Matthew Lewis Visits Fantastic Beasts Set

Matthew Lewis reveals he visited the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them set, and endorses the coming film.

Last week, when Alan Rickman passed away, I could help but notice that Matthew Lewis’ tribute, which he posted to Instagram, mentioned that he was at Leavesden Studios. That’s odd, I thought, Aren’t they filming part of Fantastic Beasts there?

Well, looky here.

Oh really? That’s a *very* good endorsement. Outside of the Golden Trio, Matthew Lewis is one of the most recognizable and famous faces of the production, and his words means a lot to fans.

Lewis has been on something of an interview tear these past few weeks, with the release of Ripper Street Season 4 on Amazon, where he has joined the cast this season as Desk Sergeant Samuel Drummond. He’s warned interviewers not to call him Neville Longbottom (he needn’t worry, I think at this stage, most interviewers are more likely to mistake him for Young Clive Owens.) But he admits one of the reasons he jumped at the opportunity to play Drummond was because it was a chance to change the audience’s image of him.

“Having played the same character for 10 years I jump at every opportunity I have to mix it up. Going away to do Harry Potter was a bit of a ballache,” he continues in his deadpan Yorkshire accent, before realising this could sound brattish. “Don’t get me wrong, I sound like a twat. It was such an opportunity and there’s me going ‘I want to go to the pub with my mates’. That feeling disappeared. I realised I was doing an incredible job.” 

In the interview he talks about staying in touch with the Potter crew, including playing cricket with fellow vet Tom Felton, who played Draco. He says he keeps working so as to not screw off and waste the millions he made on the franchise. He also wanted to imporve his craft. When asked how he felt about the upcoming HArry Potter and the Cursed Child, he relfect on his own experiences on stage. Apparently it took months to get a good review: “I hadn’t appreciated there would be paying customers and it was a f***ing job. Suddenly I was out of my depth.”

He does mention that the worst moment in Potter was when Helena Bonham Carter accidentally burst his eardrum with a wand. “[I]t really hurt.” But he does miss Neville, for all he doesn’t want to be called by that name, especially now that he’s facing a world where the big roles are made for action heroes.  “Action men aren’t as interesting. I realised how much of a fondness I have for playing people who aren’t heroes.”

Talking to Metro UK, he also says this role was exciting because for the first time audiences will get to hear him do something other than his natural accent.

“As an actor it’s quite nice to never know what you’re gonna be doing next, and since I finished on Harry Potter I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been able to do some wildly different characters. And one thing that I’ve never done before is anything period, and I’ve basically done a Leeds accent – which is my accent – in everything I did. I get to play a policeman in Victorian England, and do a cockney accent, so it ticked a few boxes.”

Meanwhile, he hasn’t been able to shake the specter of Alan Rickman’s death. Over the weekend, he did an interview with Radio X and spoke at length on his experience working on Potter and with Rickman. It’s longish, but well worth it.