Your best source for Matt Lewis news
Earlier this morning we were at a press conference for the Diagon Alley Media Preview and during the event Matthew Lewis along with James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Evanna Lynch and Thierry Coup (Senior Vice President, Universal Creative) announced that Diagon Alley will be open on July 8th.
We will have a full video of the announcement later tonight or tomorrow!
Universal also released a new commercial which can be seen here.
Universal has released a schedule of webcasts that will take place during this week’s Diagon Alley press event And Matthew Lewis will be giving a tour of Diagon Alley. We’re here and will bring you all the latest! Keep up with our Twitter: @MatthewLewisCom (and @MM_Official for general Potter updates)
LIVE WEBCAST #1
THE DIAGON ALLEY™ RED CARPET EVENT
WEDNESDAY JUNE 18, 8PM–9PM EST
WEBCAST #2
ALL ABOARD: A JOURNEY ON THE HOGWARTS™
EXPRESS WITH OLIVER AND JAMES PHELPS
THURSDAY JUNE 19, 12PM-12:15PM EST
LIVE WEBCAST #3
BEHIND THE BRICKS: A TOUR OF DIAGON ALLEY™
WITH TOM FELTON AND MATTHEW LEWIS
FRIDAY JUNE 20, 12PM-12:30PM EST
It has been announced today that Matthew Lewis has been cast in a new film, The Brontes, which, according to their Twitter description, is “the first big-budget, English language, feature-length biopic film of the Bronte siblings.” Their Facebook also has a date of April 2016 attached to the film, but release dates are always subject to change.
Matt has been cast as Branwell Bronte, the only male sibling in the story. IMDB has a short description of the story, which is as follows:
After moving to Haworth in 1820 and following the premature death of their mother, the young Bronte siblings Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne begin to lose themselves in writing fiction as their father, the local vicar, struggles to keep the family together. When the sisters’ novels, published under male pseudonyms, become world-famous they must learn to balance their fame and their new-found wealth with their anonymity.
Wikipedia has a short page with information on Branwell if you want to brush up on your history. He was a painter, a writer and a poet, the only son of the Brontë family.
The film’s director and writer, David Anthony Thomas, had this to say of the casting: I’m really excited to be working with Matthew Lewis on The Brontes. Matthew’s been my first choice to play Branwell Bronte since we first started working on the production and I’m delighted that he’s agreed to play the role.
We will of course keep you updated as more information is revealed!
In a new interview with Ideas Tap, Matt Lewis gives aspiring young actors a number of tips on auditions and more. The full interview may be read in our press archive.
What were you most looking forward to doing when you finished Harry Potter?
What I really wanted to do was get another job. That was my main concern. When you’ve done a film series like that you have to be philosophical: I’m not expecting to do anything as big as that ever again. I just want to be working.
In the beginning, when I was going to meetings, I felt that I had to first convince them that I wasn’t Neville Longbottom before I could convince them I was somebody else. But I think a lot of that was more in my own mind than anything else.
What do you do to prepare for auditions?
There’s so much out there that I’ve found helpful – books written by casting directors, guidelines for auditions, books on Stanislavski technique. As soon as I get my script, I put my phone on silent and I sit and read through it and really try to immerse myself in it.
You can’t over-emphasis the importance of preparation. If you’re doing an accent, speak in that accent up until the moment you go in. If I’m going into a room to do a scene I want to know that scene back to front: what everyone’s motivation is and just know the scene completely – not just the lines.
What advice would you give adult actors for working with child actors?
I just remember how terrifying it was, working as a kid. I was so nervous around the older actors and thought, “Oh, are they going to be judging everything that I’m doing? Do they think I’m crap and is that why he’s not talking to me?” And that’s not true at all – it’s just that they are obviously engrossed in their own performances.
One thing I’ve always tried to do, working with kids since then, is talk to them and make them feel as comfortable as possible. Sometimes young people on a film set can feel excluded. You’re expecting these people to work like adults and be as professional and mature as adults so you’ve got to involve them.
Michael Gambon used to tell some really naughty jokes, when I was a kid. He wouldn’t tell them to us, but he’d be telling them to someone else and you’d overhear. I don’t think the parents liked it very much but for us that made him seem so much more human and more approachable. That made me more relaxed.
“I found it really uncomfortable in America at the final Harry Potter premiere because it became a “thing” in the press that I looked very different,” says Matthew of the 2011 event that marked the end of his time in the most successful film franchise ever. “I didn’t think [my transformation] was more drastic than any other kid’s. I’d had to wait until I was 21 to have my teeth done, which was pretty s**t! But I didn’t like being scrutinized, so I hired a publicist and said: “look, after this, can I just go away for a bit? Can I just go home?”
But things didn’t exactly calm down for the Leeds-born actor when he got back to Yorkshire. “Soon after, I turned the Christmas lights on in a little town near my home and then went into this church hall, and hundreds of kids stormed in zombie-style,” laughs Matthew. “The police had to get me and my mum out of there in a riot van.”
“It’s like I lead a double life,” says Matthew. “I can enjoy the fun things that come with acting but then I try to be as normal as humanly possible and see all my old mates who don’t give a s**t about what I do. I’ve taken my best mate to all the Potter premieres, but he’s only seen two of the films because he fell asleep. We’ll go to a pub quiz and they find it hilarious when a Harry Potter question comes up as I never know the answers.”
Thanks to LlamaDuckies for the image!