Book Review
Title: Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 4.5 Stars
When I heard that Draco Malfoy himself was coming out with memoir, I knew I had to get my hands on it especially after reading the Alan Rickman Dairies. The introduction is written by Emma Watson, Tom’s co-star and self- described soulmate which was cute to read. Tom opens with stories from his childhood including introducing his three older brothers; Jonathan, Chris and Ashley who all had a profound impact on him as a person and his career. He discussed his hobbies, school and how he eventually fell into acting even getting to work with some of his future co-stars like Jim Broadbent and Mark Williams in The Borrowers.
One thing Tom does make clear here is that despite the mental issues in his family and his parents’ divorce, fame never really went to his head in those early years as his family kept him grounded and provided him with a sense of normalcy that other child stars might lack. Tom discussed various movies he acted in like Anna and the King alongside Jodie Foster, who happens to be the person I’m named after, as well as, the worst audition he ever did opposite Anthony Hopkins, Hannibal Lecter himself. Tom’s humour is really apparent in his writing, if you’ve seen the bloopers reels for Harry Potter then you know what I’m talking about, and it genuinely had me giggling in parts.
By the time we reach the auditions for HP, I was surprised to learn that Tom had never read the books when he went for the audition. There he met Emma for the first time and his inner Draco came out a little. After not hearing back and seeing Emma, Daniel, and Rupert cast as the main trio he assumed he didn’t get a part, but he did receive a call back for Draco which he ended up securing. Even after this he didn’t read the books and his first proper introduction to the world was at the table reading for the first script. Looking back on this Tom knew he was in the presence of acting royalty but at the time there were only two people that stood out to him. First was Alan Rickman as he adored him as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Price of Thieves and the second was Rik Mayall who Tom and his brothers found hilarious. One of his fondest memories is getting Rik to sign his brother’s birthday card at that table reading. By the time shooting began, Tom was accompanied by his grandfather who ended up getting a cameo as a Howard’s Professor during the first film and was someone who helped Tom really make Draco his own.
In the early days of shooting the first movie, Tom became known as quite the troublemaker on set and off it which led to some hilarious antics alongside his fellow child actors. He was also starstruck at times especially by Alan Rickman, which is mirrored in an interview Rupert Grint did years after the fact. Alan was also the person that taught Tom not to spoil the magic for the children coming to visit the set and later in conventions, although he was a little slow on the uptake. Tom goes into great details about how shooting a movie works from behind the scenes and the restrictions they had as children from tutoring, to limited set time and not doing anything that could end up putting them in danger. Tom loves shooting his own stunts but most of the time was replaced with a double, David Holmes who was also Daniel Radcliff’s double. There is a tragic story behind David since in the later films he was severely injured on set and left paralyzed because of it but he remains close friends with both Daniel and Tom to this day.
Seeing these realities through Tom’s eyes and seeing how he grew as a person and actor was amazing but there were troubled times with the good. Tom learnt early on that there were people that would take advantage of him because of his fame or treat him poorly because of it but not to the extent that others received. He makes it clear that while Harry Potter became everything for Daniel, Emma and Rupert since they had to quite normal school to work full time on the movies, gaining their education through tutoring on set, Tom still had the option to be a normal child because he wasn’t required for as much as the movie as the main trio. He accredits this to his more down to earth personality and how he managed to avoid the pitfalls of fame from an early age because he was always slapped back to reality when he returned to school and his non-working life.
Learning about how he developed friendships with other actors like Emma and Rupert was great, but seeing how he developed working relationships with the adult actors around him was also amazing. Tom puts this down to have siblings who are much older than him, so it gave him the skills to interact with people older than himself. Hearing Tom describes his relationship with Emma was so adorable since he admits he loves her and always will, but he isn’t in love with her despite what some fans and fanfiction writers might assume. They are platonic soulmates, and this made me so hopeful that I would find my person like this at some point in my life but something I can’t stress enough is how normal comes across in his writing despite the amount of fame and recognition he has amassed. Even Tom, himself, is aware of this seeing the reactions to Emma going out from a meal with him where he wouldn’t normally be recognised or if he was it was minor compared to Emma almost immediately being swarmed. Tom is both upset for her that she couldn’t have a normal childhood like him but so proud that she has become such a strong person because of it.
While the transition between child and adult went smoothly for Tom, the transition from before HP to after was a lot harder since he knew most of these people he’d come to see as family would never see him again and if they did it would be under completely different circumstances. After Harry Potter was a tough time for Tom as he struggled with auditions and finding work, but he did find it. However, the genuine issues came when he moved to LA, where he was treated as a VIP, and it really went to his head. He ended up doing things and hanging with people he never would have thought before which led to a lot of unhappiness and eventually a lot of drinking, remarkably similar to the problems Daniel faced during the filming of the 6th film. This eventually led to his girlfriend at the time, Jade, and his managers staging an intervention and sending him to rehab.
Rather than shocking Tom awake, this only made him even more angry than he was, and he ended up leaving the facility after only a day and heading back to the bar he drank at. Along the way, he met different people who were kind to him without recognising who he was and realised that was what he wanted, genuine human interaction rather than fans even though he still loves his fans. He does end up checking himself into another facility but this time it is one he chose rather than one he was forced into which made all the difference to his mindset. Tom wraps up the memoir by explaining there is a stigma on mental health issues but people like him, with influence have the power to change that by sharing their stories and that was the point of him drafting the book. Overall, I adored Tom’s memoir and the parts where he discusses the Harry Potter actors who are no longer with us and the impact, they had on him brought me to tears.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Commenti