Dudley Dursley Lost Weight, Was Almost Recast

In an interview with the Telegraph, Harry Melling — a.k.a. the Harry Potter series’ Dudley Dursley — revealed he was nearly recast for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when producers discovered he’d lost a lot of the weight he had as a kid.

“It was nearly two years ago,” he says, refusing the offer of breakfast. “I was doing a show at the National Youth Theatre, playing an old man. Before that I had played fat clowns and I thought, ‘If I want to have the career I would like, I am going to have to lose weight.’ I was just starting drama school, and found I was moving around a lot. I also started to eat sensibly. The weight just dropped off. I went from 16st to 11st 5lb.”

Since he didn’t appear in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, he was out of the sight of the producers for years, and returning to Deathly Hallows was interesting.

[H]e had changed almost beyond recognition, to the producers’ alarm. “They did this double-take, ‘Oh my God, we are going to have to do something,’ and I felt very guilty. They could have recast, but instead they padded me out.”

Melling’s currently starring in his first professional play, Mother Courage and Her Children in London’s National Theatre.

Melling now realises that he was lucky not to be one of the Hogwarts’ leads. His career got off to an early start, but without the irksome trappings of fame, or the danger of being typecast. “I can now shed the child-actor thing, like the fat, and start a new career, because no one sees me as Dudley.”

Not a bad position to be in.  Must’ve kind of sucked at the time, though, to be the one Potter kid actor to not experience Hogwarts.

Emma Watson Arrives at…Brown

The mess of Emma Watson College Conjecture that’s been going on for the past year or two definitely ended with a whimper, not a bang.  As most reports indicated, done with filming on Deathly Hallows, she ended up going to Brown University.  Yep, she’s now a Rhode Island Ivy-Leaguer.

From her official site:

I know, according to the papers I was definitely attending both Columbia and Yale but I’ve finally arrived at Brown University and while I wish that I could be in three places at once I wouldn’t believe everything you read! I arrived [last] Tuesday and I’m having the most amazing time. I’m still so excited to be here. I’ve already met so many incredible people. I’m over my jet lag and now I just want classes to start!!

She also notes that unlike at least one report, she didn’t arrive in a helicopter.

As somebody who went to NYU at the same time the Olsen twins were attending, I can attest that the entire student body of Brown will be besieged by questions from their relatives about whether or not they’ve seen Emma Watson yet.  With that in mind, I wish her as much success and privacy as possible.