Harry Potter star Harry Melling, who famously played Dudley Dursley in the franchise, has revealed he never wanted to be shackled to the movies.
The Harry Potter films began being released in 2001, with Melling taking on a major supporting role as Harry’s cousin Dudley.
Melling played this role in five of the eight films, recently having a resurgence in fame after appearing in the TV series The Queen’s Gambit, and in the new BDSM love story Pillion with Alexander Skarsgard.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the star revealed that he never planned to be ‘shackled’ to the franchise.
‘Harry Potter is this huge, huge franchise, and I never wanted to be in any way shackled to it. I always wanted to have a really big career and try lots of different things,’ he said.
‘I guess it’s like saying, imagine if an article you wrote when you were 10 was like the article. You’d be like, “Oh, no, come on guys. There’s so many great people I’ve interviewed since then!”
‘So it is a really interesting relationship you enter when dealing with something as huge as Potter.’
He added that he had always had an interest in theatre and had wanted to be a stage actor in his youth.
‘Even when I was doing Harry Potter, I was obsessed with theatre. Theatre was my main love in a strange way. It was the thing that I was completely obsessed with.
‘Even as a 10-year-old, I knew that I wanted to learn how to speak Shakespeare properly and to be a stage actor. A lot of the more senior actors in the Harry Potter world were all these incredible stage actors — and I wanted to have that career. Then going to drama school changes what you want in coming out the other side.’
The actor has been praised for his new film Pillion, with Metro‘s Tori Brazier calling the film ‘delightfully smutty and obscene’.
She commented: ‘Pillion is often graphic and explicit – and while you might not see that many penises, you know exactly what is going where and how by the camerawork and facial gymnastics – with glimpses of bodily fluids and anatomy sprinkled throughout. And it all adds up to something which feels delightfully smutty and obscene.’
The movie follows a BDSM relationship between enigmatic biker Ray (Skarsgård) and parking attendant wallflower Colin (Melling) and is written and directed by British filmmaker Harry Lighton in his feature-length debut.
The film does not hold back in its depiction of the kinky subculture, including the usual dog collars and patent black leather alongside naked wrestling, genital piercings, bodily fluids and the immortal line: ‘Buy yourself a butt pug, you’re too tight.’
Alexander Skarsgård reveals his dad, Stellan Skarsgård’s freaky’ reaction to his new film, revealing the Mamma Mia actor loved the film and his on-theme dressing for the press tour.
Describing his reaction, 49-year-old Alexander told On Demand Entertainment: ‘He really enjoyed it. It meant a lot to me because it’s very dear to me, this film.
‘It was a beautiful day to have – I was in the theatre, and to sit next to Dad and watch him watch this thing was special. The fact that he really responded to it meant a lot to me.’
The True Blood star, who has also really enjoyed dressing on theme for the film’s press tour, then added: ‘No notes from daddy.’
This four-word remark has both shocked and tickled people online.
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