For the next three weeks, “Harry Potter” actor Tom Felton — who has been in New Orleans since early October to shoot the indie golfing drama “From the Rough” — will be living and breathing “Potter” publicity ahead of the Nov. 19 release of the eagerly anticipated seventh film in the popular wizarding series.
In the meantime, though, the actor — who plays dark-side dabbler Draco Malfoy in the “Potter” films — has been determined to squeeze in as much New Orleans as possible, going so far as to rearrange his schedule to catch English rockers Muse at this weekend’s Voodoo Music Fest before he jets off to Los Angeles.
It was to be the capper to a visit that has seen first-time visitor Felton and his “From the Rough” co-stars gleefully soaking up the city’s nightlife and absorbing as much of the local vibe as possible.
“In London, New York and such, they have live music,” said Felton, a self-described music fan, “but not like here, where all of a sudden on the corner of a street someone will start playing — (there are) bands everywhere. Almost everywhere you go, you can hear a brass band within earshot.”
The positive local experience (“It’s probably the happiest I’ve been working on a film set,” Felton said) has been helped by the band-of-brothers-type bond he has formed with his co-stars, including Paul Hodge (“Rendition,” “The Road”), Robert Bailey Jr. (“Memphis Beat,” “The Happening”), Justin Chon (the “Twilight” movies) and Ben Youcef (“Munich,” “Rendition”). Their relationships, which Hodge said started on their first day shooting together (at Tad Gormley Stadium), lends the “From the Rough” set a collegial atmosphere, filled with chops-busting, wisecracking and true bromance.
“Ask him some questions about magic,” Bailey jokingly advised a visiting journalist preparing to interview Felton. “He loooves that.”
“Has he told you the score of the Battle of the Ashes?” Hodge asked, referencing the friendly golfing competition in which he’s engaged Felton at courses around the metro area.
(Hodge leads, 4-1.)
Along the way there have been shared trips to Frenchmen Street, to Bourbon Street, to the Maple Leaf Bar. And there have been enough Saints games to persuade Hodge — a newly minted member of the Who Dat Nation — to sport a black-and-gold “Believe’ wristband on the set Wednesday night.
“If there’s one thing I’m going to take away from this city — aside from 10 extra pounds and a liver transplant — I’m wearing the ‘Believe’ bracelet,” the Australian said.
Although this was the first visit to New Orleans for most of the cast, the prevailing sentiment was that it won’t be their last.
“I came in saying, ‘I’m going to New Orleans,’ ” Felton said. “Then I learned to say, ‘I’m going to New Awwwlins.’ Now I’m just saying ‘N’awlins’: ‘Aw, man, I’m going down to N’awlins.’ I love it down here. I’ll be back. I’ll be back to New Orleans.”
“From the Rough,” based on real events, stars Taraji P. Henson as the newly appointed coach of the men’s golf team at a historically black Tennessee college. With a student body short on competitive golfers, she recruits foreign golfers — white foreign golfers — to field a competitive team.
Directed by Pierre Bagley and co-produced by Jason Sciavicco of the New Orleans-based Horizon Entertainment, the movie is scheduled to wrap on Friday, with an eye toward a 2011 release.
