Harry Potter star Bonnie Wright has admitted that she was “disappointed” by her character’s lack of screen time in the hit movie franchise.
Wright, who is now 32 and expecting her first child, was cast as Ginny Weasley, the youngest of Ron Weasley’s (Rupert Grint) six sibilings and Harry Potter’s (Daniel Radcliffe) future wife, when she was only nine years old.
On Tuesday’s episode of Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast, the actress opened up about how Ginny lost out in being a true part of the films.
Wright began by saying there was “anxiety” about doing Ginny and her limited scenes justice.
She explained: “I definitely feel there was anxiety toward performing and doing the best thing as my character built,” Wright said. “Like, ‘Oh gosh, will I do justice to this character that people love?'”
Wright said it was “always hard to do” the beloved character justice especially since many of her scenes and the scenes of every character were “chopped down from the book to the film.”
The actress said: “So you didn’t really have as much to show in the film. Sometimes that was a little disappointing because there were parts of the character that just didn’t get to come through because there weren’t the scenes to do that.”
She added: “That made me feel a bit anxious or just frustrated, I guess.”
In the franchise’s first film, 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Wright initially didn’t have any lines.
Wright’s actual first line was given to her by director Chris Columbus on the day.
Ginny tells Harry “good luck” when he’s about to go through the barrier at platform 9 and 3/4.
When Wright auditioned for Ginny, producers told her to read some of Hermione’s lines because they didn’t have any other scenes for her to read.
Wright said: “They were like, ‘You’re just going to have to read this character.'”
At the time, Wright didn’t have a clue that her character would later marry the titular character.
The series was still being written by author J.K. Rowling.
The soon-to-be mother said she didn’t have conversations with producers about Ginny having more scenes because “there was no room for much change in those scripts.”
Wright explained: “There were a million executives going through them all. I think what I maybe took, which I don’t take so much to heart now, is I kind of felt that maybe my anxiety was about, ‘Oh, I’m going to be seen as badly portraying this character,’ rather than later realizing that I wasn’t really given the opportunity to do that. So it wasn’t really my fault, exactly.”
The actress said that when fans share that disappointment, they do it in a way that lets Wright know they aren’t blaming her; they are simply wishing there was more of Ginny.
Wright said: “And that’s the same of every character. If only they could be five-hour-long movies.”
Early last year, Wright reunited with her Harry Potter co-stars for a Max special celebrating the first film’s 20th anniversary.
The streaming platform has also announced a TV series based on all seven books.
