Draco Malfoy actor Tom Felton on being a blond bad boy
Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy,
For an interview with director David Yates, go here.
Thanks to his role as Harry Potter’s foil, Draco Malfoy, in the “Harry Potter” films, 21-year-old Tom Felton has gotten to work with many top British actors.
“A lot of people ask, ‘Have you been to acting school?’ and in a lot of ways I really have,” said Felton, who saw his role in the films increase with “Prince.” “For us it’s been a huge learning experience working with the cream of the crop of English actors.”
One of the actors Felton gets to work closest with is Alan Rickman, who plays the acerbic Professor Severus Snape with his dry, slow speech and penetrating eyes.
Felton said he’s learned a lot from working with him, especially to never, ever step on his cloak.
“At the very end of the film, he’s leading us out of the castle,” Felton said. “He’s at the front with his long sweeping cape and [director] David Yates is like, ‘Get right up behind him.’
“Before the scene, [Rickman] turned around to us all and said, ‘Don’t … step ... on my f------ cloak.’ He does it with great humor, and so we all sort of laughed it off.”
Needless to say, as the director continued to pressure him to stay very close to Rickman, Felton did accidentally step on the cloak.
“He was not amused,” Felton joked. “Saying that, he’s definitely the funniest guy on the set.”
What are you doing to combat being typecast as a villain?
There are two things going for me. One, I’m 21. I think to be typecast at the age is a little harsh. And the other thing is the character couldn’t be further away from me, physically, as well as mentally. He’s got quite the iconic physical appearance with the blond hair and pale face. I feel it will be quite easy for me to get away from that by simply changing my hair color.
That’s not your natural hair color, right?
No, man, this is six years of constant dying, what you see here. It’s not that pleasant. So whatever comes next, I hope it won’t require blond hair.
Are you excited with the bigger role Draco had in this film?
Obviously, it’s an actor’s dream to start getting your teeth stuck into it. It’s kind of weird because I’ve played this character for so long now, you start to think, ”Oh, I know him like the back of my hand.” But when this book came out and the script, I was actually quite scared. But credit to David Yates for really pulling me aside at the beginning and saying, ‘It’s a big task, I believe in you, I know you can do this, this is what we’re going for and let’s do it.’ He was a big, big help.
Do some of your younger fans confuse you for your character?
Oh yeah. I think I have half the world under 12yearsold hating me. I get more boos than I get cheers, I assure you.
Do you ever play it up?
No, I dare not. I worry I’m going to terrify those poor people. I can only take it as a compliment really, the fact that these people believe that I am as evil as they think.
A lot of the good wizards get to make out in this film, but Draco doesn’t. Are you jealous?
I can only assume that young Draco’s mind is far too busy with the task at hand. I think for the rest of the boys, the concept of love is very appealing. However, for Draco, he has this overbearing thing that Voldemort is going to kill him if he doesn’t do everything right. I like to tell the story that he has an endless queue of Slytheran girls, but he’s far too busy, but yeah, I was a little bit envious that everyone was making out. Where’s Draco’s girl?
