Yahoo News Bonnie Wright says her lack of screen time in Harry Potter movies was 'disappointing'
Harry Potter star Bonnie Wright is looking back at her time at Hogwarts and admitting that she was disappointed by her character's lack of screen time in the movie franchise.
Wright, now 32, was just 9 years old when she was cast as Ginny Weasley, the sister of Ron Weasley (played by Rupert Grint in the films) and future wife of Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) who would become a prominent supporting character in the books. On Tuesday's episode of Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast, Wright weighed in on discourse that Ginny was largely underserved in the films, sharing that she experienced the same disappointment as fans.
"I definitely feel there was anxiety toward performing and doing the best thing as my character built," Wright said. "Like, Oh gosh, will I do justice to this character that people love? So that was always hard to do, especially when, inevitably, a lot of the scenes of every character were chopped down from the book to the film. So you didn't really have as much to show in the film. Sometimes that was a little disappointing because there were parts of the character that just didn't get to come through because there weren't the scenes to do that."
Everett Collection Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley in 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'
She added, "That made me feel a bit anxious or just frustrated, I guess."
In the first film, 2001's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Wright initially didn't have any lines. "The actual first line I had in the film, which was one line, was given to me on the day, [and director Chris Columbus] was like, 'I think you need a line,' which is my 'good luck' to Harry," she recounted. "I actually read Hermione lines because they didn't have any other scenes for me to read, so they were like, 'You're just going to have to read this character.'"
At the time, Wright had no idea her character would end up marrying the titular wizard since the series was still being written.
She said she didn't have conversations with producers about Ginny being more involved because "there was no room for much change in those scripts." Wright said, "There were a million executives going through them all. I think what I maybe took, which I don't take so much to heart now, is I kind of felt that maybe my anxiety was about, Oh, I'm going to be seen as badly portraying this character, rather than later realizing that I wasn't really given the opportunity to do that. So it wasn't really my fault, exactly."
Everett Collection Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley and Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter in 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'
"When fans do share that disappointment... they do it in a way that is like, 'We know it wasn't you. We just wanted more of you,'" Wright said. "And that's the same of every character. If only they could be five-hour-long movies."
Early last year, Wright reunited with her Harry Potter costars for a Max special in celebration of the first film's 20th anniversary. The streamer has also announced a TV series based on all seven books, though not much else is known at the time, including casting details.
Listen to Wright's full podcast conversation below.
Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.
Related content:
