Harry Potter star Bonnie Wright disappointed at Ginny Weasley screentime
"There were parts of the character that just didn't get to come through."
While she played an important role in the plot of the series, Bonnie Wright has explained that she found Ginny Weasley's lack of scenes in the Harry Potter films compared to the books "a little disappointing".
Ginny Weasley is Ron Weasley’s younger sister – the youngest of seven Weasley children and the only girl. She’s ultimately Harry’s main love interest in the films and books, first appearing in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Wright was just nine years old when she first portrayed Ginny Weasley and – prepare to feel old – she’s now 32. More than a decade after the release of Deathly Hallows Part 2, she has spoken about her desire to do justice to the character.
Appearing on an episode of Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast, the actress explained that “there were parts of the character that just didn’t get to come through because there weren’t the scenes to do that”.
Anyone who has read the books might tell you that Ginny Weasley played a larger role in the novels, but as is normal in film adaptations and as Wright pointed out, they usually end up “chopped down”.
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She added: “I definitely feel there was anxiety toward performing and doing the best thing as my character built.
“Like, ‘Oh gosh, will I do justice to this character that people love?’ So that was always hard to do, especially when, inevitably, a lot of the scenes of every character were chopped down from the book to the film.
“So you didn’t really have as much to show in the film... That made me feel a bit anxious or just frustrated, I guess.”
Indeed, you may recall that Ginny only has one line in the Philosopher’s Stone. This was gifted to Wright by director Chris Columbus. As Wright details: “The actual first line I had in the film, which was one line, was given to me on the day, [and director Chris Columbus] was like, ‘I think you need a line,’ which is my ‘good luck’ to Harry.”
Watch the conversation on Inside of You from 29:24 below:
She added: “There was no room for much change in those scripts, there were a million executives going through them all. I think what I maybe took, which I don’t take so much to heart now, is I kind of felt that maybe my anxiety was about, 'Oh, I’m going to be seen as badly portraying this character', rather than later realising, well, I wasn’t really given the opportunity to do that, so it wasn't really my 'fault' exactly.”
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Wright went on to say that she appreciates fans of the novels and movies don’t blame her for the character’s lack of lines and overall involvement in the films.
“When fans do share that disappointment, they do it in a way that is like, ‘We know it wasn’t you, we just wanted more of you!' And that’s the same with every character. If only they could be five-hour-long movies, but it would have taken probably two years to film each one!”
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