Tom Felton’s autobiography: alcohol, three admissions to rehab and an impossible love with Emma Watson

Tom Felton (Epsom, United Kingdom, 35 years old) rose to fame for playing Draco Malfoy in the saga of the eight Harry Potter films and became one of the best-known characters, despite his enmity with the protagonist. 11 years after the release of the last film, the British actor published on Tuesday his memoir, in whose promotion he is immersed, entitled Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard(whose translation could be Beyond the wand: magic and chaos of growing up as a wizard, edited by Penguin and not yet published in Spanish). In it he tells the ups and downs of his life during the recording of Harry Potter and how he has lived this subsequent decade.

The interpreter has acknowledged that he began to abuse alcohol – from “several pints a day” to the shots of whiskey with which he was accompanying them – in his twenties to try to escape from the mental situation in which he found himself then, after finishing the recordings, although in the fragments that have reached the press he does not specify what his condition was. First it was his manager, who was also his girlfriend at the time, who asked him to seek help. However, if he finally entered rehab it was thanks to a conversation he had with his lawyer. “I had barely seen him in person, but he spoke to me in a very honest way,” the actor acknowledges about his meeting with the lawyer who, as he recalls, was very sincere in his words: “I don’t know you very well, but you seem like a good Type. I just want to tell you that this is the 17th intervention that I have done in my career for this reason. 11 of those people are dead. Don’t be number 12.”

A few words that helped him take the step and deal with the problem. The first time he was admitted, to a clinic in Malibu (California, USA), it did not last even 24 hours. On the second attempt, he was expelled from another center for breaking the rules, since he broke into a female room. Although he managed to stabilize his life and give up alcohol, there was a third admission to a clinic. “Honestly, I can say that it was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make. But the fact that he was able to admit that he needed help, and that he had to do something about it, was an important moment, ”says Felton. “I’m no longer ashamed to raise my hand and say, ‘I’m not okay.’

Years later, Felton admits that he had “complicated issues” to solve and turning to drink was his way out. Telling his story, the actor wants to help others who are going through the same situation and hopes to eliminate the stigma associated with going to therapy and detox clinics: “In no way do I want to soften the idea of ​​going to therapy, it is a first step. difficult to give, but I want to do my part to normalize it. I think we all need it in one way or another, so why isn’t it normal to talk honestly about our feelings?” He is not the first actor in the saga who has admitted to having problems with alcohol. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) also said that he had resorted to drinking in moments of weakness.

Emma Watson and Tom Felton at an awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London in September 2003.Brian Rasic (Getty Images)

In the book, Felton also looks back on his time as a teenager while playing Draco Malfoy. He has confessed that he fell in love with his co-star, Emma Watson, who played the witch Hermione Granger, something that was reciprocal, but that did not come to fruition due to a matter of time. “I love her and admire her as a person in a way that she wouldn’t be able to explain,” he recounts in her memoir. But, perhaps to the disappointment of many fans, although they both felt something for each other and a certain feeling arose between them, nothing ever happened between them. Something that Watson herself told a few months ago and that now Felton has been in charge of confirming. “I always had a secret crush on Emma, ​​but maybe not in the way that people would like to hear,” he wrote in an excerpt from his memoir published by the British newspaper. The Evening Standard. “That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a spark between us. There was, without a doubt, only at different times.”

In the special program for the anniversary of Harry Potter, released by HBO in the new year, Watson remembered what that spark had been for her. “I walked into the room where we had private lessons during the shoot. We had been given an assignment to draw our personal image of God and Tom drew a girl on a skateboard with a hat on the back. I don’t know how to say it, I just fell in love with him,” said the young woman. In the same special, Felton acknowledged that he had always felt a special connection with her. Now they maintain a close friendship and only the ashes of what was a childhood platonic love at Hogwarts remain.

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Tom Felton’s autobiography: alcohol, three admissions to rehab and an impossible love with Emma Watson