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Touch Football Australia interviewed Matt Lewis while he was attending the KidsXpressLife #TouchofColour Charity football match in Sydney on November 27th. He talks about his work as a Vice President of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation back when he lived in Leeds as well as Rugby League and touch football in general.
“We caught up with actor Matt Lewis at the KidsXpress Touch of Colour Charity Day at Allianz Stadium to talk all things Rugby League and Touch Football.”
While in Adelaide, Matt Lewis talked to The Iris about going to fan conventions, his work on the Potter films and why he thinks the Harry Potter films resonate with so many people!
“The phenomenon that was Harry Potter is still beguiling to me,” Lewis admits. “How huge it was and the fact that I’m on the other side of the world and people are fans, it’s very humbling and very spectacular. You think that eventually people will get bored of it and will die out, but it doesn’t! Generation after generation of kids just keep falling in love with it and I think it’s testament to what Jo wrote and that universe and how vivid that world is.”
On the experience of being in the films, Matt said:
“It’s a unique thing we did that I don’t think anyone could recreate it,” he says. “The fact is that none of us had to go through that on our own, we got to experience it together and it’s something we’ll always have. We’ll always have Paris, as it were.”
“I’m an incredibly lucky human being to have been a part of that.” Lewis continues. “It’s just something I can’t really quantify. I feel very privileged and the fact that I’m still working five, six years later, is because of those movies. My career now is completely based on what I did in those films and I’m playing characters that are so wildly different; I’ve got something coming out next year where I’m about as far from Neville as you could get, he’s pretty horrible, actually! It all comes off the back of that and as you say, the unique experience we went through. It’s nice because everyone is so lovely and so fantastic and I still have so many friends from those films, whether they’re the adult guys at the time, [Alan] Rickman or Robbie Coltrane, or Dan [Radcliffe] and Emma [Watson] and all those guys – everyone is such a close bunch, it’s nice to still have that.”
Matt Lewis also discusses why he thinks people love the Harry Potter books and films so much. We think he hit the nail on the head with this one, beautifully said.
“With Harry Potter, it’s that the universe lives parallel to our world – it’s always nice when you’re a young kid and school might be a bit shitty or you don’t know what you want to do with your life, to suddenly find out that you’re meant for something else, there’s something about you that’s a little bit special that no one else will understand. There’s something about that that is amazing and I think the thing about Harry Potter is that it keeps that dream alive. No matter how old you get, there’s always that dream of one day having someone come along and go, ‘You were right the whole time, you are special, and behind this brick wall, there’s this whole world you’re about to go to. You’re a bloody hero there.’ When I think about it as a fantasy world, that’s what I think is the most attractive thing about it.”
Matt Lewis will be playing in the KidsXpressLife #TouchofColour Charity football match in Sydney, Australia this coming Friday. The match is being held at Allianz Stadium on Friday November 27th. The stadium will be open to anybody interested in supporting Touch of Colour, and GSA invites everybody to come and enjoy what is set to be a action-packed inaugural event.
According to this image on Facebook, there will be various matches from 12pm – 3:45pm with a trophy presentation at 4:30. There are 4 pools with 5 teams each that will all be vying for the trophy. Matthew’s team has not been announced but we will update the post if/when that happens.
Touch of Colour is a Celebrity Touch Football Match being held in honour of KidsXpress, an expressive therapy program for children impacted by trauma. You can donate to the cause by visiting this page.
KidsXpress is a world-first therapy program for children 4-14yrs impacted by trauma or challenge. KidsXpress harnesses creativity and the healing potential of the arts to help children to develop positive, healthy coping mechanisms for life. Through the therapeutic use of music, art, play and drama KidsXpress supports children in need to find a healthy and safe way in which to cope with life both now and into their future.
In another new interview ahead of his appearance at Supernova Pop Culture Expo, Matt Lewis talks about Me Before You, Harry Potter and more! He also mentions that he will be playing in a charity rugby match in Sydney, we will post details if we find out more on this.
When talking about conventions he says there’s something for everyone: “I’ve not done one (convention) for a long while, and this opportunity came up to come to Australia. I’m pretty sure some people on the outside would say ‘that’s a bit geeky for me’, but I just think it would be impossible for someone to go there and not find some TV, film or something they are a fan of. I’m a self-proclaimed geek; I love Star Wars, Star Trek.”
He also briefly discusses Me Before You, which will be released on March 4th.
“It is based on a book by JoJo Moyes and it is just a beautiful, beautiful book and I think it is a really faithful re-telling and I hope people enjoy that,” Lewis said.
“I play Emilia’s boyfriend Patrick, this moronic personal trainer. She plays a small town girl who is kind of settled and quite content and suddenly she finds a job looking after Sam Clafin’s character who was in a motorcycle accident and is a quadriplegic.
“He sort of challenges her and opens her eyes to this big world outside this little town she’s never left and she starts to think that maybe she doesn’t love her boyfriend.”
As usual, he can’t get away from the interview without talking about Harry Potter. He reveals who he was most excited to work with during filming, Rik Myall as Peeves, even though his scenes were eventually cut from the film.
“At the time when I was 11, he was just everything I wanted to be, his sense of humour, how manic he was on stage, I could just watch him endlessly and laugh and laugh,” he said.
“To have worked with him was pretty special. However they had time issues and with how technology was at the time, they could not quite make Peeves the Poltergeist as good as they wanted it to look.
“Also one of the main reasons he was cut was that none of us could do the scenes with him without laughing. He was just so talented and such an energy so as 11-year-old kids we could not do it. We could not get through a single scene without laughing.”
[…]
“I was totally blown away and I’d read the books as well, so to see the sets in their grandeur and splendour was a pretty special moment for me,” he said.
“I’ll never forget my first day at work at the castle and I was riding the broomstick for the film, it was the first time I’d ever been asked to do a stunt on a film, which was pretty cool.
“I was sitting there strapped to a big truck with a crane and a broomstick being driven around, it was just amazing as an 11-year-old kid to be doing that and people were telling me it was work, that was just the most amazing thing.”
While in Australia for Supernova Pop Culture Expo, Matt Lewis was on the Lewis and Lowe Podcast to chat about some of his upcoming projects and what he plans to do in Australia. Listen to the interview here.
The interview is mostly chatting about his flight over, the other guests and Supernova, his plans while he’s in Australia as well as the recent obsession with his “hotness.” Read below for a transcript of some of the more pertinent questions.
Lewis & Lowe: I was doing some research […] and this doesn’t sound real, but I was reading about when you were filming Harry Potter being Neville Longbottom, that Helena Bonham Carter put her wand in your ear and ruptured your ear drum. Is that true?
Matt Lewis: That is absolutely true. It really hurt. It was in number five, and she was sort of torturing Neville in the scene and she had this idea, as it’s quite a sinister character that she played, she thought she’d stick the wand in my ear…
Lewis & Lowe: And she actually did it?
Matt Lewis: Yea, all the way. Perforated my eardrum. But being the professional I am I just carried on. It actually was the best take, they used it in the film. I’m fine now! I can hear you perfectly.
Lewis & Lowe: What are you up to now? Doing stage stuff?
Matt Lewis: Not at the minute. I’ve done a few bits and bobs. I just finished a film with Emilia Clarke which is out in March called Me Before You.
Lewis & Lowe: Is it good?
Matt Lewis: I’ve not seem the film yet, but the book it’s based on is brilliant, by Jojo Moyes and it’s a really really great novel. So fingers crossed we’ve made a good job of the film as well. Time will tell.
Update: Thanks to acciomattdavelewis you can listen to the interview below: