Draco Malfoy, the boy who lived.
Harry Potter may have held that title once upon a time, but Tom Felton is making a serious case for the Slytherin nepo baby he played in all eight Harry Potter movies. He’s held the character close for 25 years, and now he’s thrilling Draco fans everywhere by returning to the role in Broadway’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Felton appeared on The Tonight Show and told Jimmy Fallon all about his move to New York for his Broadway run, which begins November 11. Watch Felton’s full Tonight Show interview here.
“I can’t be more excited to be spending the next few months here, reprising a role that I started 25 years ago,” he said, to huge applause.
Fallon held up a smirking photo of young, bleach blond Draco Malfoy, asked Felton if he had ever thought of going blond as an adult. Felton was quick to answer.
“Uh, no,” he said, looking at the photo. “What a slimy prick, he is.”
You could say Felton already did his time as a blond. He later admitted that he, like his “slimy prick” character, would also be in Slytherin, so it’s no surprise who he ended up being cast as — despite how many characters he auditioned for.
“My mom took me to the early auditions, originally for Harry and then Ron,” he said, before joking, “I didn’t get the part for Hagrid, and then finally they dyed my hair blonde.”
Tom Felton told Jimmy Fallon even he can’t figure out Cursed Child’s stage illusions
Cursed Child is a massive production that is full of practical effects to make the Wizarding World come alive on stage, but Felton said that seeing behind the scenes didn’t change how impressive it was for him, mostly because he avoided knowing as much as he could.
“My mom actually asked when I started the rehearsals, ‘Has it taken away anything from the magic,’ knowing how everything works,” he said. “And quite the opposite. One of the deals I had with the team was that I don’t want to know how the magic is done, because once you know how the trick’s done, you lose it….I was reminded that I do have to know some of it, because I’m part of it.”
Even being on stage, Felton said the tricks hold up.
“I’m staring at it six feet away from them on the stage, trying to figure out how they do various…there’s so many fantastic illusions,” he said. “And if I don’t know, then good luck for the rest of you.”
Tom Felton had to relearn how to use a wand for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
“I won’t lie, I was a little rusty with the wand at first,” he admitted. “But yeah, the wand skills are back. ‘Expelliarmus’ is a great one. It felt so good to have a wand back in my hand and say that.”
Draco is an adult and a father in the stage play, which takes place 19 years after the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, right where the epilogue begins. Fallon said the elder Draco has actually “got a good heart,” but Felton didn’t quite agree.
“I wouldn’t go that far, but he’s breaking the lineage of Lucius’s parentage towards Draco,” he explained. “Lucius was not a great dad, in case you don’t know, and he’s trying to be slightly more affectionate towards his son, Scorpius. So I grew up being Malfoy Junior, and now I’m Malfoy Senior, which feels a bit odd.”
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