I never thought Neville would play such an important role…of course I knew Neville would be important. I knew he was being groomed for something, and we had learned about the prophecy by now, and his past with Bellatrix, Voldemort, and his parents. But I never thought he would do something so cool and heroic.

Working with wands is exciting, sure. But the movies I grew up with… swords are even cooler. So, drawing the sword of Gryffindor, because I was always very jealous of Dan (Radcliffe, Harry Potter) for being able to use the sword in Chamber of Secrets. And then there was the moment when you draw the sword. I remember when I first read it and I thought it was weird because I read it as a fan first and I really tried not to put myself in his shoes when I first read it. Sometimes it was harder than usual, but I remember reading it and then getting to the end of the chapter and thinking, “Yo, that’s me. This is really going to be awesome.” But I was like, “No, no, either it’s not in the script or they’re just going to cut it out and give it to someone else. That’s not going to happen.” And then when I finally, years later, the book came out, I think maybe two years, maybe more, before we actually started filming. Then when the script finally came out and I read it and everything was back, you go through these phases of “yeah, but we’re not actually going to shoot it.” There was a lot of stuff like that. In Goblet of FireBonnie (Wright, Ginny Weasley) and I spent six weeks learning a tango for the Yule Ball and then we never shot it – it wasn’t edited, we never shot it. And there were lots of moments like that that you read in the script and think it would be great and then you never get to it.

And then suddenly I’m on set and Ray (Ralph Fiennes, Lord Voldemort) is there and I’m shown how to pull this sword out of the hat and that was a cool little illusion, a trick in itself. And even then you think, but nobody will ever see it. They cut it out, it won’t be in the movie. And then I’m at the premiere and it’s there. Yeah, it’s incredible.

I felt a huge responsibility and a huge pressure, and of course, because it was my first time working with Ray, he was a very, very intimidating person – I think that was intentional, because at the end of filming, when we finally finished, I had a nice, friendly, warm conversation with him. I think it was kind of a deliberate intention to be intimidating during filming, or maybe he’s just a pretty intense actor.

But yeah, so that was kind of full throttle. I was very nervous about that. And of course, in that particular scene, everyone was there, everyone with their dog. So it was like all my colleagues were there, but also all the senior actors. Jason (Isaacs, Lucius Malfoy) was there, Robbie (Coltrane, Hagrid) was there and Maggie (Smith, Minerva McGonagall) was there, all these incredible people, damn, I have to do this monologue in front of all these people. And again, so supportive. Everyone was so supportive. And Ray too. I mean, acting is reacting, they say. It’s a tennis match and you can only play as well as your opponent. And having someone like that opposite me made my job incredibly easy. Well, not easy, but easier.

It was a very special moment. I feel very privileged to have been a part of it, which I know is a very long-winded answer to your question. But no, I never thought that would happen and I was very overwhelmed at the time and I’m very proud that I did it. I haven’t watched it again and I never will. I’m very proud that I did it at some point.