he’s actually used very recognisable artifacts including the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw.
When Harry is trying to find the diadem, he remembers the tiara he saw in the Room of Requirement and faster than you can say alakazam he figures out he already knows where he needs to look.
Harry Potter meets Helena Ravenclaw
Credit: Warner Bros
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However, in the movies Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) doesn’t stick around in Half Blood Prince and runs away like the big brave boy who lived, with Hermione (Emma Watson) then telling him to hide the book.
In the film Ginny (Bonnie Wright) goes with him to the Room of Requirement and gets Harry to close his eyes while she hides the book so he won’t know where it is.
As such, he never actually sees Ravenclaw’s diadem in there, and two movies later in Deathly Hallows Part 2, this change from page to screen came back to bite the filmmakers in the a**e as they now had to find a way to teach Harry about it.
“You know, if the filmmakers hadn’t cut something out of the adaptation two movies ago we wouldn’t even need to have this conversation.” (Warner Bros.)
As they’d left the plot point out of the previous film, they needed to bring in a scene where Harry goes to ask the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw (Kelly Macdonald), Rowena’s daughter, where to find it.
So while Hogwarts is under siege from Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), Harry has to go on a ghost hunt to track down information he already knew in the books to stop the noseless wonder.
The upcoming Harry Potter TV series is apparently going to be a more faithful adaptation of the books, so perhaps the original plot point will be inserted back in and Harry will know where Ravenclaw’s diadem is instead of having to ask a ghost.Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros.
Topics: Harry Potter, TV and Film, Books
Joe Harker
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Updated 12:38 16 Aug 2024 GMT+1Published 14:30 23 Feb 2024 GMT
breaking
New Harry Potter TV series finally gets release date
Potterheads finally know how much longer they’ll have to wait for the new show
The new Harry Potter TV series has finally got a release date.
It feels like ages since HBO Max and Discovery+ officially announced a reboot of the Wizarding World was happening, and it’s still going to be a while until Potterheads can watch it.
This new show will be based on all seven instalments of the popular books, with each season said to follow each instalment.
And it was previously revealed that the Harry Potter series will allow audiences to discover their beloved story in a whole new way. But again, you’re going to have to wait.
Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Credit: Warner Bros.
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Warner Bros. Discovery has now announced that the new TV series will land on the Max streaming service in 2026, as reported by IGN.
Speaking during a financial call, CEO David Zaslav spoke about the much anticipated Harry Potter project.
“We’ve not been shy about our excitement around Harry Potter. The last film was made more than a dozen years ago,” he said.
“I was in London a few weeks ago with Casey [Bloys, President, HBO series] and Channing [Dungey, Chairman and CEO of the Warner Bros. Television Group] and we spent some real time with J. K. [Rowling] and her team. Both sides are thrilled to be reigniting this franchise. Our conversations were great, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead.
Warner Bros.
“We can’t wait to share a decade of new stories with fans around the world on Max. We’re aiming for a debut in 2026.”
HBO and MAX content CEO Casey Bloys previously opened up about the new series and what it will look like for fans.
“We are delighted to give audiences the opportunity to discover Hogwarts in a whole new way,” he said.
“Harry Potter is a cultural phenomenon and it is clear there is such an enduring love and thirst for the Wizarding World.
Warner Bros.
“In partnership with Warner Bros. Television and J.K. Rowling, this new Max Original series will dive deep into each of the iconic books that fans have continued to enjoy for all of these years.”
It’s been well over a decade now since the final Harry Potter film, with Daniel Radcliffe, of course, in the titular role.
Many fans have been hoping he’d crop up in the series in some kind of cameo role but that isn’t look likely.
Radcliffe previously told ComicBook.com he’s ‘definitely not seeking it out in any way’.
“But I do wish them, obviously, all the luck in the world and I’m very excited to have that torch passed. But I don’t think it needs me to physically pass it.”