Tom Felton Says ‘There’s No One I Admire More’ Than Emma Watson for Taking on “Harry Potter” Role as a Young Girl

NEED TO KNOW

• Tom Felton is sharing the admiration he has for his Harry Potter costar Emma Watson

• Watson played Hermione Granger in the film series while Felton played Draco Malfoy

• In a new interview, Felton spoke about the core cast member’s strong bond, saying, “I just have huge admiration for all of them”

Tom Felton is singing his Harry Potter costar Emma Watson’s praises.

In the Thursday, Marc. 26 episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the 38-year-old actor said of Watson — who took the role of Hermione Granger as a child — “There’s no one that I admire more, really, considering being cast for such a now pivotal role in history.”

“At the time, nine years old,” Felton said of Watson’s age at the time of casting. “Not to mention the added dimension of being a young woman, a young girl going through that is another level of complexity. Needless to say, I can’t relate to that, and I can’t even experience it.”

Felton added of his cast mates: “But, you know, I just have huge admiration for all of them.”

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Harry Potter
Credit: Warner Bros.

Watson told British TV host Jonathan Ross in 2012 that she had a crush on Felton — who was 13 when he started playing Draco Malfoy — at the time of filming.

“Between the ages of 10 and 12, I had a really terrible crush on Tom Felton,” she admitted on the Jonathan Ross Show. “We love a bad guy and he was a few years older and he had a skateboard. And that just did it, really. He used to do tricks on it. He was so cool.”

Watson and Felton have reunited in the years since they wrapped production in 2011— along with the other cast mates, like Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint.

“We’re all good friends, and I like to think, ironically, Draco being somewhat the gel that keeps us all together, because we’re all in four different corners of the world at different times,” Felton said of the core cast’s bond. “We all love each other.”

He added: We’ve all been through this experience. And I have unique relationships with all of them.”

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Felton is currently reprising his role from the popular film franchise in the Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which picks up 19 years after the action in Deathly Hallows and follows the next generation of wizards as they navigate the latest Hogwarts’ mystery.

On the podcast, Felton acknowledged that the Wizarding World is “thriving.” Felton said of cast, “none of us would have ever expected people to still be as interested as they were when we finished the films — now it’s sort of like triple [the excitement].”

Added Felton of the film’s continued popularity: “I first went to Universal Studios as a kid, as my dream holiday. Imagine telling that kid, ‘In ten years-ish, you’ll come back and open up a theme park where you’re in it.’ So imagine even then saying, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll be on Broadway in ten years doing it again.’ “

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