While Tom was on vacation in Majorca last week, he had the opportunity to speak with their Daily Bulletin while partaking in the island’s Pirates Adventure Uncut show, the same program he saw the “kiddie” version of last year when he visited in support of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity. In the interview, Tom gives further detail on his role in The Apparition, his upcoming journey to Canada for Rise of the Apes, and his music.
Feltbeats Admin Tick Tock has lovingly transcribed the newspaper article for easier reading. You can see the original scans of Tom’s interview here in our photo galleries.
Tom Felton, alias Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series of films, is currently enjoying a few days off on the island before heading out to Vancouver next week to begin filming Rise of the Apes, a 20th Century Fox prequel to Planet of the Apes.
Later this year, the first of the final Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be released, with part two, the end of the eight-film saga, due to be released in July next year, and Felton admitted to the Bulletin yesterday that being one of the main characters in the Potter saga has not only been a fantastic experience but a unique one which no actors will probably experience again.
“I very much doubt a series of films like this will ever be produced again, and, yes, this is the end of Harry Potter, unless JK Rowling starts writing again, and I would love to return to the part,” he said. “It’s also been a great stepping stone and a wonderful chance to work with the cream of British film and stage. It has been a truly inspirational cast, and, for us, being so young when we started out on the first film, we’ve learnt so much from these legendary actors and actresses as well as producers and directors,” he added. “I guess it’s a mixed emotion now it’s all over. One the one hand it was a wonderful experience and great fun, but on the other it is kind of sad,” he said.
However, Felton is a man of many talents. He had a cameo part playing himself in the hit comedy Get Him to the Greek and will soon be seen in The Apparition, which is described as a sci-fi/horror/thriller, which was shot on location, in Berlin, mostly, and then Los Angeles. “It’s based on a true story, actually. It is inspired about a supernatural attendance unleashed by a college experiment called the Phillips Experiment,” he explained. “I play the scientist responsible for unleashing the apparition, which does not quite turn out as we expected, and then have to try and contain it some two years later.”
And now he’s off to Canada for a four-week shoot on the 90 million dollar The Rise of the Apes, in which he plays an expert at a primate facility for young apes.
He is not going to be playing the ape!
“It’s got a great script and cast: John Lithgow, Frieda Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), James Franco, Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings), and the larger than life Brian Cox, and I’m really excited about getting on set,” he said yesterday.
But Tom is also branching out into the world of music. “Nothing’s been signed, sealed, and delivered,” he was quick to stress yesterday, but he may well be swapping magic for music. “Music has always been one of my big passions, and I’m in talks with various people about getting involved in Six Strings Productions, which is an independent record label. Primarily, my desire is to help young, talented musicians, of which there are so many, who are scared of signing up with the big labels and getting turned over. The project is still up in the air, but I hope we can make it work because I really want to help young musicians,” he explained. He admitted that he is also a singer/song-writer, “nothing too serious”, but he has recorded a few tracks and there may be room for some form of “coalition” within the new project that he gets to record some music as well.
So, after what will have been eight Harry Potter films – he auditioned when he was 12 and is now [22] – by the time the final part is released next summer, Felton is neither short of work nor ideas. He has not seen the final Potter films yet, but he knows they are going to be the best. “The whole production company (which includes his girlfriend Jade, who is the assistant stunt coordinator) and cast really wanted to end the series on a major high, and, obviously, they are both more adult than the previous ones as they have had to grow with the characters. But I know the director David Yates, who’s directed these last four, put everything he could into [them], his heart and soul – we all did, I guess. They are both more violent and darker than the others; there are more battles and, of course, deaths. We’re nearing the end, so it’s all going to be very exciting, and we all wanted these two last chapters, in particular the final, to be the piece de resistance, and, from what I have seen, Potter fans and movie-goers in general are in for a real treat,” he said. “But I can’t give too much away,” he added.
Tom was also at the opening of the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando and said it is an amazing place. “They used most of the films’ set and costume designers and crew to build and design it, so it really is authentic. It is hugely impressive,” he stressed.
After having been one of the stars of the greatest series of films to have been made to date, Felton has plenty of options and open doors, but he appears to be quite relaxed about what the future will bring. He admits he may spend some time “across the pond”.
That is providing JK Rowling does not start writing again, though.
