Cliff Notes – Harry Potter star quips he’ll ‘have to pay his therapist double’ over remake
- Matthew Lewis, who portrayed Neville Longbottom, expressed mixed feelings about the HBO reboot, joking he may need extra therapy to process the transition of his iconic role to a new actor, Rory Wilmot.
- He praised the decision to keep Neville’s Yorkshire roots intact, stating he feels “humbled” by the character’s continued connection to his origins.
- On the topic of collaborating with J.K. Rowling, Lewis indicated that any potential project would depend on his comfort with the author’s controversial views, emphasising the need for personal alignment with his beliefs.
Harry Potter star quips he’ll ‘have to pay his therapist double’ over remake
Neville Longbottom actor Matthew Lewis reflects on the HBO reboot (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
Harry Potter actor Matthew Lewis has shared his thoughts on the new HBO remake that has everyone talking.
It’s been 14 years since the 36-year-old bid adieu to his role as Gryffindor housemate Neville Longbottom, whose character arc ended in a blaze of glory as he slayed the final horcrux, Nagini.
Now, Neville will return to screens portrayed by another Yorkshire actor, Rory Wilmot, as HBO begin production on their 10-year-long TV adaptation of JK Rowling’s bestselling children’s series about the titular boy wizard.
Since leaving the franchise, Matthew has appeared in various projects, including the 2016 movie Me Before You and period drama All Creatures Great and Small as Hugh Hulton.
As he looks towards his next role as Canon Daniel Clement in the TV adaptation of Reverend Richard Coles’ bestseller Murder Before Evensong, he’s reflected on passing the franchise over to a new cohort.
And, it seems, the experience of seeing such a life-defining role being passed over to someone new is just as existential as you would imagine.
The British star played the role across all eight movies (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
Newcomer Rory Wilmot, also from Yorkshire, will play Neville now (Picture: HBO)
‘I haven’t really thought about the series as a whole at all, really, and I’ll probably have to pay my therapist for a double session when I finally do think about it,’ he joked in an interview with The Independent.
Although he’s not been directly in touch with his 10-year-old successor, he has praised the commitment to making the clumsy but ultimately brave fictional character a Yorkshire lad through and through.
The now-Florida resident added: ‘I feel quite humbled in that Neville is now canon Yorkshire. Whether that’s a tribute to me or not, I don’t know, I’m gonna say that it is. But the last thing [the new cast] needs is for has-beens wading in, just let them cook.’
Now 36, he’s ready to let the new Hogwarts kids have at it – without his interference (Picture: Getty)
As for whether he himself would work with the author of the franchise, who has garnered controversy for her views on the transgender community, again, he admitted, ‘it would largely depend on what the project is.’
But as someone who has been away from social media for a year, he caveated: ‘I’d have to have a conversation about the things that you’re referring to, and I’d want to make sure I was totally comfortable squaring it with my own beliefs and opinions before moving forward.’
It follows what he told iNews in 2021, in which he stated: ‘No matter what I think, and what my opinion is, I have to sit this one out because both sides of this discussion have had enough of people who look like me telling them what to do.’
Although Lewis has had steady work since leaving Harry Potter, he revealed last year that he decided not to make it a ‘real career’ post-childhood fame for various reasons.
‘[After] 10 years in Harry Potter, I was ready to do something else and also was not keen to do anything that was going to lead to multiple series,’ he told the audience at Rhode Island Comic Con last year.
In his next role, Lewis is set to play a young cleric (Picture: Getty)
Adding that there was ‘absolutely a lot of trepidation’ about whether he’d ‘be able to hack it in that larger pool’ as an adult in Hollywood.
Lewis isn’t the only one formerly involved in the mega fantasy hit to talk about the remake.
In a recent interview on The Rest is Entertainment podcast, Chris Columbus said it was an opportunity to bring those extra details from the books to life that never made it into the films.
Although when discussing the first look photos of Nick Frost as Hagrid, he added: ‘I’m seeing these photographs… and (Nick Frost is) wearing the exact same costume that we designed for Hagrid. Part of me was like: What’s the point?”
‘I thought the costumes and everything was going to be different, but it’s more of the same. It’s all going to be the same.’
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