Rupert Grint is now trying very, very, very hard to distance himself from Ron Weasley. He will forever be associated with the Harry Potter character, but -- at age 30 -- he's also on a path to moving on. He stars in the Crackle series Snatch, recently signed on for M. Night Shyamalan's upcoming Apple series, and should definitely be watched in the comedy Sick Note, which just dropped two seasons on Netflix. But whenever Grint is interviewed, the subject of his time in the eight-film Harry Potter franchise inevitably comes up. Grint recently compared ending the film franchise with ending time in an institution.
The line between Ron and me became thinner with each film and I think we became virtually the same person. There's a lot of me in Ron and moving on was a massive adjustment because it was such a constant part of my life. I don't want to liken it to coming out of prison because it wasn't a prison, but it did feel like stepping out of an institution. It was nice to breathe the fresh air and now I'm really enjoying stepping further away from that blue-screen world.
That blue-screen world will always follow him. And Ron will always follow him. Rupert Grint has said that fans regularly call him Ron when they meet him. He said it was surreal to see another actor in the role when he watched the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play, because he is Ron.
In his new interview with The Guardian, Rupert Grint said his life has a distinct line from before June 2000 and after that point, when he got the role of Ron Weasley and left school. He recently said he almost quit the Harry Pottter film franchise after the fourth movie, and he almost quit acting entirely after the HP films had finished. He shared more on that with the Guardian:
For the first few Harry Potter films I was living the dream. The reason I auditioned was because I loved the books. When I got to film three or four, I started to feel an overwhelming weight of responsibility because they were so phenomenally popular. The whole press and red carpet thing was an attack on the senses. I don't excel in that kind of environment.
Rupert Grint said he was actually shy as a child, and acting helped him come out of his shell to hide behind the character. But clearly acting in the Harry Potter franchise is another thing entirely.
The only two other people who can quite understand what Rupert Grint went through are Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson as Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, respectively. They both stayed in the film industry too, but also had to deal with the massive scrutiny that comes with the characters. All three stars have now branched out in very different acting directions, perhaps to prove their range and try to show -- once and for all -- that they are not Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Seriously, though, check out Sick Note on Netflix. Lindsay Lohan joins the cast in Season 2. Also, Snatch Season 2 recently aired on Sony Crackle. Rupert Grint's new series ABC Murders will also be airing on BBC1 in the U.K. at Christmas.
