In the past, many child stars have commented on how difficult it was for them to gain a foothold in the film and series world after their first big hits as young adults. Matthew Lewis is also one of them. He spent his childhood and youth as Part of the Harry Potter family spent. Then came the jump into the cold water.
At MegaCon in Orlando, Florida, the Neville Longbottom actor was a guest on a panel and talked about his life. He gained particularly drastic experience in the period after Harry Potter. Immediately after the fantasy series ended, he wanted his acting talent demonstrate on stage.
After Harry Potter, Matthew Lewis wanted to prove himself in the theater and received terrible reviews
Lewis isn’t the first Harry Potter star to come up with this idea. Daniel Radcliffe already appeared in a 2007 production of Peter Schaffer’s Equus his theater debut. Lewis, encouraged by Snape actor Alan Rickman, wanted to do the same as Radcliffe. In 2011 he joined a production of Agatha Christie’s verdict at.
Warner Bros.
Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
At MegaCon, Lewis described his experience as follows (via Collider):
To be honest, when I finished Harry Potter I was about 20 or 21. I didn’t really appreciate it back thenwhat it took in terms of craftsmanship, professionalism and really hard work to succeed in the industry.
Lewis cites the well-protected Harry Potter environment as the reason. After leaving Hogwarts, he was faced with a different acting reality:
When this piece came up, I thought, “Yeah, okay, I’ll do that. Alan [Rickman] said I should do it. So I’ll do it.” I approached it the way I always did, and it was terrible. I was terrible. The reviews were terrible. I did a six-month tour, a regional tour of the UK.Despite defeat, Matthew Lewis rediscovered his passion for acting and returned to the theater
What particularly bothered him were the local news reports that reported on the production. “Brutal and merciless”, is how Lewis describes the reviews he received for Verdict. After three months it was clear to him that something had to change:
You go to a new theater every week, so you become every week insulted by a new journalist. I finally went to the director and said, “I can’t take this anymore.” And he said, “Ah, I’ve been waiting for this.” I think he knew full well that this would happen.
Lewis reports that he received a lot of support from the director:
He gave me one given a few tutoring lessons. We sat down and practiced the basics of stagecraft, finding characters, creating characters, the whole process, stuff like that.
This step back really helped Lewis find new enthusiasm for acting. After Verdict he returned to the stage for two more productions. In 2012 he delivered Our boys makes its West End debut in London. In 2016 he took on a role in Unfaithful. He has also appeared in various films and series in recent years, such as A Whole Six Months and Terminal.