Tom Felton may have been perfect for the role of Harry Potter villain Draco Malfoy, but you can’t win ’em all. Turns out, he made a real pig’s ear of an audition opposite none other than the legendary Anthony Hopkins once, and it was all for a role he knew himself he wasn’t right for.
Starting young as one of the stars of the Harry Potter movies would naturally mean that the pressure is on when it comes to finding other roles in the industry. That was certainly the case when Felton was put up for a role in the movie based on a true story, Hitchcock, recounting the process of Alfred Hitchock making the horror movie Psycho.
In an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Felton revealed he auditioned for a role in the film even though he had never seen the classic Hitchcock thriller movie and things did not go well for him.
“I got the sides at very last minute. I knew I wasn’t right for the role. I had never seen Psycho, and the film was about the making of Psycho. I didn’t know anything particularly well, but I knew I wasn’t right for this. I’ve very rarely called my agent before going into an audition and said ‘I really don’t think this is for me’, but I did in that occasion,” Felton said.
His agent encouraged him to audition nonetheless, but Felton probably wishes he hadn’t bothered. Anthony Hopkins has starred in some of the best movies of all time, like the iconic ‘90s movie The Silence of the Lambs, so it must have been a daunting experience.
Felton continued: “I sat down across Sir Anthony Hopkins, and he knew straight away that I didn’t know what I was doing, and he decided to go off book. He said, ‘let’s put the scene down and let’s test the water with the characters’. And I proceeded to babble out the worst three minutes of improv in an awful American accent that anyone has ever seen. And he had a very graceful way of saying ‘leave’.”
At least Hopkins was gentle. If you’re a fan of the wizarding world, check out our guide to the best Harry Potter characters or our guide to the Harry Potter cast.