A recent article on MTV.com discusses Tom Felton in the Harry Potter films as they relate his growing up on camera as graduating from hair gel to responsibility. They discuss his first landing of the role, working with Jim Broadbent again on HBP, and how not only can we see his bleach blonde hair, we can follow along with the process via Tom’s Twitter account. The article also includes a slide show of pictures featuring Tom through the ages.

Five years after Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy first set foot in Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies, the gray-eyed villain of his class has come a long way. Though he may not be using nearly as much hair gel as he did in his first year, the son from a wealthy, traditionally Slytherin family comes back to school in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” with a harder heart and a burden mounted with destiny and anger following the events of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

When Draco first enrolled at Hogwart’s, he had already inherited father Lucius’ frighteningly blond hair and racist disregard for “Mudblood” children such as Hermione Granger, who was born to non-magical parents. The Sorting Hat unsurprisingly placed Draco in Slytherin House, where he would go on to cultivate his jealous rage toward Harry, whom he envied for snagging an early spot on Gryffindor’s Quidditch team. Still too young and inexperienced to join his house’s team or pose any threat as a full-fledged Death Eater, Draco didn’t waste any time earning the allegiance of his Slytherin henchmen Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle or establishing himself as an enemy of Harry, Hermione, and Ron Weasley.

Though Tom Felton has been quoted as saying he originally wanted the role of Harry Potter, he claimed Draco Malfoy as his own from the first time he bleached his hair for “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” The musically inclined actor already had a foothold in sizable parts from 1997’s “The Borrowers” and the 1999’s “Anna and the King.” When Felton eventually found out that he had been offered the part of Draco, he reportedly hadn’t read any of J.K. Rowling’s books.

If Draco’s dark destiny was faintly evident in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the true weight of his evil responsibilities now appears to be a fully illuminated path in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Lucius Malfoy was defeated during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” implying that not only is Draco’s father now a prisoner in Azkaban; there is now a hole to be filled in the ranks of Lord Voldemort’s Death Eaters. As Voldemort’s ultimate plan unfolds, Draco is charged with the duty of fulfilling his ominous potential in his sixth year at Hogwart’s.

Felton’s acting career comes full circle in a way as “The Half-Blood Prince” reunites him with his “Borrowers” co-star Jim Broadbent, who now joins the cast to play Slytherin Potions Master Horace Slughorn. Felton, now 21, has spent more of his acting career playing Draco Malfoy than not playing Draco Malfoy, and he’s still bleaching his hair for the part — the only difference is that now Harry Potter fans can read him Twittering about the process whenever he needs to get back into character.

Source: MTV.com