Matthew Lewis on ‘Harry Potter’ cast avoiding ‘pitfalls of being a child actor’: 'Together’

Matthew Lewis believes there was one thing especially that kept the “child actors” on the cast of Harry Potter from becoming the victims of “carrying” all the “pressure” alone.

During a solo panel at Rhode Island Comic Con on Sunday, Nov. 3, the 35-year-old actor reflected on his experience working on the popular film series that catapulted him and his co-stars, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, to worldwide fame. 

During the panel’s Q&A, Lewis shared his perspective on why the franchise’s young cast managed to avoid many of the challenges that often follow child stars in the spotlight.

“One of the questions that was asked earlier about the pitfalls of being a child actor that we seem to have avoided, I would posit that a large degree of that was because we were all there together,” he explained.

“Frequently, you hear many stories of how they were the sole actor in that movie and having to carry that movie on their own and all of the pressures and anxieties that come with that. Whereas, we were all kind together.”

Lewis continued that “a lot of the fears that we had were all shared and the thing not really of anymore for anyone else in the world will never be able to understand really what we went through and how it affected our personal lives except each other.”

He also gushed that it was “wonderful” and “lots of fun” working with the cast for all those years.

“It's one of the things that I've carried with me is those friendships,” Lewis shared. “I don't go back and read the books. One of the only things that I still kind of hold onto is those relationships that we forged throughout those films.”

Lewis played the role of Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter film series.