Tom Felton recounts ‘awful’ audition with Anthony Hopkins

Tom Felton has remembered a terrible experience auditioning with Anthony Hopkins for his film Hitchcock.

Hopkins starred as the late famed filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in the 2012 drama, which chronicled his daring choice to adapt Robert Bloch’s novel Psycho for the screen.

During the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Felton recounted the “awful” moment of his audition, which he also detailed in his debut memoir Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard.

“This was not my finest hour when it came to auditioning,” the 35-year-old British actor began.

“I got the sides very last minute,” Felton explained. “I knew I wasn’t right for the role. I’ve never seen Psycho – the film was about the making of Psycho – I didn’t know anything particularly well, but I knew I wasn’t right for this.”

He continued: “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 on that occasion.

“They said, ‘Just go in as you always do. Just show your face, show you know the work, and trot on.’”

“[Hopkins] decided to go off book. He was like, ‘Let’s put the scene down. Let’s just test the water with the characters,’” the Harry Potter star recalled. “And I proceeded to probably babble out the worst three minutes of improv in an awful American accent that anyone has ever seen.”

According to Felton, Hopkins knew “straight away” that the Harry Potter star “had no idea” what he was doing.

“He had a very graceful way of saying leave, which was, ‘Thanks very much for your time,’” Felton said. “I sheepishly tucked my tail and walked out of that one.”

He added jokily: “Technically I have worked with Sir Anthony! I’m not sure if that goes on my resume.”

Elsewhere in his memoir, Felton opened up about his on-set experiences alongside his Harry Potter co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, which he added further detail to in a recent interview with The Independent.

Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton is out now, published by Ebury Spotlight.