Matt Lewis Interview with “Rip it Up”

Matt Lewis (Neville Longbottom) is in Australia for the Supanova Pop Culture Expo. Whilst on the Aussie shores, Matt was able to give a few quotes to the Australian news website, Rip it Up. The article talks of Matt’s post-Potter roles, and the totally different path he has taken since being characterized as the beloved, heroic dork, Neville Longbottom. Matt realizes that fans of his career are largely Harry Potter fans, and for that he is grateful! He is grateful for us–you, me, us! Rip It Up reports:

“Lewis wrapped up filming for anticipated drama Me Before You earlier this year, based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Jojo Moyes. Lewis stars alongside Game of Thronesfavourite Emilia Clarke and The Hunger Games’ Sam Claflin, both of whom he loved working with. “It was just a really nice environment on set [with them], and the book that the script is based on is a lovely piece of literature,” he tells ripitup.com.au. Me Before You is scheduled for release in June of next year.

Lewis has also been flitting between England and Ireland this year while working on two television shows, Happy Valley and Ripper Street. When we caught up with Lewis, he was back in London briefly after a stint in Manchester shooting for Happy Valley, sniffling and coughing down the line. “I’ve come back here [to London] for the moment – I’ve got this cold because it’s miserable here,” he says. “The last few days have been pretty intense. I can’t really say what I was doing without giving away too much of my character, but it was intense and I’m quite rundown.”

Lewis’s career has evidently evolved to comprise a diverse range of acting roles since his younger days as the bumbling, faithful Neville Longbottom. He tells ripitup.com.au that he has enjoyed working on television sets, and that he likes having the freedom to move between film and television work. But what are Lewis’s thoughts on Neville five years after the wrap-up of Harry Potter?

“I’ve done quite a few weirdly different things to Neville since then. I feel like in my career I’ve definitely moved on, but it’s still such a massive part of my life – it’s not something that you can easily forget,” he states. “It’s been the very foundation of the rest of my career, particularly amongst the fanbase. I’m very, very fortunate to have some incredibly fantastic fans. I’m under no illusion that the vast majority are fans of Harry Potter and that’s not a bad thing. I don’t mind at all.”

Lewis says that while it is difficult to remain in close contact with the cast and crew of Harry Potter since many have moved around the world to pursue other projects, he still speaks to his colleagues from the film set regularly. “I saw David Yates and David Heyman, the director and producer of Harry Potter, at the weekend. I saw J.K. Rowling at the weekend as well, and chatted to her about the film and the play she’s doing.”

To read more of this interview, about Matt’s favorite (Harry Potter) fan moment, read the original interview here. The Supanova Pop Culture expo will be the weekend of November 20-22. Other Harry Potter actors and many other stars are on the star-studded celebrity lineup. Ticket information is availabe on the Supanova website, here.