The Sydney Morning Herald

By Garry Maddox, Film Reporter
June 8, 2004

If any three people are likely to turn into precocious child stars, they are the young actors at the centre of the Harry Potter movies.

Teenagers Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are recognised around the world as Harry, Hermione and Ron, and have guaranteed careers for at least two more instalments.

But one of their co-stars, David Thewlis, insists they have not become movie brats just yet.

"That's your first thought when you meet them - that they must be precocious and it's all gone to their head," he said in Sydney yesterday. "But they're really not. They're actually very, very nice and funny and good company."

But Thewlis, who joined the cast as Professor Lupin for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, thinks it will be difficult for them to have acting careers outside the series.

"The most likely is Rupert," he said. "I think he's the most natural actor. He's the oldest of the three. I can imagine him moving on. Emma's the same."

It will be tougher for Radcliffe, who plays Harry, to avoid becoming the Mark Hamill of his generation, typecast as Luke Skywalker to the point of hardly getting another decent role.

"Someone is going to have to make a brave casting choice to give him something that takes him away from Harry Potter," Thewlis said. "Or he's going to have to shave his head and grow a beard ... to get away from it."

The English actor, best known previously for Naked and Seven Years in Tibet, was confused when asked to meet the Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron. Thewlis said he was unavailable because he had a Harry Potter meeting at the same time.

"It had not been very well publicised in the British press that the man who did Y Tu Mama Tambien, which was about teenage sex and drugs, was going to do Harry Potter. I thought that was a very strange idea. Now I think it's a genius idea because he's made it so much more interesting."

With the appeal over the controversial M 15+ rating due to be heard today, Thewlis said the filmmakers had pulled back from some of the more extreme horror effects after seeing the results on screen.