TheHarry Potter saga is one of the most popular and lucrative in the history of literature and film. Although recently, the author J.K. Rowling has had a few setbacks owing to some comments that some people have deemed transphobic, the universe she has created is still loved by millions of fans all around the world. But for those who acted in the franchise, not everything was so rosy once the magic was over.
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The actor who played the little wizard back in the day, Daniel Radcliffe, has repeatedly admitted that he has had problems with alcohol and as for Rupert Grint, the actor who played his best friend Ron Weasley, he came very close to depression at one point, as The Sun reported:
I think I lost myself a little bit along the way. With the fame, you're almost being the character, even when you're not in character. From the moment I got the part, my life completely changed. It was a weird time and it has taken me a long while to process.
Dudley really has changed!
This almost instantaneous reputation also hit another actor from the saga pretty hard: Harry Melling who played Harry's cousin, the odious Dudley Dursley, in five of the seven films. After this role, the young actor mainly performed in the theatre and became somewhat forgotten by the general public. Towards the end of his teenage years, he started losing weight. In an interview with People, he opened up about this drastic change in his appearance:
I think it was an unconscious thing when it started to happen. I went to drama school when I was 18 and that's kind of where the weight shifted, not for any sort of major need on my side, but it's just something that just happened.
Looking back, Harry Melling believes this physical transformation has even helped his career.
I think one of the blessings of that sort of stage in my life was the fact that I didn't get recognized. I had this history of being part of the films, but also I felt like I had the opportunity to sort of cause a new start, which I think is useful.
Harry Melling on Netflix
After a seven-year break from cinema, Harry Melling has recently been showing off his new look in The Lost City of Z by James Gray but also in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, directed by the Coen brothers, which was broadcasted on Netflix. The 31-year-old actor is still working alongside the SVOD giant and we have since seen him in productions such as the action film The Old Guard with Charlize Theoron, the thriller The Devil All the Time with Tom Holland and The Queen's Gambit with Anya Taylor-Joy.
