‘Harry Potter’ stars reveal they considered quitting the franchise over fame concerns

Ahead of HBO’s celebratory Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special, the cast of childhood actors-turned international celebrities reflect on their time on set and learn new things about each other as well. 

Per ET Canada, during a new conversation between the films’ iconic trio, Rupert Grint recalled the anxiety of attaining celebrity at such a young age. He reminds Hermione Granger actress Emma Watson: “You were considering pulling out, I’ve never really spoken to you about that.”

“I think I was scared,” Watson replied, “I don’t know if you ever felt like it got to a tipping point when you were like, this is kind of forever now.” 

Grint shared his own worries. According to Digital Spy, Grint now realizes all three of them must have felt similarly.

I also had kind of similar feelings to Emma, kind of contemplating what life would be like if I called it a day. But we never really spoke about it, I guess we were just kind of going through it at our own pace, and we were kind of in the moment at the time. It just didn’t really occur to us that we were all probably having similar feelings.

Of course, the fame affected the boy at the center of the juggernaut franchise as well. “We never really spoke about it,” Daniel Radcliffe said, “I guess we were just going through it at our own pace, we were kind of in the moment at the time. It just didn’t really occur to us that we were all probably kind of having similar feelings.”

But Watson did choose to come back film after film: “The fame thing had finally hit home – in a big way,” she said “No-one had to convince me to see it through.” And it was the series’ fans that helped push her to stay. “The fans genuinely wanted me to succeed and they all genuinely have each other’s backs. How great is that?”

Other details from previews include Watson’s crush on Felton. ET Canada reports Watson opened up publicly about her crush on the man behind Draco Malfoy. But, “he was three years above me and so for him he was like, ‘You’re like my little sister’.”

Felton saw it that way too. “I became very protective over her,” he said, “Yeah, I’ve always had a soft spot for her and that continues to this day.”

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts premieres on HBO Max on Jan. 1.