Growing up in the spotlight can be tough, especially for the young Harry Potter cast, who spent a decade aging in front of the audience’s eyes. Thankfully, though, the stars had each other to learn from and lean on. But what happened after filming ended? Did they continue to use letters and owls to keep in touch? And do they ever hop on their broomsticks and reunite? We have all the answers below, including which two stars communicate the most.
Details on how the ‘Harry Potter’ cast keeps in touch
Thankfully, yes, the Harry Potter cast does keep in touch! According to Emma Watson—who plays Hermione Granger—they “aren’t on a group chat, but we [do] speak individually. Rupert [Grint who plays Ron Weasley] sends me pictures of [his daughter] Wednesday and I die. Dan [Daniel Radcliffe who plays Harry Potter] and I generally try and calm each other’s nerves. We both mainly try and stay out of the limelight so it’s been nice to have each other’s support.”
Tom Felton [who plays Draco Malfoy] also recently opened up about his everlasting friendship with his onscreen enemy, Radcliffe.
“I love the man dearly,” Felton said in 2023. “I don’t see him as much as I’d like to — that’s the same for all of us, really. But I consider him a brother, definitely. Huge amounts of respect for him.”
However, perhaps the person Watson and Felton keep in touch with the most is each other. According to Watson, “We speak most weeks, and we just think it’s sweet.” She also wrote the introduction to Felton’s 2022 memoir Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard.
When was the last time the ‘Harry Potter’ cast got together?
After Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011, the cast has continued to reunite from time to time at charity events, film premieres, Harry Potter store and amusement park openings, golf games and play openings. And while those were great, most of the time it only involved a select few cast members.
But that all changed in 2022, when every single cast member reunited for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts HBO special.
The documentary-style reunion featured several conversations, including one between Watson, Radcliffe and Grint in their beloved Gryffindor common room.
“It was emotional and also intense to have such an intimate moment so closely watched,” Watson revealed. “Mostly, I was just so happy to have a mediator who could ask us these questions and get to be part of seeing how differently—and similarly—we had processed things. I love that we remembered different things.”
The actress also revealed that her one-on-one with her on-screen love interest—Grint—was super emotional.
“When Rupert says things, he really means them. I was taken aback by how vulnerable and kind he was deciding to be so public,” Watson said. “Similarly for Dan, it really touched me how reflective he had been over the years about how different it had been for me as a girl.”
The reunion took place 20 years after the release of the first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which was filmed when many of the stars were around 12 years old.
“It was really nice to reminisce, because we had some great times. I mean, it was an immensely strange childhood, but it was one that was really fun,” Grint said. “It [the movies] was our entire childhood. We grew up on those sets, so it has incredible meaning to me and Dan and Emma and everyone else.”
But while the reunion served as a chance to reminisce for some, for others, it was a time to reconnect.
“There is something lovely and full circle about having adult conversations with people that you had only had children’s conversations with before. That was really, really cool. Particularly with Helena [Bonham Carter, who plays Bellatrix Lestrange] and Chris Columbus and Gary [Oldman, who plays Sirius Black], but then also people like the Phelps twins [James and Oliver, who play the Weasley twins],” Radcliffe said.
“That was an interesting one. Because, you know, we were very friendly in the films, but they were older. I was 11 when we started, they were 14 or 15, and at that age, that is a massive gulf. Now, we’re all just men in our 30s, and that age difference flattens out in a really nice way. It was lovely to see everybody and see how everyone has kind of come out okay. It was something that made me really proud, actually, of all of us.”
You can watch the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts HBO special here!
