Harry Potter's Matthew Lewis Finds His Constant Ties To Neville Frustrating
It's not easy, being Neville Longbottom. First your parents saddle you with the name "Longbottom," then they get their brains tortured out so you won't be able to get back at them for it. You try to keep your head down and water your plants, but one thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, you're cutting up snakes with swords when you should, in a sane world, be learning algebra.
In fact, the only fate worse than being Neville Longbottom by birth might just be being Neville Longbottom by vocation. At least, that's how Matthew Lewis feels in the years following his eight-movie stint playing the classic underdog of Gryffindor House. Like plenty of other actors who cut their teeth on generation-defining genre films, Lewis has found it difficult to escape the shadow of the character he brought to life for over a decade. And like most people, presumably, whose parents named them Neville, he would, by his own admission, really prefer it if you'd stop calling him Neville.
Matthew Lewis isn't Neville Longbottom, thank you very much
Matthew Lewis was in good company when he made a guest appearance on "Inside of You," the podcast hosted by a similarly recognized-for-one-thing actor: "Smallville's" Lex Luthor, Michael Rosenbaum.
There, Lewis discussed his frustrations, not with the "Harry Potter" franchise itself or the opportunities it afforded him, but with the way that it distracts from his other work.
"Like, I've been in dramas that have won BAFTAs and done all of this kind of stuff," Lewis explained. "And I'm not bragging; it's just like, I've done all this stuff, and like 10 years later it's still like people are making the claim I've sort of jumped from Harry Potter into this and have completely ignored the journey it's taken to get there."
To his credit, Lewis has more than 30 television and movie credits to his name, running the gamut from dramas like "Happy Valley" to an episode of "Drunk History: UK" where he played astronomer Edmond Halley. The guy has range. One can only hope that he'll eventually find peace, no longer haunted by association with work that he did as a teenager which will pay him residuals for the rest of his life.