Obviously, when you're in theater, you have to be in character. You have to prepare for the unexpected. You have to be able to react to things that don't necessarily happen every night, or aren't supposed to happen every night. And you have to react to it in character. In six months, 192 shows, those things did happen. And the experience of that, the ability to stay in character, I feel like I've learned a great deal.
Matthew LewisYou hear about all the great British thespians doing stuff on the West End and that kind of thing, and I missed out on that. Alan Rickman actually suggested to me that I should try it. And I thought, "Geez, I really don't want to do that." But he must have recommended it for a reason, so when an opportunity came up, I took it. And it was tough. It was hard! But by the end of it, I absolutely loved it.
Matthew LewisI never contemplated. I just went in there and did my acting. I never thought, "What's the character actually feeling here? What's he trying to get across?" And never looked at it from that classically trained actor's point of view.
Matthew LewisWhat I've found is that stage is very much a foundation of acting. It's where it all began and you're working with that repetition.
Matthew LewisI don't think leave the Harry Potter franchise. Not wanting to act, yes. I think it was that stage of rebellion, really. Everyone goes through it. I thought, "I've been an actor. My parents are proud of me being an actor. I want to do something else." I wanted to join the Army, actually, or be in the Air Force, or something like that. I still wouldn't mind doing that. Obviously, it's a bit late for me now.
Matthew LewisI think as an actor you're always learning, you're always trying to experience more things.
Matthew LewisI think David Yates was just like, "You've got on with it for a few years, I'm gonna let you off the hook." And also, I think it's because the action side of stuff that we were doing, it was going to be very difficult to do all that with all the prosthetics on. It was gonna be hard work, and I think they just said, "You know what?" I think they put a level of trust in me, as well. They said, "You know, we're gonna let Neville Longbottom lose the fat suit, lose the teeth, lose the Adolf Hitler hair."
Matthew Lewis