‘Harry Potter’s’ Tom Felton Says Cast Weren’t Originally Picked For ‘Our Acting Ability’

The “Harry Potter” film series turned little known actors into household names and ignited the careers of Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, but according to Tom Felton, who plays “Potter” nemesis Draco Malfoy, the cast started out without any special skills.

“Let’s be honest: we weren’t picked for ‘Harry Potter’ for our acting ability – it was because we looked like the characters as they’d been written,” he told Britain’s Daily Mail, in a recent interview. “We started out as rank amateurs, and we’ll be lucky if we’ve [learned] something over the past 10 years. It’s a question of what we do with that now, where we go from here.”

Felton has won fans the world over through playing the devious Malfoy, but he revealed he actually auditioned for the part Radcliffe scored – Harry Potter himself.

“There was a time when I did think Daniel got the part I wanted – but with hindsight, I’m very glad he got it,” Felton said of losing out to his fellow Brit for the role of spectacled wizard. “I’m the luckiest of the group. I had a good part, which became more central later, and yet I had a normal childhood. I was at [regular] school when I got Draco and I never left. I was out for the odd week or two, sometimes a month.”

The two played enemies throughout the film series, but Felton revealed that, in real life, the two had a more cordial relationship – eventually.

At first, however, the two didn’t quite get along.

“I was 13, and he was 11. At that stage of your life that’s dramatic. Bonding with the rest of the cast was complicated, to be honest with you,” he said. “We were complete unknowns, and we were thrown together. It’s not likely that you’ll all suddenly click and become one happy family. Daniel and I knew we loved ‘The Simpsons,’ but we never really sat down and talked. Partly because there was a proper age gap.”

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” will have its world premiere on Thursday in London.

The film will hit theaters stateside on July 15.