While the Harry Potter films introduced a whole new generation of young actors to Hollywood, for some, the limelight simply proved too much to deal with.
Though Emma Watson – who shot to fame as Hermione Granger in the films, penned by JK Rowling – later found roles in everything from Little Women to The Bling Ring, she decided to take a break from acting after almost 20 years.
She said at the time: “I think I felt a bit caged. The thing I found really hard was that I had to go out and sell something that I really didn’t have very much control over. To stand in front of a film and have every journalist be able to say, ‘How does this align with your viewpoint?’ It was very difficult to have to be the face and the spokesperson for things where I didn’t get to be involved in the process.”
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She’s since been focusing on the gin brand she’s launched with her brother Alex, and directed short films for Prada – she’s also getting more work behind the scenes, directing an upcoming music video. But for others, quitting acting meant taking on different roles altogether.
Jamie Waylett
Best known for playing Slytherin baddie Crabbe in the Potter films, Jamie Waylett found himself in trouble while filming the role, which he held from 2001 until 2009. The actor disappeared for the last two instalments of the franchise due to real life legal issues.
Jamie was arrested for drug-related offences in April 2009, when cops found a knife and eight bags of cannabis in his car. He was later found to be growing the drug in his mum’s house in London. Two years later, he was arrested again for violent disorder, and sentenced to two years in prison.
The former actor is now flogging videos on Cameo, looking completely different to his acting days with tattooed stars over one eyebrow and a huge bushy beard.
Stanislav Yanevski
(Image: stan_yanevski/Instagram)
Talk about looking unrecognisable, Victor Krum actor Stanislav Yanevski has changed completely from his Quidditch-playing days. Now he proudly shows off his muscular and tattooed form on social media, sporting a huge beard and a quiff of dark hair.
Though he continued to act after rising to fame in the Goblet of Fire back in 2005, Stanislav is now a lecturer and motivational speaker. He told fans: “Today was a very motivational day. I took part in a lecture and hope to have inspired the students as much as they inspired me.”
The Bulgaria-born star’s last project came in 2021, though he’s also starred in everything from the Hostel franchise to Last Man Down.
Devon Murray
(Image: devonmurrayofficial/Instagram)
Though his own acting experience started even before the Potter films, Angela’s Ashes star Devon Murray struggled with finding fame at a young age. He blew his £1million earnings on “cars, drink and girls”, along with placing extravagant bets on horse racing.
He was eventually sued by his agent Neil Brooks for more than £200,000 in the High Court, who claimed Murray hadn’t paid his commission fees for the films. Devon denied being irresponsible with money, in 2016 claiming: “There was an awful lot of things I put money into. I bought a lot of horses at the time… I bought property and the a*** fell out of that. It wasn’t all just women, cars and drink. It wasn’t all that.”
Now he works at a stable yard in Ireland and looks after his son Cooper, and says he “isn’t as silly with money” now that he’s more mature.
He added: “Mam and Dad didn’t want to be the a*****e parents and say, ‘No, you can’t do this and you can’t do that’. I would have resented them. I was a little bit spoilt, of course I was, I was an only child, but I’ve definitely matured.”
Sir Michael Gambon
(Image: Popperfoto via Getty Images)
It isn’t just the film’s child actors who took a break from the profession. Sir Michael Gambon, who played Professor Dumbledore in the iconic films, quit acting after a career spanning decades before his death aged 82.
He alluded to numerous health struggles and confessed it took him “forever” to learn lines, leaving him “heartbroken and frightened” by his experiences. Eventually he had to use an ear piece to prompt him in his 70s.
Worried he was developing Alzheimer’s, the star was thankfully given the all-clear, but said: “It’s a horrible thing to admit but I can’t do it. It breaks my heart. It’s when the script is in front of me and it takes forever to learn. It’s frightening.”
He decided to only take on roles with very few speaking parts, or where his lines could be read to him. But while starting a play on the West End, he was faced with the truth, confessing: “After about an hour I thought, this can’t work. You can’t be in theatre, free on stage shouting and screaming and running around, with someone reading you your lines.”
Hugh Mitchell
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From playing amateur photographer Colin Creevey in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to taking up photography as a full-time job, Hugh Mitchell is proof life really does reflect art. The former actor explains on his website that he offers wedding photography.
He wrote: “I started out as an actor, playing the snap-happy Colin Creevey in Warner Bros’ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Sometimes I get asked if that’s why I’m a photographer now. I don’t think it is, but who knows. Maybe a seed was planted.
“My love of photography started with landscapes. When I expanded into photographing people, I discovered that although it happens at a very different pace, the core principles of light and composition stay the same.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
