Tom Felton has revealed he had absolutely no idea that his sneering pronunciation of the word Potter would become one of the most celebrated moments in Harry Potter history, and credits his older brothers for unknowingly teaching him how to do it.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on Thursday, 26 March, the 38-year-old actor said of the now-famous delivery.
“I don’t know how that’s become an iconic thing. I certainly had no idea.” He traced the pronunciation back to his childhood dynamic as the youngest of four brothers.
“I have three older brothers, so they all would always call me something like maggot or runt. Runt of the pack. Because I was the youngest and the shortest considerably. So I don’t remember ever thinking about it for a second. But ‘Potter,’ it just got more and more venomous.”
He marvelled at the reaction it still prompts.
“All you have to do is say that in the company of a Potter fan and… goosebumps and, like, applause, something happens,” he said.
“I never knew any of these things were gonna be iconic lines.”
Felton is currently back in the Slytherin robes on Broadway, playing Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which picks up 19 years after the events of Deathly Hallows and follows the next generation of Hogwarts students.
He told podcast host Josh Horowitz that he has smuggled at least one of his most famous film lines into the stage production, not through planning, but instinct.
“I said it once spontaneously in rehearsals and John Tiffany, our fabulous director, who’s been doing it out for ten years, I could see his eyes twinkle and go, ‘Yes. Put that back in.'”
The response from audiences has been predictable.
“It’s, needless to say, quite a hit every night,” he added.
