Tom Felton: ‘After Harry Potter I became an alcoholic’

“I’m Malfoy. Draco Malfoy»: when Tom Felton appears for the first time in the cinema has a James Bond joke but you already understand everything. The character of him meets the Child Survivor on the train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

This year the film celebrates 20 years with a reunion of the cast (available on SKY and just arrived on home video), cine-concerts (the fourth chapter staged in Rome on 29 and 30 December), the Yule Ball ceremony (in Milan in world premiere until January 15th), special home video editions (with the box set dedicated to the Dark Arts) and a TV quiz hosted by Helen Mirren (from today 21 November on Boing for the first time in the clear).

It is no coincidence then that the 35-year-old British actor who plays one of the protagonists of the JK Rowling saga (published in Italy by Salani and who at Christmas inflames the hearts of fans with books on magical do-it-yourself, pop Advent calendars -up and new illustrated editions) has chosen this very period to tell its story in an exhilarating and poignant autobiography entitled Without the wand (Vallardi).

She has her friend-sister’s introduction Emma Watson who writes about him «We are soul mates» and then «Chapeau, my little piece of heart». Page after page explains how and why their relationship became so special (and no, they didn’t date as a couple and have no intention of doing so even though she had a crush on him as a child that the whole set was aware of) . She calls him “Felton factor”that mix of generosity, self-irony and humility with which the actor bares all of himself and this book is no exception.

There is – as Potterheads expect – a lot, a lot of magic in retracing the more than ten years spent shooting the eight films about the boy wizard, from the memory of the missing actors to the hilarious behind-the-scenes of his pranks as a child and teenager. Tasty behind-the-scenes are revealed for those who have loved and still love the saga, but the most intimate, personal, painful and tiring part concerns what happens in the post-Potter era. When that protected environment he called home as a child ceased to exist in his daily routine, he really realized what awaited him outside the bubble of Leveasden Studios, which housed filming outside London (today they have become a park dedicated to the boy wizard, Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter).

The impact with reality, despite a loving family and a very present girlfriend (the assistant of stunt coordinator Jade Olivia Gordon, by his side from 2008 to 2016), was brutal. When he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a Hollywood career, he made the leap from the domestic dimension of Surrey to the planetary exhibition, between parties and unbridled luxury. Pampered, indeed adored by the whole world, he started letting himself go, especially with alcohol and weed useto compensate not only for the daze of glitter and fame but also to silence the first symptoms of fragility regarding his mental health.

«LA made me feel – he writes in the memoir – particularly alone and dissociated from myself: feelings which, of course, could trigger mental disturbances in anyone. Perhaps it is easier to disguise them sitting beyond the red velvet rope or behind the wheel of a bright orange Lamborghini».

The downward spiral is described by Tom Felton with a lucidity that is nothing short of moving, without victimhood or self-pity. When he explains how he escaped from an American rehabilitation center and how he then chose to hospitalize himself in another, he does it with total frankness and the public around the world has responded with equal honesty, sharing their experiences on social media and showing him support and understanding. .

It takes courage to make yourself vulnerable like he did: Without the wand it’s not just a love letter to life, but a proof of great trust to an audience that knew him as Draco but now follows him as Tom.

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