Evanna Lynch talks new film, Harry Potter, and the new additions to the Potter Universe.

Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) recently visited Galway, in her home country of Ireland, for the premiere of her new film My Name is Emily. In this new film, Evanna plays a sixteen year old who loses her mother. Not coping well with grief, her father takes off, and Emily (Evanna) takes a road trip with a friend to get him back. While Evanna discussed this new post-Potter project, she also talked much of her Harry Potter days when she played Luna Lovegood, as well as her thoughts on Fantastic Beasts and Cursed Child. As a fan of the series, like the rest of us, she is glad that J.K. Rowling is expanding the Harry Potter Universe. Evanna said that she is not ready to let go of her love for the series, and she’s glad that Jo isn’t either. UTV Ireland reports:

Though she is happy to free herself from the shackles of Potter, she sees it now as a good learning ground and a way she can capture the attention of directors of future projects.

“People still call me Luna,” she laughs. “I wouldn’t be where I am without it. I was very shy when I was young and I think it’s really hard to be shy as an actor, because you have to be quite aggressive and get out there. You have to want to meet people and for them to see you. It’s only opened doors for me. It’s up to me if I want to change it or challenge it.”

But fame isn’t why she’s in it. She auditioned for Luna because she felt like she was her, in a way, rather than to build a career as an actor.

“I didn’t get nervous the way I sometimes do now, because I was 14 and I absolutely loved the films and books. I didn’t think of the pressure and what people expected of it; I was just enjoying it so much. Sometimes I look back and I’m glad I was so naïve! But I’m grateful that I had that.”

She’s a Potter fan at heart, though, and says she’s very excited about the upcoming London play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

“I just love that [J.K. Rowling] is constantly feeding us more. I don’t think any of us are willing to move on from those stories that we grew up with. I don’t think she wants to move on either. I love that she’s always reinventing it or finding new ways into it.”

Lynch is keen to be involved [in Fantastic Beasts] and says she has asked Warner Bros if she can play “some creature so you can’t see my face, but I’m there”.

“I’m fascinated by that world and to see what the wizards are like with American accents. I’d love to be [in it] but I think I have my place in the universe,” she declares.

Since Potter, Lynch has appeared in the television series Sinbad, comedy GBF, crime thriller Dynamite: A Cautionary Tale, and toured in a production playing the wife and assistant of Houdini.

Evanna talks more of her post-Potter films, My Name is Emily, a BBC drama in which she plays Lenny Henry’s Irish girlfriend, and expresses her love to be in Artemis Fowl. To read more of this extensive interview and Evanna’s comments, please visit UTV Ireland.