27th March, Mumbai: Three young children were propelled from anonymity and into the international spotlight more than 20 years ago when they were cast as the main characters in a high-profile franchise adaptation of one of the most well-known stories of all time.
When they were introduced at a press conference in 2000, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint were 11, 10, and 11, respectively. On November 16, 2001, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” made its debut in the United States. They would spend the following ten years playing leading roles in the immensely popular film series adapted from J.K. Rowling’s books. They did better than most child performers, in my opinion. Even so, it wasn’t necessarily simple.
In the words of Dina Sartore-Bodo, managing editor of HollywoodLife.com, “The three of them share a kinship that no one else could ever relate to.” “They belonged to a series with a devoted fanbase that was yearning for every aspect of the movies to match what they had imagined in the novels. They were the biggest stars of their day. That is a lot of strain.” According to Meghan Gillen, an associate professor of psychology at Penn State Abington who specialises in developmental psychology and body image, fame for child actors not only brings glamour and money but also changes in relationships with peers and parents, adult responsibilities, and intense media and public scrutiny about their appearance or identity. Childhood celebrity is frequently exalted, claims Gillen. Yet we must also respect their humanity. After filming “Home Alone” and “Mrs. Doubtfire,” which sent Macaulay Culkin and Mara Wilson into the public eye, director Chris Columbus, who oversaw the first two “Potter” movies, witnessed firsthand how popularity might harm young actors. Both have later discussed their troubles with celebrity as children, and Columbus would discover he needed to put the safety of the children in his movies first in order to avoid what he called a “onslaught of notoriety.” Columbus gave the young “Potter” players this advise in 2001: “We’re just working, it’s just a movie.” “I try to teach the youngsters that. No weekend at Michael Jackson’s residence, I say to them. Nothing of the sort. Don’t leave. That incident involved Macaulay. Don’t let the whole star thing get to you. It’s vacant.”
An further obstacle to being swept up in the Hollywood frenzy was filming in England. Columbus recalled at the time, “I originally didn’t want the kids to travel to America and do Letterman and Leno and all that things.” “If they stayed here, completed the publicity, and then moved on to their next film, I believed they would be lot more grounded. The good news is that they’ll leave to accomplish it and return immediately. We’ll all be encircling each other as we return to the working world and the way things were.” Drinking helped Daniel Radcliffe deal with fame. Emma Watson as a child, experienced sexualization from the male population in no time due to her fame and looks. After “Potter,” Grint vanished from view for a while. He made appearances in a number of independent English movies and TV shows, but none of them received the same level of praise as his time as Ron Weasley.
A year ago, he made a brief return to the public eye by creating an Instagram account with the caption “10 years too late” to post the first picture of his newborn child with girlfriend Georgia Groome (yes, the actress from “Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging”).