Katie Leung (Cho Chang) will be back on screen this week in the BBC mini-series One Child. Leung plays Mei Ashley, who was adopted from China by British parents. As a young woman, Mei learns that her birth mother and biological brother need her help. She travels to Guangzhou where her brother is on death row after being framed for murder. (All of this happens during the period of China’s one child policy, which was only revoked last year.)
In anticipation of One Child, Katie Leung sat for an interview with Herald Scotland. She begins by reflecting on her days filming Harry Potter. Katie tells Herald Scotland:
“I was so innocent and naive… I think that allowed me to enjoy the moment of being a teenager, part of this massive franchise and not really having a worry in the world. If I was given the chance to go back and relive it, I would probably try to absorb everything around me a bit more.”
Katie also tells Herald Scotland about her relationship with Harry Potter fans over the years. Some have embraced her and become friends online and regular attendees at her plays.
“It has been incredible because the fans I got to know and love from the beginning have been with me throughout my career,” she says. “They come to see my plays and contact me through social media. When they go to one of my shows that isn’t Potter I get really excited. They have been so supportive and I’m grateful for that.”
Unfortunately, others have not been so kind. The Herald Scotland reports that one particularly unnerving group in the Harry Potter days started an “I Hate Katie” website to complain about Cho Chang’s romantic involvement with Harry Potter and make racist comments.
“Looking back I can’t remember much about that part of it because I was so in denial of what was happening,” [Katie Leung] concedes. “I put it to the back of my mind. I don’t know if that is the best way to deal with it, but that is naturally what I did in order to move on and be a good actor… I was being judged purely on my looks because she [Cho Chang] is supposed to be a very beautiful girl. This all happened before the films even came out. I thought: ‘Well, I can’t do anything about the way I look, so I’m going to need to do the best acting to make up for it.’”
Katie stills deals with racism at times, even in passive situations. She tells Herald Scotland:
“There are people who are subconsciously racist and not aware of it… If I’m in a taxi and asked: ‘Where you off to?’ and I say: ‘I’m going to the airport’, I’ve had the driver say: ‘Oh, your English is really good … It happened not that long ago. You get strangers coming up and saying the one Chinese or Japanese word they know, such as ‘ni hao’ or ‘konnichiwa’.
“It happens on the street or a night out in a bar. It’s sexist and racist, actually. That is something which needs to be addressed, but then again that can be solved through more diversity on our screens.”
With that, Katie Leung points out the problem of racism in film and media. While in drama school, Katie wondered if she would ever be cast in a Shakespeare play because of her Chinese heritage. It took a friend to help her realize that “I had been putting myself in a box when I was capable of so much more,” according to Herald Scotland. Later, Katie played Portia in The Merchant of Venice at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Leung is delighted that Noma Dumezweni has been cast as Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, as she noted at A Celebration of Harry Potter in January. “I was ecstatic when I heard she was going to be playing Hermione,” Katie Leung tells Herald Scotland. She sees it as a step in the right direction.
“If we are not representing what is in real life on our screens then people are going to remain ignorant, be prejudiced and maintain these stereotypes,” she says. “It could always be better and we are definitely not quite there yet.”
To read more about Katie Leung and BBC’s One Child, see the Herald Scotland article, here.
Huffington Post and Hollywood Life have recently published two cast interviews with Matt Lewis, Rupert Grint, Evanna Lynch and Katie Leung following A Celebration of Harry Potter.
Rupert Grint thinks Hermione and Ron would be separated (if not divorced), none of them would overlook a role in Star Wars, and Rupert thinks Cursed Child made a huge mistake.
First up is Huff Post, and their representative really got the cast talking, giving a great introduction about the importance of breaking out of viewing these great actors as their characters:
“What I enjoy as I sit down to speak with the group is how much these adults are unlike their characters (except for maybe Lynch, who is still delightfully Luna Lovegood-esque). It seems obvious, but we’ve such a tendency to want to lock actors into their iconic roles. It is challenge breaking out of that, especially when you’re remembered as being a cute, or awkward, or weird, or chubby kid on screen. Yet each has grown up, and gone on to other acting gigs and new pursuits.”
This interview gave a broad sweep of the actor’s opinions on Fantastic Beasts, their characters, further roles in big franchises and more!
On giving advice to Fantastic Beasts and Cursed Child cast members:
Matt Lewis: I don’t know how much advice I could ever give anyone. The people who have been cast, as far as I’m aware of, are very, very experienced. They don’t need any advice from me. But I guess just enjoy it. It has been a hell of an experience for me, and everything associated with it: the people, the fans, the environment. It was a good gig to be on! Just enjoy it because there’s nothing else like it, literally in the world. It is unique.
Rupert Grint: I think it’s going to be a very different film, I think. I don’t know much about it, but as Matthew said, just enjoy it. Go with the flow.
Evanna Lynch: I’d say trust David Yates, as well. He always knows better on the film. Sometimes I would go, “Oh, I’m doing terrible, I’m messing up.” He would come along and suggest something tiny, and it would change everything. He is very clever. And he is the one who has transitioned from one to the other. He has the whole picture.
On involving themselves in any large-scale productions again:
Q: This was very much your childhood, and your job growing up. If you had the opportunity now to enter another franchise that would consume multiple years – like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars – would you be reluctant to join that production?
A:
Lynch: No. I loved it. I love the family feel, and the idea you can get deeper into your character over a year. I have been on films that were just three or five weeks, and sometimes I’ve been like, damn, I’d only just started to get into it. It was nice to have something you could develop it, and learn and grow alongside your character. And I just loved the family thing. I got very comfortable there.
Lewis: Hey, if Star Wars come knocking on the door tomorrow, I’m not going to go, “Um no, guys, I’m sorry, I don’t want to do four films, it’s fine.” No, of course not. I’d think about it, and I love Star Wars, etc. But there would definitely be a bit of trepidation in joining a big franchise again for that amount of time. Just simply because I’m really enjoying the diversity of the roles I’ve been given recently. Playing a character is great, but I love the process of finding someone, finding a character, creating and drawing it up. And trying to figure out what makes that person tick. When you do something for however many years, it can start to become – I don’t want to say mundane because it was never boring on the films. But you kind of lose that spark a little bit you get in that first day of school, or on a new job. It is exciting. And I’ve gotten that so often in the last couple years, I’d be reluctant to give that up.
Leung: I kind of agree with Matt. If it goes on for any longer than a certain period of time, you do get really comfortable and feel very safe. Having done all the projects after Potter, it has been a few weeks, a few months for a project. You do really get to know a character, and it is wonderful knowing that, once you stop filming or being on stage and being that character, it essentially dies. So I quite like that. Of course, it depends who the character is you’re going to be playing. But yeah, if it’s Star Wars …
Lewis: Star Wars is welcomed.
Grint: I don’t know. I don’t think it’s put me off. There’s pros and cons. Harry Potter could be at times quite suffocating. It did take up our whole lives. So yeah, I suppose there would be tiny bit of reluctance. Now that I’m out of it, I can see beyond it and it’s nice to have a real life, and do things you want. There’s a lot of freedom in that. But yeah, I think it all depends on the material.
Who knows – maybe a role as another Resistance pilot, or as a key character to unveiling Rey’s mysterious past will come up. Make it happen, Disney!
The Huff Post representative also asked where they’d like to think their Potter characters will be in the future.
As we know, Ron and Hermione were married with two children (Rose and Hugo) at Nineteen Years Later, all of whom attended the 427th Quidditch World Cup in 2014. Ron and Hermione’s relationship seems to be going well – that is, unless you take Rupert Grint’s word for it:
Grint: [laughs] I would expect Ron has probably divorced Hermione already. I don’t think that relationship would have done very well.
Lynch: What?!
Like living in his own, low-rent bachelor pad?
Grint: Yeah. Exactly. He’s living on his own, in a little one-bedroom apartment. He hasn’t got a job.
Lynch: Don’t say divorced. Say they’ve split up. They can reconcile.
Grint: Yeah, they’re briefly separated.
Ron is on Tinder doing horribly…
Grint: Yeah!
Lewis: Living in a one-bedroom studio apartment all alone, doing nothing. He lives in Kings Cross, right in that area.
Evanna took a more career-related view for Luna, and we can definitely see this happening:
Lynch: I think Luna would have an adventure documentary series. She becomes a naturalist, and I think she’d travel the world and have a show. I could be a wildlife narrator.
Like a David Attenborough of the wizard world?
Lynch: Yeah, and she would prove all her creatures exist. Everyone is so dubious of her, and I’d like her to show they’re real.
Anybody else want this to become a mini-series?!
Katie Leung had aspirations for her character – we love her no-nonsense view of Cho:
Katie Leung: I reckon Cho would probably have become a really successful entrepreneur, and really cold and ruthless.
Lynch: Oh my god! [laughs]
[Interviewer] I like this.
Leung: Yeah, she’s cried all the tears she could cry, and now she’s become real cold and heartless.
Lewis: This is dark! I love this!
[Interviewer] What kind of entrepreneur? She runs a tech company? Or a developer who tears down bachelor pads like Ron’s?
Leung: Yeah, yeah, that! Exactly.
Lynch: Oh…
Matthew Lewis bases his on information he received from J.K. Rowling herself, and even works Rupert’s view of Ron into his vision:
Lewis: Oh god. Neville works at the school, right? So he’s a professor, just enjoying that. Maybe he’s trying to get Ron a job, man. And he keeps throwing it back in his face, like, “I don’t need your help, Neville; Jesus, just leave it.” And I’m like, “Come on, it’s fine, we’ll sort it out, just trying to get you back into the fold.” Yeah, him and Hermione don’t see eye to eye because I’ve taken Ron’s side in the relationship, obviously. They’ve got everyone split off, friends wise. I don’t know who you guys chose? Did you choose Hermione?
Lynch: Ron!
Leung: No, Ron.
Lewis: Are you Ron as well? Jeez, Hermione is thin on the ground with friends!
Leung: Well, I’ll go with Hermione, then.
Lynch: I think Ron would need more help. Hermione would handle herself better.
Grint: Yeah, he’s in a bad way.
[Interviewer] But Ron could have a job as a replacement for Mr. Filch
Grint: Yeah!
Lewis: Yeah, I’ll get you in as the caretaker of the school, man. We’ll sort it out. Don’t worry about it.
Grint: Just get me out there. Just get me out of the house.
Lynch: And we’ll get you back together.
Read the full interview here!
Hollywood Life‘s interview focussed on J.K. Rowling’s newest endeavour: Cursed Child. Rupert Grint thinks they’ve made a huge mistake!:
“Um yeah, I think they made a huge mistake in not casting me,”
He reportedly said, but of course he was joking – we’re all sure Paul Thornley is going to do an amazing job!
“No, no. I think it’s going to amazing, that it’s going on, and I can’t wait to see it.”
In a similar vein to his interview with MTV, Matthew Lewis spoke about feeling like his role as Neville was complete:
“I feel like the story arch that Jo wrote and that we tried our best to put on screen was a complete one,”
“I took that journey and finished it the way I wanted to. He will always hold a fun place in my heart, but I don’t feel like there is more that I can do with Neville. I’m happy to leave him.”
Evanna Lynch, however, has something to say about not being cast!:
“I don’t feel that way at all … As happy as I am that they are exploring the universe and that there are new stories in the universe, I’m so angry I’m not a part of it…100% I’d go back and do more.”
Read the full Hollywood Life interview here.
So there you have it – Evanna will soon be portraying a Resistance Pilot, the Wizarding World’s very own David Attenborough, and a West End star (kidding, unfortunately).
You can read more about cast interviews from A Celebration of Harry Potter here and here!
