Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince comes out on Wednesday, the sixth movie in the franchise. Two more remain; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released in two installments in 2010 and 2011. The young actors in the film went from nobodies to mega stars, getting the rare (unprecedented?) chance to star in nine films and see their faces on gazillions of action figures, lunchboxes and posters. There’s even a Harry Potter toothbrush. It’s easy to be jealous of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron) – but do they really have it made?
Radcliffe, who turns 20 in a few weeks, was just 12 when the first Harry Potter film came out. And in those last eight years, while he’s certainly been busy on his broom, he’s only starred in two non-HP films: 2007’s small Australian drama December Boys, made-for-TV movie My Boy Jack (also 2007), about Rudyard Kipling. Does the film industry only see him as everyone’s favorite wizard? He’s currently in production on The Journey is the Destination, a biopic of photojournalist Dan Eldon that’s being produced by Julia Roberts’ production company Red Om…but that’s it.
Adorable ginger Grint has starred in three films during his tenure as Harry’s BFF Ron: 2002’s kids movie Thunderpants (with Paul Giamatti), 2006’s charming dramedy Driving Lessons(with Laura Linney and Julie Walters) and this year’s R-rated wild teen adventure Cherrybomb. He also just completed Wild Targetwith Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt and Rupert Everett, about a hitman who’s thwarted by a beautiful thief. The variety of his work suggests that Harry Potter hasn’t been a typecasting trap for Grint, who turns 21 this year.
Watson basically won the lottery when casting directors plucked her from her elementary school and cast her as Hermione Granger, the brains behind many of Harry’s and Ron’s adventures. Apart from HP, she’s starred in Ballet Shoes, a 2007 period piece about three orphan girls adopted by an explorer, and she also voiced Princess Pea in 2008’s The Tale of Desperaux. She’s attached to star in Napoleon and Betsy, a romance about a young English girl’s relationship with a French emperor – but Watson says she plans to go to college rather than pursuing acting full time after HP is over. Maybe she is as brainy as Hermione after all – or maybe the world just won’t see her any other way.
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