Matthew Lewis, James Phelps, And Oliver Phelps Celebrate The 'Harry Potter' Fandom Being "The Best Fans In The World" At Dragon Con

TV & Film

Oct 1

Harry Potter panel — Image Source: *Dragon Con TV*

At Dragon Con, there were a couple of panels focused on the Harry Potter franchise. One in particular was an audience Q&A session with Harry Potter alums Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), James Phelps (Fred Weasley), and Oliver Phelps (George Weasley) called “Live from the Gryffindor Common Room.” The actors were so excited to be back for another Dragon Con, with their friend Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) appearing briefly earlier in the weekend as well.

One of the first questions from the audience came from a young girl who asked the Phelps twins, “If you were the age you were in the movie, would you want to run a joke shop?” Oliver replied first, explaining, “To be honest, I think if you run a joke shop like Fred and George, you would be getting so many liability cases,” with James chiming in, “Do you think there’s a disclaimer?” Overall, their answer was no, there’s too much risk.

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Another fan asked the Phelps twins who their favorite twin inspiration was. Oliver immediately started replying, while James practically read his mind, mentioning that he knew what Oliver’s answer was about to be: “Sister, Sister. Tia and Tamera [Mowry].”

The actors were then asked if they had a dream role that they would each love to play. Oliver brought up a show the twins finished up recently, Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking, and how “it was literally the dream job because we were ourselves, so you can just act as yourselves to a point, but we got to taste a lot of cake! It was perfect.” James said that his dream role would involve parachuting or skydiving and actually being required to get his parachuting license.

Matthew Lewis has had several roles in mind, including a soldier (which he fulfilled with Bluestone 42), a cowboy, and to be a member of Starfleet [in Star Trek], mentioning, “I don’t need to be a Captain, just put me on the bridge in the uniform.” Later on in the panel, as Lewis expressed his appreciation for all of the fans coming out to support them at Dragon Con, he explained that he would be one of the fans at conventions if he hadn’t become an actor. He recalled a childhood memory from when he was nine years old and lining up at a local comic book store with a VHS of Star Trek: Voyager to have it signed by Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) and Ethan Phillips (Neelix).

When asked about their favorite video games, Lewis explained that he really loves gaming and finds it hard to nail it down to even a top 10 list. He’s a huge fan of The Witcher franchise, having played through all of the games and read all of the books, along with Baldur’s Gate 3. Having previously worked with Tim Downie (Gale in Baldur’s Gate 3) in the film Me Before You, Lewis was able to meet the cast during the MCM Comic-Con in London. He wasn’t able to join as a guest due to the short notice, so instead, he went incognito as a fan, cosplayed as a Mindflayer, and hung out with the Baldur’s Gate voice actors in the green room before one of their panels. He added that he’s been spending time with them during Dragon Con as well.

One of the next questions asked was, “If you could do real magic, what would be your favorite spell and why?” James was the first to answer, saying he would want to Apparate. Oliver would want to have an endless supply of Liquid Luck instead. Lewis, mentioning that he is as forgetful as Neville is, would love to not need his keys anymore because he’s always misplacing them, so his pick would be Alohomora.

The actors discussed their bloopers while filming Harry Potter, and it quickly came out that Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) would interrupt filming by laughing constantly on set. Lewis commented, “I’m pretty bad once it starts, but I never start it. Once Rupert starts [laughing], I’m gone.”

Lewis and the Phelps twins also talked about Rik Mayall, who played Peeves the Poltergeist in the filming of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone but was unfortunately cut from the final version of the film. Lewis said, “We shot a bunch of his stuff, and it was just unusable because he was supposed to be scaring us, and we all thought he was the funniest thing we’d ever seen. We were all just laughing…” Lewis and the Phelps twins really loved working with Mayall, with the twins knowing of the actor from his work in The Young Ones and Bottom and thinking of him as their comedy hero. When the cast did their read-through of the script for the first movie, Oliver was sitting next to him, and Mayall laughing at their scripted jokes really made his day.

To wrap up the session, the moderator asked the panelists how it feels carrying on the successes of the Harry Potter franchise. Lewis, realizing it’s been 25 or 26 years that he’s been a part of the world of Harry Potter, replied, “It’s just been the most incredible thing… [meeting fans] and being out at these conventions and stuff, we realized just what these stories meant to people all over the world and how important it was. I think we all realized the responsibility that we had, and we’ve all tried very hard to make sure that we do it justice and we protect that legacy.”

Lewis also mentioned how proud he is of the fans as well, that he’s never noticed any toxicity from the fandom: “Harry Potter fans have always been nothing but supportive and kind and generous and genuinely care about what we’re up to and what we’re doing. That’s kind of what keeps us coming back, and what keeps us being so protective is because you guys are so, so brilliant, so wonderful. And I know it’s a cliche thing to say, ‘we’re the best fans in the world,’ but I genuinely believe that we have the best fans in the world.”

Tacking on to Lewis’ beautiful response, Oliver said, “We wouldn’t come to these things if it wasn’t fun for us. You guys make it fun for us.” He loves the generational aspect of the Harry Potter fandom, too, that children who used to read the books with their grandparents may now be passing it on to their kids and keeping the excitement for the series alive, even thirty years later. James ended the panel by agreeing with everything that his fellow actors had already said and adding, “We’re very lucky to have been part of something which is so loved by so many of you guys.”

Next up for James and Oliver Phelps will be Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking, which will air Thanksgiving weekend on the Food Network. Guest appearances on the show will include Bonnie Wright, Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), and Warwick Davis (Professor Flitwick and Griphook).

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