Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Matthew Lewis

Episode Date: February 26, 2019

Matthew Lewis (Harry Potter, Me Before You, Happy Valley) joins me on the podcast this week...you might know him as Neville Longbottom from the Harry Potter movies. You know, one of the biggest movie franchises in cinematic history. Matthew, with his sexy accent, talks to me about his love of rugby, his crush on Emma Watson, and his biggest regret from the Harry Potter set...not giving Gary Oldman his shoes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum. Thank you for listening to the show and telling your friends and stealing their phones and subscribing and all that jazz. We thank you. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It's been helping so much. Do not say I want to quit. You don't want to quit.

You don't want to quit. But you just might have to. No. I don't want to quit. I want to keep the show going. It's doing well. We just need more listeners. So I'm asking my listeners to get their friends to listen and subscribe and write reviews.

And that will help and keep it free, right? Yes. Otherwise, people are going to start having. to pay like $10 a month to listen to this. That's not true. I mean, for you to keep this nice house. Do you think it's nice?

It doesn't have a pool or anything. I'm not like a, I mean, I'm not an A-lister. We could start a go-fund me for just your mortgage. Dax has a big pool, doesn't he? He's got a pool. Hey, we got a great podcast today. Who is it, Rob? That's Matthew Lewis.

Matthew Lewis. Neville Longbottom from the Harry Potter movies. He's done a lot of stage work, done a lot of TV. He lives out in L.A. We've got a great story. He, uh, I flew in. We met at a convention. I flew into London.

He picked my brother and I up, drove us to Leeds. On the way, we stopped at the old Harry Potter Lodge or whatever the hell they call it. Hogwarts? Yeah, where the real place where they shot it, the studios at the time. And I got to meet all the owls and see all the sets before the... You got to meet owls? Meet owls. You got to meet some owls?

Yeah, it was pretty cool. All the original owls. It was dope. Were they nice? They were really nice. Big ego or... No, but he's a super guy. he loves rugby um he loves the arctic monkeys we were driving up there it's pretty good at softball

oh yeah he played softball with us him and his wife came and uh yeah we just we have you know he's a great he was just at the super bowl party uh that i had he wants to have a poker night he's a gambler he wants to come over my house and play poker and take my money so matthew lewis he's he's fantastic you're going to love this interview um i did i love this i think he's a genuine dude and I was saying he likes the Arctic monkeys. But when I asked him in the car, I go, what do you listen to? He goes, Arctic monkeys. His accent's so thick.

I'm like, what? Arctic monkeys. I'm sure you would appreciate this impersonation. Yeah, he would. He would. I fuck with him all the time. Let's get inside Matthew Lewis. It's my point of you.

You're listening to inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum was not recorded in front of a live studio audience. I know I always say this is, it's awesome to have certain guests on, but I'd say we have a little bit of a history. Yeah, I'd say that. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, it's a good history, a lot of big gaps. It's longer than I thought it was. I had to sit down and piece it together.

Like when we were chatting together in Australia, like, what was like two years ago? Three years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At a convention of signing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, but then our relationship goes way back.

It goes way back. We can get into that. Matthew David Lewis, thank you for allowing me to be inside of you today. Yes, this is all mine. So we met like you said, well, we met at DragonCon. Oh, wow. Okay. And Atlanta.

Yep. And you were with your brother, Anthony. Correct. Are you closer with Anthony than Chris? Probably, but only because we. We live together in Leeds for a bit where we're from And then we live together in London for a couple of years And so and obviously sharing the same profession

He's an actor as well That kind of I guess brought us closer But as a family like we're all we're all pretty tight We're all pretty close So take me back to like growing up You weren't born in Leeds, you were born in Leeds, you were born in Yeah, you were Yeah

Did you move or that was that hit? So yeah, I was born in the house And my parents are still in uh i mean not literally in the house i mean in the hospital but then i what do you mean they're in the hospital yeah i mean i i i was born in a hospital oh you were born i wasn't born literally in the house yeah it was a joke yeah i was Victorian way of giving birth at home um but you know that is the house i always lived in um and my parents are still there and uh i didn't move away until i was like 25 i think so you lived at home to 25 you were i moved out of my parents

house when i was 18 right into my own place but in the same town, in a little town called Horsworth, in Leeds. I've been there. Yeah, you've been, right? You picked me up at the airport one time with my brother, Eric, and we drove to Leeds. Yeah, we went, did we go to the studio? Did we go to Leavesdon's studio first? I think we stopped by at the studio first.

Yeah, and then we drove up to Leeds. And where was the studio, the Harry Potter studio? That's in a glamorous little place called Watford. Watford, that's right. Watford, just north of London. Yeah, Leaveson Studios. I mean, it's exactly what you think, like, it would be. I mean, it's so, it's kind of, it's beautiful, right?

There's just a bunch of sets, right? Some buildings and the owls, I remember, and there was a little village like, right? What was there? It's completely different now because Warner Brothers bought it as soon as we finished. Now it's a nice studio. Now it's like top of the range. Everything's brand new.

There's like everything you're in there. Yeah, that's all putting you in, putting you in, putting you in, putting you in. Everything's brand new. So it wasn't nice. No, I mean, it was. You were looking at me like for you People come in a visit probably think it was great Like oh you've got all the private drive

And you've got all these great sets and stuff But the actual place had been there I mean it was an airfield in the Second World War And they still had like holes in the ceiling From trace around from the German planes going over And shooting the hell out of it So it was like it's still in the same sort of decrepit state That it was for 60, 70 years

But then now they've now they've done it up It's beautiful now Right yeah As soon as we leave I remember there was the owls yeah right wasn't there a bunch of owls or the famous owls right

yeah because they had like animal department which I think you went into yeah I got the whole I think an owl I think of owls and foxes and cats and animals how often did people ask you to go into that fucking thing uh what

take me to what what is it again watered Watford Watford take me to Watford I got asked quite a bit I mean it's it's now owned by like some third party company I don't even know if it's though like Because the studio is owned by Warner Bros.

Then there's like the studio tour, which is like next door. Where you can go and see the sets and see what they're like and all that kind of stuff. I've been a couple of times, but never, I've always been like going there for like an opening or something like that. I've never gone just out of interest. Really? How many times do people go? Hey, come on, Matt. Can we go to this?

Yeah, a few times. So what were we like the 50th tour you'd given? Oh my God. Like when it was actually working? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're just so over a bunch of people around them. These assholes want to see this again.

That's why I palmed you off. I got Jody. Do you remember Jody? I was like, you take them around. Oh, yeah, what'd you do? You go show them around. I'm not doing all this again. I work here for crying out.

I don't know, look around this. Yeah. By the way, the way you speak, there's a lot of differences. Like, you know, the United States, you had the southern draw. Yeah. If you're from Louisiana, if you're from New York, it's kind of the same thing in England, right? Wherever you're from is just a different way you speak.

Yeah, I mean, I've got a Yorkshire accent, Leeds up in the north A lot of Americans think I'm Scottish or Irish. I get that a lot. Really? Yeah, yeah. Now, what's other towns or city's perception of Leeds?

Is it a popular city to people like to go to Leeds? Is there a big rivalry to people? Yeah, so Leeds in Manchester are a big rivalry. Leeds is sort of like the capital of Yorkshire and Manchester's sort of the capital of Lancashire. War of the Roses.

Yorkshire, Lancashire, so Leeds, Manchester, naturally. A lot of fights. Historically, in the football, there would have been. Yeah, Leeds United and Manchester United hit at each other. And you're a big rugby fan. I'm a rugby league fan, yeah, Leeds Rhinos. How passionate on a scale from 1 to 10 are you about Leeds rugby?

Leeds Rhinos, very, very passionate. I mean, I know I've been fortunate enough over the years to get to meet everyone there or, you know, from the top down, the CEO, the president, coach you know the players pretty well all the players yeah you're friends of the players yeah yeah hang out with them yeah are they big drinkers uh not not so much during the season because they're consummate professionals um and you can't win you can't win eight grand finals by drinking all the time really but uh when it's end of the season uh we have a thing called mad monday where it's the first monday after the season finishes for you and everyone just goes out and it's kind of uh

you know what happens on mad monday stays on mad monday kind of kind of a fair i actually one time I was doing a play in the West End in London and against all the odds. They won the grand final. This was in 2012, I think. They won the grand final and I watched it on a Saturday night. That's the big thing. That's the big one. That's like the Super Bowl. That's it. That's it. The big one. And I watched it after my play and I had a day off on the Sunday. I was supposed to be back in on Monday. And so I went up to Leeds and I wasn't able to get involved on the Mad Monday because I was working that night but i went out on the sunday with them we did a whole day session sunday and i had to get the train afterwards still drunk back down to london to do the play the next day it was

the most awful play i've ever done you terrible i was awful did you remember your lines my lines were fine but i couldn't i couldn't really speak i tried to get so much medication into my throat because my was my throat was gone from screaming and yelling and shouting and drinking and staying yeah all that all that i couldn't speak i think it was probably the people who came to see that show show, they should have got their money back for that. I thought we should have paid them on top of them getting their money back. Did you ever search for reviews for that night? No way, man.

No. Because it'd be like, uh, Matthew Lewis looks like he was at some championship. Oh, my God. It would have been so bad. I mean, and it's one of the few things. I mean, I like to think that I'm pretty professional with work. But I tell you that is, yeah, Rugby is just one thing that just, uh, that just gets me to go a bit crazy. But you have that.

What do you mean? What? You have that, like, with the hockey, ice hockey. When the Giants, when, you know, actually, when the Mets were playing the Cardinals, and whoever won game seven would go to the World Series, and it was on set of Smallville. And I remember the director's like, all right, we got to roll here. I go, we're not fucking doing a thing.

You guys got to give me a minute. It's bass is loaded, Beltrons up. It base hit, knocks in two, and we're going on the World Series. You just got to bear with me. And the whole crew is watching, and they're rooting for me. And they're just all sitting there. And they were playing the, you know, it's like 10.30 or, I don't know what we ever in Vancouver. And I just remember.

And here's the pitch on the way to Bellatron. And it's a call third strike that game's over. And I was crushed. And they go, and the director goes, all right, Rosenbaum, let's fucking do it. Oh, my. And they shut the radio off. And they go, we're rolling. And action.

And I just, that was probably the worst time of my life. It just was heartbreaking. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Now we're going to do that again, and we're never going to let you listen to sports again. Oh, man. I mean, Leeds tend to win. I'm like not trying to rub that in there, but it does make a difference when they, I mean, being heartbroken is in a different, a whole different thing.

So how many times do they won? Well, they started having grand finals in like 1996, I think it was, and we've won it eight times since then. So screw, I mean, if you lose, who cares? Yeah, we've got plenty of, we've got plenty of championships behind it. I actually did a 2015, I got a lot of people. I kind of did a lot of phone calls to some people I was working with at the time and some old friends and stuff

and got some like good luck messages for the guys. I got one from Dan Radcliffe, which is pretty cool. He basically gets on there and he just says, I don't know much, we were playing a team called Wiggin, Wiggin Warriors in the final. And he said, I don't know much about Rugby League, but I know Matt's a big fan,

so I want to say good luck to you all and fuck Wiggin. And, man, like, I tell you, I spoke to so many of the boys and they said that that was the whole time they were playing that game, they were thinking of Dan Radcliffe just going, fuck Wiggin, and it got on through. Wow, that's amazing.

Now, are you guys good friends, you and Daniel Radcliffe still? Well, it's difficult because everyone's sort of all over the place, doing different stuff. But yeah, we're still friends, yeah. If we're in the same place, we'll definitely try and catch up. And occasionally email, hey, how you doing, shit? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And what about, what about Emma? Yeah, still see Emma.

Now, I remember something. I don't know if you're going to recall, and maybe you just choose not to remember. But there was something about, like, you were just. Just, you were youthful. Yeah. You were young. You were the young Neville, you know, and I don't know, you guys were friends. It was a cute little thing, right?

Right. You hung out. Yeah. That was it. Did you, did you? Oh, I see. Oh, right. Yeah.

You see where this is going. All right. No, no, no, nothing. No, nothing. It's weird. You asked that. Someone else was in an interview. I did a bunch of interviews for a TV show in the UK.

And they asked that question. And they asked that exact same question. Yeah. Because, you know, you were a cute guy she's a beautiful young lady how old are you at this point you're young i'm not talking yeah i'm not kids was it ever like that little heart crush that little when i was oh my gosh she's cute i want to kiss her when i was younger yeah when i was when i was young that's what i'm saying yeah yeah yeah yeah you're young you did did she know you had a crush yeah she did she did she did

she did she did we did uh i think she found out years later and she said why didn't you tell me yeah we could have been so she said she should have said you should have said but i didn't because I was a loser aren't we all I mean I've never lost that loser aspect No man I'm still my uh I'm such a geek I'm and I'm kind of like the weird The only thing you do is you don't mature

You don't get any less of a geek You just deal with it You sort of start to go you know what I don't care anymore I'm thrilled that I like Star Trek And all that kind of stuff You just instead of getting rid of it You just embrace it I think

As you get older You know, I don't, do you really feel like that? Do you really feel like you don't, you don't give a shit? No, I don't. You really don't. No. I mean, you, you, you consider yourself your child actor. You were a child actor.

Yeah. Right? You started young. How old were you? Five years old. Yeah. And you had this confidence, right? You loved it.

You were just fearless. I think children are more fearless at that age. Yeah, I probably was, was fearless. I became much more self-aware around kind of 10, 11. I don't know why. I don't know if I just, when I was like five, six, When I was acting, it was like second nature. I didn't care.

No, inhibition. Didn't care what people thought? No, it's always getting there. As soon as you get to a certain age, I don't know where, like, puberty or whatever, I just became very self-aware and became very introvert and very shy and hard on yourself? Yeah. And nervous? Yeah, very much so.

And do you think you're like that now at all? Yeah, a little bit. I think a lot of it's been shed at the wayside a little bit, you know, I've been able to cast a lot of it off. But still, I think a lot of actors. most actors have still got a certain degree of criticism that they can't seem to shake at all. Yeah. I think that's hard because I'm talking about like cognitive behavioral therapy.

Okay. Which talks about like, you know, if you're ever like if you're constantly bombarded like with these internal negative thoughts, you know, and you're like, why do I think negative? Why do I think about positive things all the time? Why when I wake up, there's the first thing. It's like, what if this? What about this? I'm like, I want to change that shit.

I don't like that. And I think it's bullshit. And you see these quotes all the time online, and they're like, you know, like, I can't quote them. I can't quote these quotes, but they're more or less saying, you know, why do you let fear get in your way? Yeah. Why do you? I'm like, I don't. It just does.

What do you want for me? It was as simple as that. We don't be doing it, right? Rob, do you get nervous? Do you freak out? I don't act. So, no. You do get nervous and weird.

I see when your face blushes when I talk to you sometimes. No, I just, I get caught off guard. You never get, like, what makes you nervous, Rob? I mean, I don't like public speaking and things like that, so I don't do that. What if you have to? What if someone goes tomorrow, you're going to be standing up at the State of the Union? That would make me very nervous. What about, what about, you said you got a kid?

Yep, you got a little one-year-old. Okay, and when they said, hey, you're going to have a kid, what did you, what did you make of that? Ah. Oh, did you think we were, I mean, we were planning it. You were planning. I mean, it caught us off guard. It happened. It's not planning.

No, no, no. Getting caught up as well. You know, we were. When someone throws a ball at you, you think, I guess you're kind of not planning for it to hit you in the face. I could explain. We were, we were trying. It happened very fast. I was expecting to take a year and it took like two months.

Yeah, apparently. Okay. Right. So you were ready for it. So you did, I mean, was, was there at any point like you were coming home from the hospital and you're like shit like i've got to do this now it's not just an idea that's actually a human child in the back seat i'm a little bit i love how i love about matthews taking this now more with matthew lose i like that though i like this though i just want to hear someone else

that's terrified about their daily life well i think everybody i think the reason i asked him is i think because everybody is yeah and i've learned that through it talking to my guests who are some very famous guests on so they they still get nervous some people will say no i don't give you shit you know there's those rare exceptions and i think think they're liars yeah um i think we all care how people respond to us people's perception but i think the ultimate goal is to just be confident in yourself and love yourself and in the rest will kind of i think one of the things i've sort of started to think about a lot in recent years you know everyone sort of says what at what age do you get to where suddenly you go i get it now i know how this all

works you know i look at my parents and i go they got their shit together my dad knows how to do all this stuff whenever does he do what does dad do well he's retired now he was like he was a systems engineer basically in the 70s he was working for his company and someone said hey we got this thing called a computer does I don't want to learn how to use that and he was like yeah going I'll do it next thing you know he's heading up the whole thing and I just think like whenever I have any a question about anything whether it's finances or or you know should I buy this house I'm not sure is it going to be he just knows everything he knows exactly what to say what to do I think at what age am I going to get to that point I'll never get there but then I realize he's full of shit

as well he doesn't know you really think he's full of shit everyone's just trying to figure out what the hell they're doing in this world everybody has so much advice like everybody has so much of it even i had advice my late friend carrie fisher always had the best advice god rest her soul but i'll tell you what she never took that advice right so she would listen to her fucking therapists and then she tell me about what i need to do it made so much sense and i go why aren't you doing that and i do the same thing i get this advice and i wouldn't say advice but people you know i talk to my therapist or whatever and he'll say something i go that makes perfect sense And I wish there was just a button you could press

Understand And then that problem was solved But it's not We're all stuck on this rock And flying through space Of billions of light years And we're just None of us know what the hell we're doing

Anyone who says they know what they're doing They're lying through their teeth Man, no one knows what we're doing here We've got to try and make the best of it And be good to each other while we're there You hear that Rob You fucking hear that Yeah I'm lying through my teeth

Yeah no one knows what they're doing So your mom What was she doing what you guys were growing up My mom well She'd just a stay-at-home mom? No, she used to work for the council, the local council, as a youth worker. She used to look after, she ran like a youth center where all these kids can come up and, you know, from all kinds of different social backgrounds. She throw you and Anthony in there after a couple years.

Yeah, well, you know, she was working, so we'd have to go to work with her and we'd have to go and sit in the youth club and do all that kind of. It was fun, no, I mean, they had like, it was there to entertain kids on a night. So there was a disco, there was. Were they troubled kids? Some of them were, some of them weren't. And it was from wherever all across the spectrum. And, you know, people still come up to my mom now in Horsford, you know, in the town. They say, you know, Linda, you really, when I was a kid, I'm not sure how far I was going

to go. But, you know, with your guidance and stuff, then, you know, I got off that track. I got on a different one. And she sees that a lot. So unfortunately, she had to give that job up so she can look after this guy on Harry Potter. So, you know, kudos to her for giving up a job that she loved to come and look after me. Well, it sounds like, you know, you're pretty grounded. You know, we've hung out and we keep in touch.

And when I met you and I actually met your folks, I think, in Leeds. Yeah. I went to that house that they've lived in and so on. And I sense that, you know, you had a good upbringing. And you're a guy who likes to throw a few back. You know, you like to have a little fun. You have a little edge. So you think of that your dad and the engineering and your mom and social work and all these things.

And what was it about acting? I mean, how do you get into that? Right. Well, I mean, nothing to do with me actually at all. It was my brother Anthony. so he was a he's just a complete performer uh when he was a kid and um he was doing it all at school and i think the head teacher kind of kind of had enough of him and had said to my parents look he this this guy he wants to perform he can be a handful when he's not performing so you know

you should probably take him somewhere and and uh let the energy out yeah exactly and my parents were like that whole world's nothing that we understand or it's it's a phase he'll grow out of it and he didn't and the head teacher eventually got him in the school again and said look if you don't take him somewhere i will because he's got something um and so eventually they said fine fine we'll take him somewhere and uh and he started working and he from the age of eight i think he started working and he was getting tv shows and yeah doing tv stuff and um and like leading tv stuff like kids tv um and i was two years old my mom was looking after him so i had to go along because I was only two, and I just grew up on it.

And so, I mean, I copied both my brothers on everything. I mean, like, if you look at my musical tastes of very much Anthony's, my TV and film taste of very much Christopher's and that kind of thing. And so I copied him with the acting thing, and I wanted to do it. And I think at that age, I assumed that's what people did. So you owe everything to Anthony. Yeah, yeah, great deal. I mean, like, I started at, so I started at five because I copied him

and I went with the same agency and they gave me an audition as a tester and I ended up getting it. A tester? What the hell's a tester? They were basically like, look,

you're a bit too young to join our agency but we'll send you off for an audition to see how you cope and we'll get some feedback. It's just one audition. Yeah, you ain't going to get it. We're just going to send you to see what feedback you get. Yeah.

And see if we'll let you in. I ended up getting it. You get out of it. Yeah, my first. What was it? What was it? It was a film called Some Kind of Life with Jane Horrocks and Ray Stevenson.

It was kind of heavy. It was a, I mean, it was about, uh, so Jane Horrocks played my mom and, uh, Ray Stevenson, my father, and he had a motorcycle accident and left him brain damaged. And so he kind of reverted to a mental age of about a five year old. And it was how the mother coped with having him as a five year old and an actual five year old in me. That's how Rob copes with me. So it's the same relationship, pretty much. It was a, it was a biopic on you two. Yeah, yeah, seriously.

Um, and, uh, so I did that at five and then just the work kept coming in after that. so yeah I guess I just fell in love with it you loved it it was fun being on set did you feel like your dad because I always felt like this I felt like I was a disappointment I felt like you know what I felt like you I felt like you I felt like oh he's going to be more like his mother and kind of all over the place and she wants to be an actress and all this stuff and here my dad is working you know nine to six every day never missing a job and all this shit and you know I think I was like were you kind of disappointed so I asked you You know, your dad, he's an engineer, your mom.

So now you're both actors. Did you ever feel like they were like, oh, come on? No, no, never. Total support. I mean, yeah, yeah, 110%. They've always been behind us doing whatever we want to do. I think the only point that my parents will be disappointed is my dad always thinks I should be winning Oscars. I should be winning BAFTAs.

He's that supporter. He believes in you. He's constantly just like, why, I mean, I watched this thing you did. And you need to be doing bigger roles than that. Why are you only doing that supporting role? I'm like, I don't know, dad. I wish I was doing it because, well, it's not good enough. You should be speaking to your agent to get better stuff.

I was like, well, I'll do that. I mean, if it's coming from you, I shall get on the phone right away. Doesn't that give a, I think that people don't realize it gives a child an amazing amount of confidence and just joy. It's amazing. When they, when their family supports them, when they really love what they do and they believe in them. Yeah, absolutely. My dad, I think, yeah, no, I think my dad hated his job actually in truth. He did it first.

Maybe he wants to be an actor. Maybe he can help him now. Maybe bring him out to California and we'll set him on some auditions. Maybe he'll get his first one. Oh man. My dad. My dad hates all that kind of stuff. TV, cameras.

Doesn't like it. Has he ever been interviewed? Like, how do you feel about your son becoming famous? I'd run a mile. I don't think he, yeah, he wouldn't, he wouldn't fancy that at all. He'd be like, fuck off. Yeah, exactly that. Please kindly fuck off.

Linda. Out of my face. Yeah, exactly that. He's much more comfortable. in the terraces with a pint watching the rugby away from all that kind of thing. But he, yeah, he hated his job and he did that job for 40-odd years

and I think when a big company came in and they bought them out, they made redundancies and he took early retirement. You know, not a single guy up from head office or wherever came down to say thanks for 40-odd years. Are you kidding me? No, a single guy.

You know what, I believe it. Yeah. I not only believe it because you told me that's the truth. But, you know, I get that because I think that's the major problem with most jobs. I don't care what you're doing. It's just the lack of appreciation or the feeling of appreciation. I think that I think people, if they went to their nine to fives or if they're actors or whatever they're doing, if their bosses every once in a while would

sort of just say, hey, I really just want to tell you, I appreciate what you're doing. I think you're really great at what you're doing. And I just, it doesn't have to be all the time, but I think it's healthy for the environment, for the work environment. And it helps, I just think it's a good thing to do. Because you're sitting there and it's monotonous and you're thinking, what the hell is this all for? You know, this rat race of just getting up in the morning just to what are we doing this for?

So if there's some kind of appreciation, some kind of acceptance, you are valued. You're an important cog in this machine. We couldn't do it with it. You're just something. Rob, I really appreciate you. You're doing a fantastic job on the podcast. I think there's a lot of knobs here on this control panel that I couldn't possibly figure out.

So that makes you smarter than me when it comes to knob, knob turning. And I just want to say, thanks for all your input and make sure all the microphones work, please. You're welcome. Thanks for making him appreciate me. Good. There you go. Thank you, Matthew. No, I've got to facilitate that.

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Dot com slash inside-of-you. Free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash inside of you. How often do you talk about this stuff with your buddies? No, frequently. Do you think any of your close friends even know some of this stuff? No, maybe my buddy Nick, who you know as well.

He stayed here. Yeah, we both said it. Stay to my top bunk. We did, man. Well, no, it wasn't, yeah, it was a separate room, two guys. I don't want to be with you guys. You guys were farting all night, I'm sure. I'm sure.

It was a heavy night, that was a fun night. That was a fun. It was back in the day when I used to go to clubs. I used to have a little, I had a little too much fun that night, I think. I think you, did you? Yeah, well. I remember you being a little tipsy. Honestly, I don't remember, but Nick likes to, likes to hammer me about that night.

Nick, didn't he sleep in the crawl space or something up in the top bunk? There was like that. Oh, my God. You guys were a lot of fun. He gives me some stick about that night. I think that's what I liked about you guys. When I met you and your brother, Anthony, there was just two dudes who just want to hang out. There wasn't any pretension.

There wasn't any. And I feel like that's sort of like the, I'm sure there's a lot of pretension in England. In Leeds, maybe not. Maybe people are just a little more down earth than Leeds. Well, I think, like, I look at, you know, I look at my dad and I look at like everything he gave for an entire career for ultimately, you know, obviously helped to make sure that we had a great environment. to grow up in but ultimately to not you know i think he hated it and he wish he did something else and i look back and i go how lucky i am to be doing what i'm doing just enjoy the ride you know

enjoy the ride brother so that's what i'm trying to do i don't really in this whole business as well you know no matter how long you're in it i don't know how much you can ever really feel comfortable in it or know exactly what's going on or the ins and outs or i don't think you ever stay at the top and you feel comfortable at the top you're always treading water or whatever so just enjoy the ride do you enjoy it always do you honestly love being on sets do you love of what what i mean do yeah answer that i mean i like to know do you really is this something that you honestly looking me in the eye just can say without the bullshit without the yeah oh i love it every like i have some friends my friend dax i've talked about it before i had nausea i mean he's

always like i just love to act i love to be on set i love it i love it i love it and i go i don't i don't i don't always love being on set yeah i don't always love the job i'm doing That's why I'm in a position. I'm lucky, but I hopefully, well, maybe not. Maybe I'll never get hired for anything. I look at jobs like if I get, how much fun am I going to have on that? Am I going to have a lot of fun? Or is it going to challenge me?

Is it a good environment? Is it going to get me to the next level? There's a lot of things, but ultimately you want to have fun. I think that we, you know, you and I are in a kind of a privileged position. You know, we've been able to work. We've been able to, you know, we're not wondering where the next food's coming from. Because I would do any fucking thing before I had any fame at all. Yeah, I'm not that famous.

You're much more famous than I. I don't think so. But I'm just saying, I don't know. For me, I feel like I know what it was like because I was, you know, I struggled for a little while. But it's, it's so humbling to know how, I mean, this is the hardest business ever. Yeah. And we are privileged. But go ahead.

Well, sometimes, you know, sometimes you'll get this script, will come in. You go, oh, God, that looks. That would be amazing. One effort to it would be, you know, I have to really get my head into that. And that would be, that would really beat the shit out of me for. for six months. Do I want to get beat this shit out for six months? That's it.

That's the call. Did you hear that, Rob? He's saying that, oh, my God, this would be great for me, and this would be really good for my career and do it. But it could be really hard. And there comes a time in a man's life. When you hit 45 or how old are you? I'm only 28.

Well, fuck you. I got no excuse. You're both. But you know what I mean? Where it's like, you know, what's it worth? I don't want to lose years of my life doing this project. if it's going to kill me, unless I really am conditioned for it, mentally and physical. But then, I mean, hey, if you read the script and you go, this is a story that I want to tell.

I love this. I don't give a shit how hard this is going to be. I want to, you know, say you read a book and you, it was your favorite book growing up, and someone goes, hey, we're going to make it into a film and you're going to be the lead in it. And you're like, that book was mental. How was they even going to do that? But fuck, I want to be the one to do it. You know, sometimes you'll get that.

Yeah, you're right. My friend, Al, who created Smallville, we go out and have our lunches. And he goes, Michael, it gave me a script. And he says, we wrote this with you as a lead. Have a look. And I had lunch with him again about two weeks later. And I said, this is incredible. Al, you guys really wrote a tremendous script.

The characters are just, they're fleshed out. They're just, they pop. This is going to be a huge hit. I have no doubt. But I think it's just going to be too. difficult for me it's too much work i don't think i can handle that much work i know i swear you looked at me and he laughed i go this is 60 pages a week right 60 pages a week and this is rain and i we did that on smallville for eight years where it's like rain machine it's cold and it's free and it's

all these things so you got it almost like go hey this would be great if this was a movie but i'm not sure i want to do this every week for maybe seven eight nine 10 years and be 60 years old and you know be in the hospital yeah yeah i agree i i agree with that entirely and everything has to be taken in context of where you are in your life at that moment because again you know go back to my dad and i look at him and i go yeah okay so he he was doing that for us he didn't ever really stopped during that whole time to think do i want to be doing this yeah kids responsibility he did it for us he did it for you um but if you're on a position where you can go hey look i you know i i i want to make sure that when i look back on life i don't feel like

I missed any opportunities that I wanted to do. And, you know, you could miss an opportunity wasting, you know, doing six years of that. And also, on the flip side of it, I guess fear comes into play a lot. I think that with an actor is, you know, if you take away, you know, oh, it's going to be difficult, I'm kind of bothered. How often is that actually you're just scared of it? In which case you definitely should do it. Yeah.

No, that's true. So it's trying to find that balance where do you, are you not enthused by it or are you scared of it? Yeah, that's happened a few times where I'm like, oh, no, I can't feel it. And then my, you know, my agent will go, listen, consider this. I think you could really do well at this. I think one of those things, one of them was small, though. I really thought, well, I thought maybe it'd be cheesy or corny. I just didn't, I just didn't think, you know, and then they're like, no, they're putting a shit ton of money behind this and they want to do this right and all these things.

And so when I realized how good this could be for me, that was different, we got to get into the Harry Potter world. Because we haven't even touched that, really, have we? No, yeah. I mean, how old 10 years old when you? I got it at 10, I think we started when I was 11. First of all, I don't, how do you get an audition like that? And did you read the books? Yeah, so I think there was, I think there was four books out at the time that I went for my, my first audition.

And as I said, I've been, I've been. You read them before, like, to prepare? No, just a fan. You just loved it. You were a fan. Yeah, I loved it. and then I've been acting for like five years at that point and they did an open audition

all across the nation actually they did tons of them but one of them happened to be in Leeds so the agency that I was with was sending a bunch of kids down I mean I was going regardless but it just turned out that happened to be a huge fan at the same time so I went down and queued for I think like five hours given like a little raffle ticket when I went in I think the number was like 463

and that was my place in the queue and I just sat there for like five hours and then eventually got called in But first of all, how many people were there? Well, I mean, in the hotel where we were There was a big, big ballroom full of people Like, let me be a thousand people at this one I mean, I know that nationwide over the original castings

They did like 40,000 kids Did you recognize anybody from school? Hey, Tim? No, I didn't actually. No, I didn't at all. I saw a bunch of guys from like my agency that works. We went to, like, classes once a week. So there's a bunch of guys there.

Did Anthony audition with you? No, no, he was too old at that point. Right. And I remember, this has been something that's been with me for a long time that I've had to try and let go. I remember they were all doing these warm-ups. And even at 10 years old, they're all doing these warm-ups all from the drama group. And they were warming their voices up and they were doing all these exercises. And I was like, that looks shit.

I ain't doing that. That is pathetic. What are they all doing? How embarrassing do they look all doing those stupid warm-ups? And the worst thing is that because I got the part, now I, like, in my brain, I was like, yeah, I was right. I don't need fucking warm-ups. I don't need to go and do acting exercises. Was it just for Neville there?

No, that was for anything. But maybe they got, maybe you didn't know this, but maybe Emma was one of those people warming up. Maybe she was warming up. This is why I've got this stupid thing in my head. Like over the last, I'm finishing Harry Potter. I've had to try and shake that attitude.

You know, there was technique and craft and all those kind of things are valuable and are important. But me being a little wise-ass kid thought I was, you know, fuck that. I'm not doing that. They look like idiots. I'm not doing that. So, yeah, all these kids are all out here, like 1,000 kids, whatever.

Eventually they go in the room, and there's only three of us. And we just stood there. We read a paragraph. We were given a paragraph from the book to learn. It was one of Harry's lines, and it was about four lines. Something very, very innocuous about a dragon's egg or something. I can't remember the quote now, but it was, that was all we did. We just read that to camera, and then with our name held up while we did it.

And that was it in there for like 30 seconds. say your name i'm matthew lewis yeah and i also like i had a copy of my CV with me which i uh i left behind they said just leave your name and that's it i was that i'll slip down underneath there put my CV in not saying that helped not saying it didn't either oh look at this sneaky bastard it's a little five-year long CV there we're gonna get one tweet or somebody's like don't ever do an english accent rosenbaum never i know that's coming they're going to say it they're going to say whenever an american does it knocking around they're like oh it's fucking awful how often do you guys have those conversations at a bar with friends god these english

people. These Americans, I mean, with their English accents, terrible. All the time. Is there anyone that can really do one that you're like, fuck, that's pretty good. I mean, there must. Of course, there will be. Absolutely, there will be. I mean, I'm sure John Lithgow can do one probably pretty well. I've not seen the crown, but I'm sure he's doing a good way. I got to watch that one. I heard it's good. By the way, you played Neville Longbottom. Yeah. I read this. This could be lying, but did you know, oh my God. Do you have family members of the Longbottoms? Right. That's true.

In the book. Yeah. Right. Do you know they're not. names do you know who your father's was um yeah i do i just remembered it just popped in there i think uh frank yes yeah frank long bottom yeah about that rob i did some fucking research what was your mother's name alice yes and how about your wife later on oh um hannah abbott fucking you are right you're a method actor and your paternal grandfather that doesn't mean anything just as mr longbottom Oh, I'm going to say, I have a clue. You're human, your gender is male.

You have blonde hair. They didn't dye my hair for that. I'll join you when hell freezes over. Yeah, I never even got to say that. I was looking forward to that one, and they cut it from the film. Didn't even put it in the screenplay. Really? Yeah.

Were you bummed? Yeah, I thought it was quite a good line. That had been quite fun to say. It was been a good one, yeah, I guess. You knew the movies were going to be big, right? Did you think it would be more than one movie? And did you think you'd ever become? as big of a role

as you did? So even when we're doing all the like the meetings and stuff and we went down to meet Chris Columbus and David Heyman and all the guys Even then I was like Do we know if it's going to be any good? I mean how many books

How many phenomenons have we seen Turn into a film and then it It just fizzles out The film the film translation doesn't work And and you know My parents were doing a very good job Of you know just keeping me grounded and saying, you know, take everything with a pinch of salt.

You never know. By the way, did you go to, were you going to school at this point? Yeah. You got it? Yeah. Did you, when you knew that you were never, were you going to school? Like, oh, I'm never long bottom. I think I got it.

I think I actually got the role when I was in like, like, summer holidays before going into high school. So, so I've gone to, I was going into a new high school and straightaway having to go, just so you guys know, I ain't really going to be here very much. But it was, my brothers had been there previously, so they were aware of it. And it was, they'd had a lot of, actors. They had a drama studio there and they'd had a lot of actors come through. So they were aware of the situation. So it wasn't abnormal to them and they were cool with it. We were told you'll

sign up for one and two and then we'll see what happens. We might not even do the second one, but we'll sign you up for two and we'll see what happens. And we may not even, you might be cut, you might be in the scene. Yeah, exactly. And also, yeah, it might be terrible, might be good, recast. They might, you know, lose the character entirely, no idea. Because at that point, four books out. Yeah, okay, so he's in it. He's a good supporting role. But no indication. that he's going to go on. Yeah, the first few episodes are not really,

not a ton of, not a ton of Neville, right? Yeah, absolutely. And they probably didn't pay you shit, did they? No, they did not. No, no, no. Do you ever have regrets of that? I mean, hey, I was like 11 years old looking you do it.

Whatever you make. It doesn't matter. You do it, so you love, you're in a big blockbuster. When was the moment where it's like, okay, we need to renegotiate. I'm becoming a bigger role. Basically, after the first two, really.

So when they were after the first two, so we do three and four. And then I'd move the agent at that point. I'd moved to a London agent, so they had a bit more nouse about the whole thing and a bit more of a strong arm, so we sort of renegotiated for that. And then when they kind of really did it,

was in five. Oh, five. Yeah, because they did it in two film blocks at times. After three and four, we did again for five and six. And by that point, you know, in five, it was starting to seem clear that Neville was going to become something more like he was part of the Dumbledo's army thing. Right.

you had some cloud yeah yeah yeah and then uh and then luckily like i say every two years we got to renegotiate so it was uh i can't complain what was it like i mean walk me through just for a second the first day on set walking in as this character in this world or at least the what's the big the big room the mess hall the great the great hall what's what's it like being in that room for the first time and seeing like the immensity the just the the the impact on you that it has kind of surreal. Having been a fan at that age, and having imagined it all in your head,

and then to someone, to have someone say, oh, now you're going to, not just act it out and make believe that you do in your bedroom, you're going to actually get to do this stuff, you're going to be in the uniform with the one, it's going to be cool. And you walk into the Great Hall, and it genuinely, I mean, I can't remember it hugely, it was 11 years old, but I remember taking the breath

away, in that instant it's being like, this is real. You know, it's not a dream. It's not it's not someone telling you you'll do it and then it's half-assed or this is real we're actually doing this and it's going to be on a cinema screen around the world that's kind of the point in which you realize that they weren't messing around yeah what about like starting to like work with like guys like Rickman just being around and like these guys everybody looked up to I was terrified absolutely terrified and that's probably one of my my

biggest regret about the probably my life even if you like but especially of of those whole films that as I mentioned to you earlier being that whole sort of age of 11 to 17 being very introverted and very very shy that I I expression we say I wouldn't say boo to a goose I don't know if you use that over here probably not um Rob does yeah all the time he boots his goose every day I wouldn't talk to anyone I wouldn't say a word to anyone no one yeah right and I um you know if I was spoken to of course I'd speak back but I think now at times when I'd be standing and doing a scene with Alan Rickman or with David Fulis or Maggie Smith and I'd just be you know in between takes just silent just staring at

their shoes like this guy is weird yeah they must have thought I was an absolute freak of a kid because you were terrified yeah I didn't want to say anything I didn't know what to say to him and as it turns out as you get older and you get to like 19 20 and you're talking to him on a on a level and they're just the most coolest most down to earth normal people like I could have so much more fine exactly that exactly that like I remember one time I did in hair makeup and Gary Oldman. Oh, don't say he's one of my favorites. He took a shine into my trainers, right?

He saw my sneakers and he was like, hey, my son would really love a pair of those. Where'd you get those from? Give me them off your feet, son. And I was at first, I thought that's what he was asking, because he's pretty intense. Like, he started staring at me, and he's waiting for an answer, and I'm thinking, is he expected me to offer them to him? But I think he just wanted to know genuinely where they were from. And I was sort of, just from a shoe stop in Leeds. I just couldn't get any words out

and I looked back now and he thought I was just staring at me like what the fuck is wrong with you child speak he didn't say that obviously but I could see it behind his eyes that's what he was thinking could you imagine if he called me out

in like one of the movie the professional everyone he's like nemo but I look back at this thing we could have had like a genuine conversation and he wouldn't have think

I was an absolute freak and now if I was to meet Gary Oldburn on a red carpet people would probably think oh well that they're all pals or know each other he wouldn't have a fucking clue who I would

I'd have been good friends with Oldman If you would have given me Fucking shoes I'd just take in the damn shoes See now I look back at 20 I'd be like I'd have taken those shoes off so quick I'd just put them in his hands

You could have probably been married to Emma Watson right now It's just ridiculous There's so many things that could happen It just doesn't make any sense But you know what That's my advice to all children But that turned around though

After what year where you're like You know what fuck this I'm gonna have a good time Yeah I guess I got to like Like 17 18 Oh my God It took a wild in it Yeah, I really, yeah, yeah.

I was too busy watching Star Trek at home until then. And then I got to like 17, 18, and I don't know, it's almost like switched overnight. And I just, I don't know whether it's an acting thing where you go, you know what? I'm sick of being this kid who can't say anything. I'm still going to be him, but what I'll do is I'll create a persona during the day where I'm actually quite cool. And I'll act. You're pretending while you're, right. And then eventually you become that.

And it's kind of like a bit of advice I'd say to any young kids that are struggling. and I'll say just create someone who you think's cool and pretend to be them for a bit and eventually you'll just become that person. Oh, I hope they choose wisely. Yeah, right? Because that could be a real mistake. I mean, did you hang out with Rickman a lot?

Alan, definitely more than Gary Elman. Yeah, yeah, we had a few scenes together because I don't think Gary and I had any, well, very brief scenes together where we were like ships in the night, you know, we'd actually interact. But Alan and I had a few scenes together, yeah. So we hung out a little bit.

And you take his passing pretty hard. I think everybody did. Yeah, it was just, it was just such a, the most bizarre thing for me was that I was at Leaves and Studios when the news came through. I'd gone down to go and see, they were filming Fantastic Beast at the time, and I'd just gone in to go and meet with David Yates and David Heyman, who were, you know, still together as a team on that film. I just went down to just catch up.

I hadn't seen him for a few years. I said, I'm in town. I'll come over and I'll just come in. They said, oh, we'll take you on the set. and so we're doing all that Eddie Redmayne's there and everyone's there and it's like oh it's weird

to be back in this studio when they're filming a sort of Harry Potter thing but it's not ours and very surreal and then suddenly the thing the news headline

comes through on my phone and everyone sort of gets it simultaneously it was just and everyone was just shell-shocked and then to be there in those corridors

which look different have been all renovated but you know they're still the same walls you know there's still the same walls you know there's still the same halls that we walked down and and you could just you could just picture him right there

in in situ and it was that was a very surreal time actually that whole day just is a bit of a blur to me now i can remember everything before the news came through and nothing from after i just do you remember crying at all no i'm not really a cry are you a cry i'm not really a cry i'm i cry every once in a while but i don't like to cry in front of people right unless i just really have to i'm a film i've cried at films Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, God, I can't stop crying at films. Like, weeping.

Is that because maybe your family was very strong? Your dad, you never saw him cry. Maybe, maybe. I don't know. My dad cries now. He does. He says that as well. He says, when he was younger, he never used to.

And then as he got older, I don't know whether it's having kids that does it to you or what, but he does now. Or maybe, you know. When he's watching TV. Prostate. Oh, maybe it's that. I can hear him be quite painful. Rob, what do you think? I heard that's connected to your tear ducks.

Let me ask you this. I have this idea that, you know, I guess I had this idea, maybe people do, that, you know, when you're an Alan Rickman kind of actor or Gary Oldman, they don't mess up. They're just always genius. They're always perfect. They've been given the gift. Right.

You got to witness it firsthand. Did you see them messing up? Did you see them like normal actors, like finding it, trying to figure it out, not there, taking take after take after take? No. Damn, no. Honestly, like, it's one of those things when they come in. They come in and they, you know, the complete package is right there on the day.

They're ready to go. Yeah. And I'm always thinking, have you, like, have you been getting like remedial time with the director? Have you been, like, all off in your little, in your dressing room, been doing it for, no, no, he just comes straight on. He just, he just knows what he's doing. Yeah, okay, so everyone, everyone fluffs a line now and then. But in terms of character, in terms of energy. Was it pretty intense?

Are they intense guys? Can be. Yeah, can be. Like, it's not, you want to go after a take and go, hey, Alan, that was really good, man. But then, but then capable of like, Michael Gambon's one who is always amazing at breaking any kind of ice or anything like that. Always laughing, jokester. Absolutely full of filthy jokes. To just jump into it.

Filthy jokes. He's telling children a bunch of filthy jokes. Yeah, Michael don't give a shit. He doesn't care. He doesn't care. What's a joke that you remember him to tell him? I, uh, but I remember, I remember seeing Alan, like, belly laugh. Really?

Yeah, like, really, like, like, reverberating around the great hall. And everyone's like, what the fuck is that noise? It's like, it's Alan laughing. And it was, yeah, I remember stuff like that. Let's talk a little bit about the transformation, because you went from playing, well, first of all, I'll let you describe you describe Neville. Not too dissimilar to how I've described myself of that age, really.

Really? Yeah. How would you describe yourself that age? Yeah, so it was, very shy, not one to speak up in class and in a group of, even a group of friends that he feels relatively comfortable I don't think he'd be the one to speak up. He was bullied, which I wasn't.

So he had a lot of that kind of stuff. And he had a lot of reasons for all this kind of stuff with his parents being, you know, he lost his parents to insanity when he was very young. They're in a hospital. And he sort of lives with his overbearing grandmother who nothing's ever, he'll never be as good as his father was in his grandmother's eyes.

And so that's very difficult for him. So he's kind of got various reasons. to be a little bit shy and a little bit. But then look at yourself now. Right. How you have went from this role to, I mean, obviously, you grew up. That's a big part of it. You know, you grew up.

But, you know, for me, I remember I had this really kind of long hair and I had these two fucked up teeth. They were all jacked up. And my manager at the time, Dave Becky, goes, fix your teeth. Cut your fucking hair. and stop wearing that stupid jacket. I continued to wear the jacket. I wasn't going to sell out completely.

No, but I did, and my career changed. My career changed. I started getting considered for lead roles and being big parts and doing things. It worked. I needed someone to be honest with me, someone to say things like, you know, we all have those friends. You need one friend that says, Rosenbaum, you're getting a gut. Rosenbaum, you know, get some sleep, which they say every day.

You change. Like, you had a big, like, you changed. All of a sudden, people ask me on the streets, they're like, oh, my God, he's so hot. Like, you're like this hot guy now. I mean, it's, it's, you hate that. You hate that. Hey, I'm, I'm never going to hit people complimenting me at all. Like, I mean, that's, you know, like, that's not, that's no bad thing.

The only thing for me that I find mostly uncomfortable about it is that people say, particularly in America, you know, the idea is, you know, wear it as a badge of honor. It's like, you, you know, you go into a room, whether you believe it or not, you want to go in there and you want to hold your head high and you want to. and you say, yeah, I'm fucking hot. Yeah, I'm the one, everyone, everyone looking at me. And I'm terribly bad at that. I don't want it's an English thing or whatever. I'm terrible bad at that.

And I also don't feel that, you know, like Brad Pitt, you know, Tom Cruise, these are, these are objectively good looking guys. I am possibly maybe to some people subjectively a little bit nice to look at, possibly maybe. But I'm not objectively, I'm not a model. I'm not, you know, and I'm acutely aware of that. So when people sort of say it's really hot, I sort of think they're kind of going mad. a little bit. Well, I'm thinking more of just like in terms of your transformation. You went from this character

that was kind of just shy and weird and just the cute and a goofy kind of way. And then you transformed into, and the short answer is yeah, I grew the fuck up. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I grew up. I fucking worked out. I got some muscles. I

fixed my hair. I I wore a fucking agonizing brace for six months, which was you know what? I wore a, uh, you call them braces, right? Braces. Yeah, I was six months i wore this this this this spring loaded brace to straighten your teeth where they all crooked god it was like painful so painful because originally the guy wanted me to it for two years i said man i'm gonna be on a red carpet in six months i'm wearing braces for two years and he was like well the only

alternative is this thing this new thing uh where you put it in daily but it's gonna hurt and i was like and then they have to adjust them and i just them yeah and i put it in every day i had to put it in and and sleep in it and it was for six straight months just agony as my literally forced my teeth together but I mean it was it was where it worked out

I get to keep my teeth as well I didn't want to have to they're all your real teeth yeah yeah these are veneers these top six years because I had them like hit knocked in hockey I had like had them bonded and they kept falling off

so she said the only way to stop this and coming to the dentist 10 times years to just get them veneered so I did and people always like your teeth are so nice I'm like not my Yeah, I got to keep mine. I mean, they're partly mine.

There's like a little piece. But I don't play ice hockey. No. You played rugby, though, right? A little bit? No, I played, touch and pass. Yeah. Non-contacts.

Oh, yeah? You know the rules. You get the odd split lip now and then, but. Your old buddy, Nick. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, he goes steaming in. You like, I'd tell you one thing that before we move on from that. I'd tell you one thing.

And people sort of say about, like, oh, you know, puberty hit you really well. Oh, you know, puberty did such a good job with you. I was like, I was 21. How old do you think I went through puberty? Like, fucking hell. No, I got braces and I went to a gym. I didn't go through fucking puberty at 21? I'm kidding me right now.

Unbelievable. The audacity, really. Yeah, right? You love doing plays. Do you? Because you do a lot of plays. You were in the West End. Didn't you do a play last year?

Yeah, I've done two in the West End now. And then one, which is like a tour. Isn't that just grueling? those hours to me are like eight shows a week you're on for three hours aren't you just exhausted yeah I mean the last one I did was uh no interval we just went right through what um for how long four months uh it was like uh how long was it like an hour and a half I think oh for how long was it the run um it was uh three months 12 weeks were you ready for it to be done uh yeah yeah yeah yeah but only surprisingly usually I get it a lot earlier usually just in the last week I was like

I think I'm ready now I think I'm ready so to finish you're not really I mean, you love theater, you love doing it, but you're like not, like, you don't want to do as much theater as you did. I'm sensing that. Yeah, I think the theater for me was an opportunity because I kind of did the whole acting career backwards, if you like. Yeah, usually start theater and then you were. So I did a few TV, but like I was straight to a blockbuster movie, huge global franchise at 11 years old until I was 21 and suddenly get spat out into the real world. And it's like, I don't have any foundation. on this industry on my career my technique anything at all was it in a sense proving yourself is that

what you felt a little bit a little bit but it was as much as much proving myself as it was to learn really i wanted to go and see you know alan rickman told me on his last day i went to his trailer just to say thank you because you know to him is just another movie but for for for me and i imagine pretty much everyone on it's fucking allen rickman for 10 years so i had to go and say it might I don't mean that much to you, but as a young actor, this has been the coolest thing ever to work opposite you. And he said, you know, come in, have a cup of tea, and we just sat in his trailer for a bit.

Were you nervous then, like a little nevel? Yeah, of course. Even then. Even at 21 years old. Yeah, but he was so cool. And we just sat in there, and he asked me, like, what I was planning on next and what I should do. Then he asked you for your shoes.

And, yeah, and I didn't give him to him either. No. So I've really dropped the, from that guy. Drop the ball there. Still got them shoes. And he basically just said, you know, theater is a great place to start. It's where I learns where, you know, it's really worth doing.

And so the first thing after Harry Potter I did was a play. It was a terrible play. And I was terrible in it. Everyone else was brilliant. And I was terrible in it because I didn't have a fucking clue what I was doing. I didn't know how to project my voice. I didn't know how to build a character. I didn't know how to do anything.

Did you start to doubt yourself as an actor? I mean, I got halfway through this tour, and not even halfway through, the reviews were just terrible. About you? Yeah, like, brutal. Like, my voice was excruciating. I was out of my debt.

All this kind of is really horrible. You read them. Yeah, and I'm glad I did in this context. I wouldn't read them now, but I'm glad I did in this context because there was me at 21 years old coming out of, at the time, the biggest film series of all time being like yeah i can do this job how can it be um and i

didn't have a clue what i was doing wow and and i needed that to basically bring me down to earth and go no this is a this is not a piece of you know this isn't something you can come in and put your feet open and and and and for the whole rehearsal process and they expect to step out on stage and and ace it they ain't going to happen this is this is something that people spend their entire alive trying to perfect trying to hone this craft and you've got to fucking do it so most people would have thought i probably would have been like okay i suck at theater but i was really good on film i'm gonna stick it to film i mean you didn't you went back to theater don't get me wrong like a big part of me was there like i remember again nick right i had him i got him on the phone

i was in cardiff they ended playing cardiff and i call the point i'm done i was just like four months into it had two months left it's like i'm done i can't do this anymore reviews of shit it's not getting better can't fucking do it from what i have no of Nick, I can imagine him just saying, okay. I mean, what did he do? He said, actually, to his credit, he said, so what are you going to do with the rest of your life? And I was like, I don't know, because you've done this since you're five, what are you going to do, if not this? I was like, I don't know.

He's like, well, then make it work. And I was like, what do you mean? He's just make it work. What can you do now to make this work? Wow, somebody else matured. Yeah. No, because I think he's, that was the pinnacle of his maturity. I think he's regressed

Yeah, oh, I can imagine Yeah, he said that And he was right And basically I went back You know, I called the director Rather than bury my head in the sand I said, what am I doing wrong? What can I do to fix this?

And he worked tirelessly with me And I looked at the other actors And I went, you know, and I went back to the starting board And drawing board And in the last two months The reviews flipped on their head And um

Wait a minute, wait a minute So you went from Disaster I want to walk out to Nick the prophet fucking telling you what are you going to do and then the next thing you know you get this confidence

because I was fucking lazy is what it was you found love you weren't putting enough work into it yeah I was lazy I thought I could do it and I couldn't and how did you do that

how did you change so I basically I sat with the other actor you know the like I said the director really worked with me a lot and he did all that stuff that I said I'm not warming up I'm not doing those stupid workshop

those exercises I'm not doing all that he's still dwelling on that he's still dwelling at the The position process of those kids who never did anything with their lives. It was idiots. But no, they were the right ones all along. And the director put me through all these things.

And, you know, you let those inhibitions go. You stop going, oh, I look silly. You know, I'm doing all these, you know, when you're doing your voice, your vocal warm-ups and you're shouting out these tongue twisters. Rubber baby buggy bumpers bolting briskly down the boulevard. Oh, God, I look like an idiot. You go, forget that. You don't like an idiot because you're a professional actor,

and this is what you've got to do. as you started doing this stuff and I was looking at the actors seeing what they were asking their advice and they started to say I'd speak from you diaphragm all this kind of stuff and doing all these jobs that isn't their job at all but they all spent this time with me you know in the wings of the

theatre helping me and and yeah and then all sudden the news wow Matthew David Lewis has really made a turnaround folks does not suck a voice that was hard to listen to has now turned into a soft pendulum of love bearable

really so all of a sudden the reviews were getting better Yeah, the reviews were good. The last couple of weeks of the show were really great reviews. For me personally, the play was still terrible. Everyone else was great. But the reviews of me personally were strong. And so a year later, when I suddenly got bumped up, I got offered a West End gig. So I'm not touring anymore.

I'm going to be in the heart of Britain's theatre. And I kind of jumped at that one a little bit. And again, it was, you know, you, you, you, you. You go back to square one. You go, oh, my God, I can't do this. I can't remember how to do it. It was a year ago. I'm going to be terrible again.

But you throw yourself into the rehearsal process, and you do. Admittedly, I do prefer film and TV. I still wake up in cold sweats, the actor's nightmare, where I'm about to go on for this play in the West End, and I don't know my lines, or I've not even seen the play of the script. I still have those dreams. I'm not even doing any theater anymore. Cripling, crippling nightmares that I have.

So, you know, if I'm going to do a play, it has to be something that I'm really. passionate about i love this story or whatever um but i've i've learned so much doing that it's just it turned my whole world upside down because it was going you know you can't you can't hide behind good directors and good d ops out there you've got to do it and you've got to put the work in wow you can't hide behind good dps and good directors yeah isn't that the freaking true yeah because if they light you beautifully in one movie and you look great and the everything is just directed perfectly and they can get something out of you

it doesn't mean you're a good actor no no i don't think so and this is one thing that i didn't learn either it's simple something as simple as being on your cues for example simple like knowing when the cues coming and and and and be really listening and be ready with your response i wasn't doing shit like that but in the film world if there's a huge pause between the last person's they just cut it out yeah and it makes me look brilliant but it wasn't there it wasn't there in reality and when it was on stage it was painfully obvious that it wasn't there in reality and so it's little stuff like that that you know that i probably missed out on by not going to drama school or whatever that i had to just learn and that's what theater did for me and still does

i mean like the last play i did was was a god again same thing having huge meltdowns on the phone to the director at one in the morning go adam i can't do this i got to do it we're going on stage in a week were you really like grief-stricken like just or yeah i mean all four of us actually it was a four-man show and and you know was it not going to do that was it not going to No, it was a brilliant show. It was a superb show, and I was playing a male escort. What was the show called? It was called Unfaithful.

Unfaithful, not based on the movie Unfaithful. No, no, no, no, it was a new play. Different kind of unfaithfulness. What's the film about? It's about cheating. Yeah, same kind of unfaithfulness. That's what I'm faithful. Yeah, that's the same kind.

It was about this, you know, this guy, I don't need to go on. It's Richard Gere. She watches a great movie, and he, like, catches his wife having an affair with this guy, but she calls it off, but he goes and confronts the guy and then accidentally kills him, and then buries his body and all this shit happens. Oh, wow. No, it's not, it's not, this all takes place in, uh, uh, in a sort of, well, a lot of it in a hotel and then someone in someone's living room, but it's, it's basically, I'm a male escort, um, and I have a, a, a long-term girlfriend, and so it's how our relationship is strained by what I'm doing. And she goes, out one night to try and get into my head to try and understand it so she feels more comfortable and so she flirts with this guy for ages

she doesn't sleep with him but she just she goes as far as almost about to sleep just so she can get into that mindset to think is it is it something where he can detach himself or does he have feeling there and then and then in this guy's wife finds out that he almost slept with this girl and in retaliation she hires a male escort

which happens to be me slightly contrived I'll admit but it creates a whole close to fuck of really have seen I like it. I like it. And we're all on, you know, like I say, we're all on stage for the entire duration, no interval. The whole time, an hour and a half?

Yeah, so I think, you know, it's different scenes that we're not in, but even then we're just sat off to the side and still performing in the way that it was set up is that we're still almost, even though we weren't in the scene, we're still part of the scenery. You ever zone out? Yeah. And they're like, oh my God, where are we? What is you saying? What's my next line? All the time. Yeah, I've done that.

So you've done tons of theater. You're, you like filming TV a little more. Where do you see yourself? Because you're still a young guy. You're 28. What do you want to do? Do you want to get on a really good series? Because TV's worth that now.

Cable are making the most terrific series. I would just watch the series Dark on Netflix. It's unbelievable. I've only seen the first five. I mean, I would love to be on a show like that. I'd love to do a cable series, something like that, where you can do 10 episodes, kick some ass. Yeah.

I mean, I think, you know, I haven't done Harry Potter for 10 years, I am reluctant to dive into something that is going to take up my entire life for the next, you know, like you were saying earlier, it's going to take, you know, six, seven years doing the same thing for 10 months of a year. I'm just not sure that that's really what I'm working. But that's why cable you only do like four or five months tops. You're looking at cable and it's like mini series,

10, 12 episodes and I think that is, I mean, even as a watcher, like a viewer, I love that. I love that set up. Take a break with the actors. You'll wait for a while. I mean, you know, from the British set up anyway, we're used to like six episode series.

that's what I've always done when I'm doing in British TV shows is I think the most I did in the series was was eight episodes once so I'm used to that self as an actor but as much as a viewer as well but I think you're absolutely right I mean hey don't get me wrong filming films are still still the dream they're still the kind of like far out

little boy wanting to be in the big blockbuster or whatever but I think in terms of the of quality I don't think there's a difference anymore at all Are you insatiable? Do you feel like if somebody said, hey, Harry Potter, you did eight, and that's, that's it. You're going to, you'll work and you'll do, you'll make some money here and there, but you're not going to, is that enough for you? Um, no, it's not. No.

Will you be disappointed? I mean, again, it's always looking at everything in context and saying, I mean, Harry Potter will be the biggest thing I've, I've ever done. That's the key, right? It's something to look at and go, hey, and before Star Wars did its new ones, it was the biggest film series of all time. All time. That was the pinnacle that 0.0.1% of actors will ever attend in terms of the size of the movie. And I'm fine with that.

You know, if that doesn't go up there again, anywhere near that. What I mean by that is that I should, I will always have that. And if I never get there again, then what I'm saying is that is enough. Then thrilling. I'm thrilled with that. Yeah, because that's true. It's like, you know. It's greedy.

It should be like, oh, I only did these fucking eight blockbuster movies. And it's actually a stupid question. It's a stupid question. I'm going to, you know what? It's a stupid question, Rob. You know why? Because it's, you know, you did this movie for eight years. You can't say, oh, if that's all you had done.

Because you don't know. You're 28 years old. You don't know what's going to happen. You could do whatever. But would you be happy if that was like, I guess my question. I think I can, I can absolutely. I won't beat myself up because, I mean, how many people even get to experience that? And I got to do it for eight, eight years, ten years, eight films.

But does it mean that I'm going to stop striving to drive? To be in the next Harry Potter, right? Right. I'll keep, I'll keep, uh, well, of course, of course. Well, I think I, I think it's a bad question, but my thing, what I'm bad by it. Well, is that, you know, like I asked Tom Williams. Is there such a thing as a bad question? Oh, no.

Yes. There is today. No, but, you know, I thought, you know, if small was all I ever did and that was it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm lucky. I got to do one of the biggest shows on TV. and I had a great time and I thought I did a decent job and I made a little money and I'm proud of that

and I'm 70 years old and people are like oh that's it that's all you ever did fuck it do you I don't care I'm happy with that do you see smallville as and you might be educated me on this do you see smallville as the start of this superhero series kind of obviously we had back talking about that yeah I think that's a big big yeah it's the first the modern yes because I thought they took it really seriously it was dramatic. It was the story before the story. It showed that shows like this can really work on TV. They don't have to be hokey and they don't have to be whatever and they can have this big following. And it can pack a punch. And it's not. And they can treat. Yeah. And the visually would be stimulating and the budget and all the things that go into making a great show. And I think that's with any show. But yes, I think it was one of the first ones that really. Because if you look at the shows that are out there now, the superhero shows, I mean, could any of them be on TV right now had Smallville not paved the way?

You know, I don't know. I mean, I could easily say, yeah, it would never be. Right. Well, you don't know. Well, you don't know, but I know that, you know, I'm very grateful, and I think that Smallville was, you know, certainly one of those shows that spawned, like a lot of other. I mean, there's the flash and there was the air and there's all these great shows. So would, you know, if it wasn't Smallville, it would have been something else. I'm proud to say we made a great show and lasted, you know, eight, 10 years.

And, you know, a lot of people, like, especially think about it, CW and WB, WB came to the CW. and all a lot of these shows are now on the CW so they go Smallville worked what else can work the Flash Arrow and then all of a sudden Gotham like in all these other different shows and different networks so yeah I will take full credit for it

no no the creators and Warner Brothers for creating a great show I think you got to do one thing I quite enjoy it's so aside from the art and the craft and all the things we're talking about but what other job could you have done whether they're going you know you get to

see what it's like to live as a bald man for this amount of time and you're getting paid for that stuff and you get to experience it like I had to have a mustache okay for a rippishire I saw that you look great with a mustache very porn style but very kind of

I liked it I didn't have it as long as you I had eight months I had this mustache and everyone was like I would never grow a mustache out of my own personal choice but you know what I got to do that for eight months you'll have his mustache

but imagine shaving your head seven years it was a little bit after a while like I it was all right but I was definitely like I want my hair back yeah it's a little bit No, the good thing is, Greg Beeman, who's the executive producer and directed a lot, he said one day, he's like, dude, you're the only person that when you grow your hair back, you'll look completely different.

And so it was awesome. I go, wow, and that kind of got me through the next five years. You know, that helps, yeah. Or back to you. Back to you. All right, this is it. Because we're getting, I mean, see, we get fucking carried away. Oh, yeah, I've got, I'm going to get back from my dinner.

You got, you have a big dinner with, uh, anniversary dinner. Uh, question from Matthew from these, these are the last questions. What are these? Quick. We're going to run these quick. What are these? Uh, just, people wanted to know online. Oh, okay.

Uh, does Matt remember nearly causing a riot in downtown Toronto a few years ago? My boss looked out the window and asked, why is that crowd screaming Neville, hot Neville? Uh, 2011, it would have been, the last time we did a press tour and I was, I was sent alone to Toronto and, uh... Nobs scene. They went, they went mad for it. It was mad. Yeah, it was good. It was good.

It was good. I felt like a beetle for, like, a day. If you could pick a day. different character to play in Harry Potter? Who would it be? Or is there a character you personally relate to more? Not really. Probably Neville was what I probably related to the most. I'm actually looking at your little sheet here. A sheet of character? No, I'd say I do. It's not on there. But I really liked Lupin, Professor Lupin, David Eulis's character. Yeah. So if you were older, you would have played that? Yeah, yeah. Rob, you had a couple. Yeah. What did you think of the Fantastic Beast movies? Haven't seen them. But I did meet, I, I, I,

I went, like I said, I met Eddie. They were great. He's a great actor. Yeah, superb. Very nice guy. People like that movie. My friend Troy Rudolph, I've talked about, he loves that movie. He was a very nice chap.

Yeah. Rachel wants to know, do you think being in Harry Potter stalled your career in anyways? I mean, that's a silly question. That's a stupid question. Rachel, I love you. The fuck. I understand what. Stalled your career.

It gave him a career. Yeah, I understand what she's saying. I'm going to answer that for you. I mean, I wouldn't be sitting on my in, out here. in the Hollywood Hills chatting to Michael Rosenbaum if I hadn't been in that movie. I mean, that made my, that made me, it put me on the map and I was able to do

eight super blockbuster movies. And then I've worked for Warner Bros. a couple of times since then, and they wouldn't have even known who the hell I was if I'd not done that. Are you living in Los Angeles now? Yeah, temporarily. Temporarily. For how long? Your home always be in Leeds? No, I moved away from Leeds. Well, you're in London. Yeah, in London, yeah. We'll see.

I mean, we're here for a few months. We'll see how it goes. Angela's American, so we'll see. She likes the sunshine, which we don't get a whole lot of in London. Does she ever say, I don't know what you just said? Yeah, all the time. Slow down. Constantly.

I remember in the car up to Lee's, he was driving right after we went to the Harry Potter set in W. What, where's it again? Wofford. See, I couldn't even remember it. How do you spell what you're saying? W-A-T-F-O-R-D? Right. He said, we're listening to a song.

I go, who, who is that? He goes, Oct-Monkees. I'm like, what the fuck? What would you say? Arctic monkeys. Yeah, I go, who? This is one before anybody knew who the Arctic monkeys were. And you kept saying it over and over.

And I was like, slow down. And I could see him getting pissed. I'm like, and I kept asking him. Constantly. That's out of my car right now. They're going to tour in this year. We got to go see him, man. I'd love to.

They're touring this year. How about Depeche Mode and Anaheim? Would you go to that? Do you like him? I'll get his tickets. That is old school, man. Not you, Rob. You don't like Depeche Mode.

This has been a real treat. I mean, I could talk to you for hours because it's just easy. It feels like... Yeah, right? It is. Did you have fun today? Yeah, man. I can't believe that we're out of time.

Yeah, I mean, we're way out of time. This is going to have to be cut down. Yeah, no one's going to listen to the shit. No, this is great. Matthew, David Lewis, this has been... I mean, this is very exciting. I know you're a busy guy, and I'm excited to see what you're going to do in the future. I know a lot you have a ton of fans.

And thank you for allowing me to be inside of you. Thanks, man. It's a pleasure to have you inside of me. As usual. Football season is here. Believe has the podcast to enhance your football experience. From the pros. One of the most interesting quarterback rooms.

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