- Tom Felton wrote about "Harry Potter" costar Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) in his new memoir.
- Felton said Lewis became "hunkier" and "slightly less Neville-like" in appearance over time.
Tom Felton said that "Harry Potter" costar Matthew Lewis had to alter his appearance in the film franchise because he kept becoming "hunkier" with each movie.
"Let's face it: Neville Longbottom was never intended to be the stud of the show," Felton, who starred as Draco Malfoy in all eight films released between 2001 and 2011, wrote in his memoir released on Tuesday, titled "Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard."
Lewis portrayed Neville Longbottom, the initially shy and awkward Gryffindor student, in the "HP" movies. Over time, the character's bravery became more prominent. This culminated in him heroically slaying Nagini, Voldemort's (Ralph Fiennes) final Horcrux, using the Sword of Gryffindor in the final film.
Outside of Neville's character development, Lewis matured physically and began looking less like the round-faced kid introduced at the start of the franchise.
"Matthew Lewis, who played Neville from the beginning, very much looked the part in the first film," Felton wrote in his memoir. "He had the ears, he had the face, he had the endearing accent. He was Neville head to toe."
Felton continued: "But there was a problem. Each year, when we all congregated to make the next film, Matthew was ever so slightly hunkier, which meant that — physically speaking — he was ever so slightly less Neville-like."
Felton said that "it reached the point in the later films where they had to give him a wedge behind his ears, fake teeth, and a little fat suit to stop him looking like the hunk he was becoming."
Lewis himself recalled the experience of transforming into Neville through the use of false teeth and padding in a 2021 interview with Metro.
"It happened when I came back from the break in between films two and three," he said. "It was a slightly longer break than normal because they had shifted from a winter to a summer blockbuster, and when I came back I was much taller than everyone else and, I guess, thinner than I had been."
"They tried stuffing my cheeks with cotton wool, which was disgusting, then they cut these bits of sponge from creature effects and put them in there," Lewis explained.
The actor said that the cheek stuffing "absorbed saliva so after a full day that was fucking vile."
He also confirmed that he was given oversized shoes, "plastic behind the ears to make them stick forward," and false teeth.
Since the franchise ended more than a decade ago, Felton and Lewis have remained close.
"Matthew is a great example of everything good about 'Potter,'" Felton said. "He's a lovely, down-to-earth guy, humble to a fault. His knowledge of and interest in all manner of subjects guarantees great conversation, and that makes him one of my favorite people to have a pint with."
"Of all the Potter alumni I bump into, Matthew is one of those I enjoy seeing the most," he added. "Any Slytherin-Gryffindork rivalry is long forgotten."