Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard

“Close-knit, loving, chaotic and supportive, they were the very centre of my early life.”

Felton establishes The Central Role of Friends and Family as a recurring and pivotal theme in his work. He credits his loving and supportive family with his professional success, as they support his acting ambitions and keep him grounded.

“My bros will gladly tell you that I’m the runt of the pack.”

Because he has a tendency toward arrogance as a teenager, Felton knows that the influence of his three older brothers keeps him grounded and humble through their loving teasing. This connection becomes vital to helping him not to take his work too seriously while on the Harry Potter set, and later, in his twenties, his recollections of his good times with his brothers help him to make positive changes in his life and recover from alcohol addiction.

“Seeing my big brother up there taught me that it’s okay to want to perform, no matter what other people think.”

Jink sets a positive example for Felton about the nature of performance, for as the family goes to see Jink act in musicals and plays, Felton admires these memorable and creative productions. Felton credits this experience with first getting him interested in the idea of drama and performance; thus, The Central Role of Family and Friends in his early life has a profound influence on his choices and eventual career path.

“Fishing was our obsession.”

Chris, Felton’s second oldest brother, inspires a love of fishing in him, and together the two embrace many pleasant hours outdoors. Later, when Felton feels disconnected from himself in Los Angeles and is struggling to recover from alcohol addiction, he channels memories of these important, formative lessons in order to reconnect with the more authentic parts of himself and turn his life around.

“His constant feeling of not being quite happy with who he was meant he ended up spending long periods of time on closed hospital wards.”

Felton describes Ash’s struggles with an undisclosed mental health condition, for his older brother is hospitalized numerous times throughout Felton’s teenage years. This harsh reality exposes Felton to the occurrence of mental health struggles, and it also serves as an indirect foreshadowing of the struggles that Felton himself will experience in his twenties, for he recognizes that the same genetic predisposition that exists in Ash also exists in himself.

“One of my great advantages in life was that I had a mum who encouraged me, but put no undue pressure on me to stick with any one thing.”

Felton often sees other child actors’ parents trying to mentor them to greatness. By contrast, he appreciates that his mother encourages him (without pressuring him) to pursue any areas that interest him. This unpressured support allows Felton to explore many hobbies and interests, and to settle on acting and pursue it out of intrinsic motivation rather than the need to please an overbearing parent.

“I was given the artistically fulfilling and technically arduous role of “Snowman Number Three.”

Felton’s signature self-deprecatory style is established in his humorous and tongue-in-cheek anecdote about his role in the Christmas play, which, as illustrated in the fact that he is Snowman Number Three—rather than Snowman Number One or a human character—is a very minor role. With this anecdote, he does not establish himself as an acting prodigy. Instead, he credits luck and coincidence rather than talent for his acting career.

“My dad stood outside the cubicle, suited and booted, while Jink heaved his guts out.”

In this passage recounting the family’s somewhat disastrous attendance at the premiere of The Borrowers, Felton portrays himself as the younger brother of a rabble of boundary-pushing teenage brothers. Rather than remembering the premiere of The Borrowers as a celebration of his role in a major movie, he primarily recalls his brothers’ antics. The anecdote also emphasizes the many ways in which his three older brothers took the glamorous shine off of his fame and kept him grounded.

“Whenever anybody asks me about acting, my advice is always the same. By playful. Childlike, even.”

The Importance of Playfulness and Humility is introduced as an important theme in this passage, for Felton feels that he performs best when he is relaxed and comfortable, and when he is connected to the fun of any given performance, in true childlike fashion. He feels that it is best to renounce the self-consciousness of adulthood when participating in or appreciating art, and to simply lose oneself in the moment.

“One day he chose some book about a boy wizard living under the stairs. Truth to tell, it wouldn’t have mattered what he was reading, I would have had the same reaction, which was: give it a rest, mate! A boy wizard? Not my cup of tea.”

In this anecdote with a humorous twist, Felton is notably uninterested in the book that savvy readers may recognize as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Felton deliberately employs dramatic irony in this scene to emphasize how poorly acquainted his child-self was with the books that would eventually become the center of his world.

“I was developing a bit of a swagger. A slight arrogance. Surely nobody would want to give a part to a kid displaying those sorts of qualities, would they?”

Dramatic irony is once again used to comedic effect; the reader recognizes these traits—arrogance and a swagger—as being present in Felton’s iconic role of Draco Malfoy as well, and thus, even in the midst of his autobiography, Felton consciously plays upon his audience’s preconceptions to add a bit of narrative flavor when recounting his own experiences in developing the role.

“I’m Robbie and I’m playing Hermione Granger. I’m Emma and I’m playing Rubeus Hagrid. I found it hilarious at the time - huge Robbie and tiny Emma swapping parts - it was typical of Robbie Coltrane to ease any tension in the room with his brilliant sense of humour.”

Felton continues to celebrate The Importance of Playfulness and Humility by recounting his many positive experiences with the adult actors on the Harry Potter set, many of whom went out of their way to create a mood of fun and relaxed playfulness. This ambience allows the child actors to feel comfortable and at ease on the set, and Felton aims to channel this same tendency through his adult life.

“At lunchtime we would congregate in the canteen, which was always a fun moment. There was no separation of roles. An electrician would be queuing for his lunch next to a witch and a goblin, then a cameraman, a carpenter and Hagrid.”

Felton paints the humorous image of the cast and crew of the enormous Harry Potter production lining up together for lunch. The blending of fully costumed characters from the wizarding world—like a witch, a goblin, and Hagrid—is juxtaposed with the very ordinary “Muggle” crew members, like the electrician and the camera operator. J. K. Rowling’s wonderful and creative world meets the mundane in a humorous way in this anecdote, which positions the reader to imagine the wonder and chaos of the filming process.

“Being surrounded by a crowd of people who want to touch part of your clothing can be a discombobulating experience.”

Felton continues to explore the recurring theme, The Challenges of Navigating Fame and Fortune, through his anecdotes about being accosted by fans wanting to touch him. He establishes that being a celebrity can be isolating and even scary, because the attention from fans—even if it’s well intended—can be intense and overwhelming.

“To plenty of people in the school corridors I was the Harry Potter Wanker. I was the Broomstick Prick. And so, perhaps I overcompensated a little. I acted up.”

Felton reacts against being mocked for his role in the Harry Potter movies by working hard to be perceived as a “normal” teenager. He does this through acting up: talking back to teachers, skipping classes, and not focusing in class. These behaviors illustrate Felton’s struggles with his celebrity status; he is embarrassed whenever his acting career differentiates him from his peers.

“They’re excited. They shout Emma’s name. They shout Hermione’s name. Eventually they start to chase us along the boardwalk.”

Felton stresses the challenges that Watson must navigate simply to be able to live a day among people; he suggests that her celebrity isolates her and prevents her from having a typical life. For her, the overwhelmingly effusive response of her fan base dominates any appearances she makes in a public setting, and she finds this ongoing dynamic to be particularly challenging.

“They are unfairly sexualized in the media and beyond. They are judged on their appearance, and any hint of assertiveness raises an eyebrow that wouldn’t happen if it came from a guy.”

Felton reflects that this experience of struggling with celebrity status is even more challenging for Watson. He reflects on—and condemns—the double standards that exist between men and women through Watson’s experience with celebrity compared to the rest of the cast, who is predominately male.

“She meant that we were kindred spirits, that we understood each other and that we helped each other make sense of ourselves and our lives.”

Felton celebrates the bond that he shares with Emma Watson, his co-star in the Harry Potter movies. He attributes this friendship with helping both himself and Watson to navigate challenges in their lives. In doing so, Felton emphasizes that a community of loving and supportive friends is essential in leading a happy and fulfilled life.

“‘Alan, mate,’ I said, ‘it’s fine, I’m happy sitting on my shorter chair.’ He wouldn’t take no for an answer. He didn’t kick up a fuss, he wasn’t impolite, he just quietly insisted that I was brought a chair of the same height as the others.”

Felton is deeply affected by the humility and kindness of the actors he works with on the set of Harry Potter. He might have expected some of the actors, like Alan Rickman, to be conceited given their widespread prestige. However, the actors are kind and down-to-earth, as in this anecdote that describes Rickman’s insistence that Felton be bought a bigger chair in order to be literally and metaphorically on an equal footing with the rest of the cast.

“I’d turn up in a bright orange Lamborghini I’d been given for the week, and waiters would scurry to lead me to an exclusive table I’d only managed to reserve at the very last minute because of my name, while paparazzi took pictures of my incredibly subtle entrance.”

Felton establishes the inauthenticity of his life in Hollywood, where he is given special treatment because of his celebrity status. He conveys the fact that he enjoys these incredible perks for a time, for the special status gives him access to amazing cars and allows him to skip the queue at high-end clubs and restaurants.

“I missed having an ordinary conversation with an authentic human, who didn’t know who I was, and didn’t care. I missed my mum.”

Felton begins to feel unhappy in a life from which he feels increasingly alienated. In particular, he is lacking authentic human connection, as the people who flock to him in Los Angeles do so because of his fame, rather than because of who he is as a person. The Importance of Friends and Family is alluded to in Felton’s unhappiness, as he has abandoned this important value in his life of glitz and glamor.

“‘I have my wife, and I have my children, and I have my grandchildren, and that means I am a rich man. A very rich man.’ He fixed me with a piercing stare and inclined his head a little. ‘Are you a rich man?’ he asked. My reflex reaction was to burst into rueful laughter. ‘Rich?’ I said. ‘I’m a millionaire!’”

The gas station attendant later becomes known to Felton as the first of his “three kings,” who remind him of the importance of kindness, humility, and human connection at a time in which he has lost sight of who he is and what he wants. Later, Felton restructures his life around the gas station attendant’s wise observation that human connection, not money, brings happiness and satisfaction and thereby makes people metaphorically rich.

“I learned in the first facility that helping others is a powerful weapon in the fight against mood disorders. Another effective tool is talking about all your thoughts and emotions, not just the fluffy ones.”

Felton aims to destigmatize mental health disorders by documenting his own struggles honestly. He urges readers to help others and to talk openly—preferably to a therapist—about their thoughts and emotions.