Tom Felton revealed he had absolutely no idea his sneering pronunciation of the word Potter would become one of the most famous moments in Harry Potter history, and he credits his older brothers for unknowingly teaching him how to do it.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast on Thursday, March 26, the 38-year-old actor said of the now-famous delivery.
“I don’t know how it became an iconic thing. I certainly had no idea.” He traced the pronunciation to the dynamics of his childhood as the youngest of four brothers.
“I have three older brothers, so they always called me something like maggot or runt. The smallest of the pack. Because I was the youngest and considerably the smallest. So I don’t remember thinking about it for a second. But ‘Potter,’ it became more and more venomous.”
He marveled at the reaction it still gets.
“All you have to do is say that in the company of a Potter fan and…goosebumps and, like, applause, something happens,” he said.
“I never imagined these things would become iconic lines.”
Felton is currently back in Slytherin robes on Broadway, playing Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Childwhich picks up 19 years after the events of Deathly Hallows and follows the next generation of Hogwarts students.
He told podcast host Josh Horowitz that he smuggled at least one of his most famous movie lines into the stage production not out of planning, but out of instinct.
“I said it once spontaneously in rehearsals and John Tiffany, our fabulous director, who’s been doing it for ten years, I could see his eyes sparkle and say, ‘Yes. Do that again.'”
The public response was predictable.
“It goes without saying that it’s a real success every night,” he added.
