Emma Watson was swapped out of the famous 'Harry Potter' cat scene because of an allergic reaction, body double says

• Emma Watson does not feature in the famous cat scene from "Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets."
• At the time of shooting, Watson had an allergic reaction to the costume make-up.

In "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," the second film in the magical franchise, Emma Watson's Hermione Granger is transformed into a half-human, half-cat after accidentally adding a piece of cat hair to a transfiguration potion.

The scene is one of the most memorable in the franchise, but Watson - who portrayed Granger in all eight films - does not feature in it because she had an allergic reaction to the glue used to apply the extensive cat makeup. The scene instead features Flick Miles, who played Watson's body double in three "Harry Potter" films.

"My biggest claim to fame is when, in the second film, she turns into a cat, and when she has the Polyjuice Potion and it's a cat hair, that whole prosthetic makeup is actually on me," Miles told Insider.

"When they first put it onto Emma she had a bit of a reaction to the spirit glue that you'd use to stick the makeup down, so they just said, 'Oh, why don't we just try it with Flick?' So I came in and then that whole bit, they used me with this amazing makeup. It looks like a mask you'd just put on, but it's actually like hundreds of different pieces and it's quite amazing."

Speaking about watching the scene on screen, Miles, who now hosts the podcast "Behind The Wand: Stories From The Harry Potter Films," added: "That's my bit that I'm like: 'That's definitely me.'"

The British make-up effects designer Nick Dudman who worked on all eight "Harry Potter" films crafted the famous half-human, half-cat look on Miles. In a recent episode of the "Behind The Wand" podcast, Dudman broke down the difficulty of bringing the effects described in the film's script to life.

"There isn't a set way of doing something," he said. "When you go through a script and read there's a dead unicorn, okay how are you going to make that? You don't have a book that says dead unicorns chapter one. You have to figure out how you, in those circumstances and the budget you've got you can make something that looks cool."