Rupert Grint is loved for his role as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter film series, but there is a downside to the child actor role.

Harry Potter was once one of the biggest franchises in the world. Rupert Grint has spoken about the pressures he faced during filming and said he found the role “quite stifling”.

Harry Potter is a perennial staple of pop culture. Grint starred in eight Harry Potter films between 2001 and 2011 as Ron Weasley, the best friend of Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) who struggles to exist in Harry’s shadow. The films also starred Emma Watson as Hermione Granger. The trio of Radcliffe, Grint and Watson were the core of the franchise, and the three actors faced unique challenges in navigating Hollywood as child actors.

In an interview with Bustle magazine, Grint said that playing Ron in Harry Potter was intertwined with his identity as the character. “I felt the difficulty of seeing myself in the shadows,” Grint said. “In the movies, we merged into one. By the end, I was playing myself. The boundaries were blurred.” Still, Grint added with a laugh that he still felt some gratitude for the role. “I answer when someone calls me Ron. It’s my middle name.”

While Grint does not refer to the rumors of a Harry Potter reboot in the works, he does mention that he thinks the films were stopped at the right time. “The Potter films kept us so busy that we shot all year and then promoted the rest of the time. It was quite ‘suffocating’,” Grint said. “I wanted a break to think about everything… It was an out-of-body experience for a while, but I think we finished at the right time. If we had continued, we could have gone downhill.”

Grint’s experience echoes that of many child actors. For many, their careers defined their childhoods to such an extent that it became part of their identity. Grint doesn’t seem to resent this, but he seems aware of it, as perhaps audiences should be aware of the challenges of being a child actor.

Grint is not the only actor to say that these unique experiences and challenges are part of his character. Radcliffe, also a Harry Potter alum, loves it when fans yell at him from cars, even if they mistake him for Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood. It’s a surreal experience to be an actor.

The Harry Potter films are available on HBO Max, and Rupert Grint was recently seen in the M. Night Shyamalan film Knocking at the Cabin and also stars in another M. Night Shyamalan film, Servant, an Apple TV+ series (which we will also discuss).

Source: GameRant