Rupert Grint shot to global stardom as Ron Weasley in the beloved Harry Potter films, but the actor admits he nearly packed it all in for a very different career indeed
Rupert Grint thought about walking away from the spotlight after Harry Potter.
He was just 11 years old when he was cast as Harry’s sidekick Ron Weasley in the iconic Potter films based on JK Rowling’s best-selling novels. The seven movies would become a global phenomenon, breaking box office records and grossing billions.
Rupert and co-stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) were shot to worldwide fame overnight. And Rupert, now a dad-of-two, admitted that he nearly packed it all in as the Potter films were so intense.
The star who turned 37 today (24 August) feared he wouldn’t make it as an adult actor and wondered if he should give up acting altogether and try out another career. He told The New York Times: “I definitely did think, ‘Is it too late to pick something else?'”.
It’s well known that Rupert bought an ice-cream van with his earnings from the films, but what people might not know is that he was really quite serious about becoming an ice cream man. He bought an iconic Mr Whippy van and drove it back to his family home on the last day of shooting.
He thought that he might be able to do that as his job, but after a year off from the business he decided to give acting another go. In a separate interview, Rupert revealed he found shooting the Hogwarts films “quite suffocating”.
“Potter was so full on — [filming] all year, then we’d promote the rest of the time. It was quite suffocating,” he told Bustle. Grint said he “wanted a break, to reflect on everything…
“It was an out-of-body experience for a while, but I think we finished at the right time. If we continued, it could’ve gone downhill.”
Rupert also admitted the lines became blurred between him and his famous character, Ron. He said: “In the movies, we merged into one. By the end of it, I was playing myself. The lines were blurred.”
Despite his initial worries about seeing success as an adult actor, Grint has more than established himself after Potter. After the final film came out in 2011, Rupert appeared in the films Into the White (2012), Charlie Countryman (2013), CBGB (2013), Moonwalkers (2015) and M Night Shyamalan’s horror Knock at the Cabin.
In 2013, he made his stage debut on the West End in Mojo at the Harold Pinter Theatre. His recent projects include a main role in Servant – and a starring role in Ed Sheeran’s new music video for A Little More.
Here he reprises his role as the stalker from the music video for Ed’s 2011 hit Lego House. Sheeran admitted he wasn’t sure if Grint would agree to it but was “so glad” he did and that it was “such a fun, bonkers video”.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
