Tom Felton wants to make it clear that he is embracing his inner meltdown. It’s almost the first thing he says, after sitting down opposite me at a Canary Wharf restaurant holding a small block of Cathedral City Cheddar in his hand.
We’re meeting for a brief 45 minute lunch, as the 34-year-old actor – most recognisable for playing Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise – is midway through intense rehearsals for his West End debut in 2:22: A Ghost Story. It’s a haunting comedy starting its third consecutive London season to much critical acclaim. Two weeks of rehearsals down, in just seven days they’ll move from the rehearsal room on to the stage at the Criterion Theatre. Felton is feeling confident, even if this afternoon he’s a little overwhelmed.
“There are a lot of words to learn,” Felton says, speaking fast. “It’s a 140-page script and it all flows so effortlessly, so one little hiccup throws the whole thing off.” He’s wearing a blue baseball cap, white trousers rolled up to his calves, and a green and yellow sweater: dressed to be comfortable. “There are just four people on the stage for the whole hour-and-a-half,” he says, a slight sense of panic, “so you can’t drop the ball even for a moment.” On film sets, where he’s far more experienced, Felton explains, you’re encouraged to approach each take slightly differently. “Right now I’m battling with my brain,” he says, “as in this we need everything to be precisely the same again and again, eight shows a week, for 17 weeks… Mate, this is doing no favours for my anxiety.”
James Buckley, of Inbetweeners fame, was one of the show’s last stars. “He is a friend,” Felton says, “and told me it would be a challenge unlike any before: physically, mentally, that I need to embrace the meltdown that’ll come, which is what I’m doing. It’s new to me, but thankfully the rest of the cast and directors know what’s happening. And I’m excited, even if there are a lot of nerves.”
That’s why this morning he arrived at rehearsals early to run lines alone, stopping off at Tesco for snacks to keep him going. He hasn’t done theatre since childhood, but remembers that time fondly. Unwittingly, he says, he’s also found himself eating like a kid. That explains, I think, the little block of cheese now perched on the table. He orders a plate of homemade chicken fingers when a waiter appears.
It has been almost 30 years since Felton’s last theatre performance. Back then, he was as a six-year-old treading the boards for a kids’ production at the Epsom Playhouse, not far from his childhood home. “It was usually tree number three,” Felton says, “that sort of thing.” He is the youngest of four brothers, and it was the eldest who was the real theatre kid. Felton was only really at drama club to tag along. He recalls being a snowman, or was it a Bugsy Malone extra? “I really wasn’t noticed for my acting prowess particularly early,” he says, “I was far more interested in being a fisherman.”
His dad was a civil engineer, often travelling, so it was his mum looking after the children. And she worked multiple jobs to ensure the boys could pursue their adolescent passions, however short-lived. “A few months before acting,” Felton says, “I was desperate to be a violinist. She worked nights stacking shelves, days doing all sorts, to make sure we were always told yes.” Four boys were a handful – the police were involved in at least one brother’s teenage rebellion. When Felton was six, he got his first acting job. He’d need chaperoning? No bother: Mum took it in her stride.
“That first job was for a Commercial Union advert,” Felton says, “filmed over two weeks across America. Mum just changed everything in her life to make sure I could do it.” Soon after came The Borrowers, filmed for four months at Shepperton Studios. His next film was Anna and the King, a remake of The King and I starring Jodie Foster. Four months in Malaysia, his mum always by his side. A year after its release, Harry Potter auditions came up. Unlike most who attended the open call – his future young co-stars included – auditions and studios were nothing new to this relatively seasoned 12-year-old.
“I was also one of the only ones who had no idea what Harry Potter was at the time,” Felton says. “Anyone could try out for it, so many excited kids went along who loved the books deeply.” For Felton, it was just another job. They tried him out for Harry Potter and his best friend, Ron Weasley, at first, dying his hair black then ginger in the process. Felton was a little bemused. In the end he was cast as Draco Malfoy: for those unfamiliar with the series, the bad kid… ish. “I reckon I got the part because I was nonchalant,” Felton says, “and had no idea what anyone was on about. Wizards in cupboards under the stairs? And with three older brothers, you learn to be confident quickly. I think Chris Columbus, the director, recognised this slight disinterest and arrogance in me, which he thought could work for Malfoy.”
Far from becoming an off-the-rails, overnight child-star, Felton found that the early films hardly fazed him. “My schedules were fixed in a way I could stay at school with weeks on and weeks off,” Felton says. “Rupert [Grint], Emma [Watson] and Daniel [Radcliffe], meanwhile, were there non-stop for 10 years. I carried on as normal. I’d get the occasional gag or comment from my mates, but honestly nobody was bothered.” His main frustration came from missing Halloween parties and school trips when he had to be on set. “Some people really struggle with the idea that I wasn’t this special, popular kid,” Felton says, “but I was walking around with dyed hair and played an evil wizard. It wasn’t cool. It did me no favours with the girls.”
Felton found adjusting to the trappings of success was also fairly straightforward, helped by the fact it didn’t come overnight. “It happened somewhat slower than you might imagine,” Felton explains, “and it’s not like I was particularly sensible: I bought cars for my brothers, a house for my mum, skateboards and video games for me.” It was also never a given that Felton would be cast in all eight blockbusters with their no doubt increasingly lucrative contracts. “We were going to make two initially,” he says. “If after the second, the kids still looked young enough, maybe we’d do a third. Then a fourth. It went on like that. We never signed up for 12 years. At some point I just assumed they’d replace us with decent actors, but they never did.”
Throughout the filming period, Felton never let himself consider the idea he might actually make a go of an adult career in the industry. He’d been a child actor, sure, but standing on the Potter set, watching the likes of Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon, it was hard not to feel a little out of place. “I didn’t have to do 10 pages of dialogue to audition,” Felton says. “All I did was turn up as a snotty kid who looked right and I got the part.” It was Jason Isaacs, who played Felton’s villainous on-screen father, who offered Felton off-screen kindness and sage guidance.
“He was incredibly supportive and graceful,” Felton recalls, smiling. “It was a massively important relationship to me. He never talked to me like a kid, and showed me the way.” Occasionally, Felton still refers to Isaacs as dad.
“Jason was a driving force in getting rid of my impostor syndrome,” Felton continues, “I thought all I did was stand around and look miserable for a long time.” Bagging his part as a child meant Felton believed he’d just had a lucky break. “He told me to snap out of it,” Felton says, “That I was good, but could be much better. To go and work on it.” While filming the sixth film in the franchise, Felton was 20. It was then that he finally listened to Isaacs’s advice. “He told me to get into shape, learn to do an American accent and to get a good US agent.” Felton did as instructed. Almost immediately after hanging up his Hogwarts robes for the final time, Felton was on set in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Not long after, he moved to Los Angeles. Work kept coming, slow but steady: lots of independent films and a smattering of television gigs, nothing quite on Planet of the Apes’ or Potter’s scale. “I took things slower,” he says, “although not necessarily out of choice. If Planet of the Apes Two had come along I’d have taken it right away, but I was and am content.” Each Potter film took six months or more to make; indy films often take six weeks from start to finish. “So I enjoyed California life,” he says, “surfing, writing music, hanging out with my dog. That sort of schedule lets me have more of a balance in my life.”
Was it hard, I ask, not to compare his to the trajectory of the other Harry Potter kids? “I never really had that,” he says, “I’ve always been their biggest cheerleader. I remember seeing Daniel on Broadway for the first time, there was a Draco-esque moment: fucking hell, he’s just so good. I wasn’t comparing myself, but it kicked me into gear.”
It’s been more than 10 years since the last Harry Potter film was released, but their popularity shows no signs of abating. For anyone connected with the franchise, life on set – and the experience of being part of its huge, unparalleled success – remains a constant topic of fascination to an ever-growing fandom around the globe. I’d expected Felton to find talk of the wizarding world rather frustrating, certainly tedious. He started making them while a fresh-faced child and he’s now in his mid-30s; the auditions were well over 20 years ago. I assumed he’d quite like to move on now, thanks very much. Felton, however, seems thrilled to discuss it. He’s at his most animated when talking Potter, bringing it up repeatedly of his own accord. No doubt he’s also grateful to be distracted from the stress of rehearsals.
“I feel very lucky,” he says, “and I do love talking about it, even when I should probably be plugging other projects.” If anything, Felton says he’s still adjusting to its success now. “Daniel, Rupert and Emma were on the posters,” he continues, “they were taken out of school and went on press tours. I had a far more normal life.” Through all the years of filming, Felton says he was rarely, if ever, stopped on the street. It’s only more recently he’s found there’s a greater interest in Felton: the man who played Draco Malfoy. “I walked around for 10 years with bright blond hair, and never once was stopped on the tube,” he says, “but now it’s changing. Fans who come up to me these days weren’t even born when the first film was made. It has grown, passed on from generation to generation.” He’s beginning to realise it’ll never go away.
Eighteen months ago, Felton returned to the UK permanently. He realised, after so many years away, his five-year-old-niece was suddenly 12. He missed his friends and family, and life in London. While he was a child actor, going from audition to audition, his mum would take him to Lillywhites sports shop at Piccadilly Circus as a treat, to stare at all the cricket bats. “When I first got cast in this play,” he says, “I had no idea where the theatre was.” Turns out it’s next to Lillywhites. “My whole career is thanks to right place, right time, great mum,” he says. “The fact it’s there feels special. She’s already bought tickets for the first four shows even though I did tell her I could get her in for free. This play is for her.”
Recently, Felton returned to Los Angeles for a holiday, and ended up taking a trip to California’s Harry Potter theme park. “I was just indulging myself,” he says, “and my mates had never been.” Felton saw a young girl having the time of her life, tears of joy and everything. “At the end I couldn’t help but go up to her, take off my hat, and tell her I’d see her in the Slytherin Common Room. Seeing her face light up? I’ll never get bored of how happy it makes people.”
And with that Felton is off. He asks to take a picture together, and then darts back to the rehearsal room. When a waitress comes over to collect his untouched plate of chicken fingers, she asks me, grinning: “Sorry, but was that Draco Malfoy?”
2.22 A Ghost Story is at The Criterion Theatre, London, until 4 September (222aghoststory.com)
