Tom Felton: Playing ‘Evil’ Draco Character Didn’t Help Him With Girls
Tom Felton has revealed that his “evil” Harry Potter character affected his dating life at school. The 34-year-old actor, who played the role of house Slytherin’s Draco Lucius Malfoy, said his character did him “no favors” with girls at school.
“Some people really struggle with the idea that I wasn’t this special, popular kid,” Felton told The Guardian in a new interview over the weekend. “But I was walking around with dyed hair and played an evil wizard. It wasn’t cool. It did me no favors with the girls.”
Felton, 34, who made his debut last week in Danny Robins’ thriller play, 2:22 A Ghost Story in London, starred in all eight Harry Potter movies, based on novels written by JK Rowling. Elsewhere in the interview, Felton credits his casting of Malfoy due to him being “nonchalant,” Felton said, adding, “and [I] 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.”
Earlier this year, during the Harry Potter reunion special Return to Hogwarts, Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger, spoke about the moment she first “fell in love” with her co-star Felton. “I walked into the room where we were having tutoring,” she recalled. “The assignment that had been given was to draw what you thought god looked like and Tom had drawn a girl with a backward cap on a skateboard. And I just don’t know how to say it – I just fell in love with him.”
Watson clarified that nothing “ever, ever, ever happened romantically” but that the pair “just love each other.” In the special, Felton said that he was aware of Watson’s feelings for him. “I think I was in the hair and make-up chair and someone said something along the lines of, ‘Yeah, she had a crush on you,’” he said, adding, “I became very protective over her. Yeah, I’ve always had a soft spot for her and that continues to the day.”