Painful story behind the new Harry Potter series
In the image, three tweens crouch, broadly grinning for the camera, the trio having beaten out tens of thousands of other 9-11-year-olds to nab the lead roles in the New HBO remake of Harry Potter.
Ohgodisthisagoodideareallyummmm….
Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton have been cast, respectively, as the Harry and his sidekicks Ron and Hermione, guaranteeing them fortunes, fame and never having to sit through year ten modern history should they not fancy.
That day, they just might be in Cannes doing a quick red carpet or in Prague shooting Darron Aronofksy's newie. Ciao darling.
I'm sure that for McLaughlin, Stout and Stanton it's a dream come true. They feel like golden ticket winners, the envy of kids the world over and are about to embark on an incredible adventure.
But boring adult me looks at this publicity shot and wants to do some Munch-ing.
Child stardom, historically, has a helluva chequered record.
The announcement of McLaughlin, Stout and Stanton as the new faces of Harry Potter feels like the most double edged of swords going outside of a Roman military museum.
On one hand, what child's dream would not be to get to skive off school to pretend to be a wizard all day while earning squillions?
On the other hand, youthful fame is notorious for wreaking havoc and often coming with an extraordinarily high, lifelong cost.
The most obvious casualties: Drew Barrymore, Cory Haim, Cory Feldman, Edward Furlong, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Tatum O'Neil, Macaulay Culkin, and Amanda Bynes.
We could also probably add in Justin Bieber considering he seems to really be going through something right now.
Hello, stints in rehab, reality TV, and even court, with the occasional caught-by-the-paps, head-shaving breakdown thrown in there too.
For decades it has been clear that childhood stardom both arrests and speeds up the normal sort of emotional, psychological and social development that you are meant to go through as you leave childhood and awkwardly galumph into adulthood.
We've known all of this since Ronald Reagan was eating all the red jelly beans out of his Oval Office jar and yet every generation there are new fresh-faced enthusiastic pre-teens who don't, who can't, quite realise what they are about to sacrifice.
Look no further than the original Potter stars, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.
They have all made clear that the actual acting on the eight original movies – the larking about on sets and the creative aspect of it all – was a real joy but that tremendous, global fame that came with it deeply affected them.
Radcliffe, Watson and Grint might never have to worry about mortgage payments or how they can afford that ice cream truck they always wanted (Grint) but the life-altering reverberations of being cast in Potter are clear to this day.
Radcliffe has, on a number of occasions, talked about how he started drinking heavily as a teenager to cope with it all.
'The quickest way to forget about the fact that you're being watched is to get very drunk,' he told Off Camera With Sam Jones in 2019.
'I was a recluse at 20. It was pathetic,' he told Shortlist in 2012. 'I'd stay in my apartment
for days and drink alone.'
During a Newsweek interview in 2022 he was clear: 'I wouldn't want fame for my kid.'
Speaking to The Times in 2021, Grint said: 'I found it hard to deal with the fame side of things. If I ever do see Dan [Radcliffe] or Emma [Watson], fame is the one thing we never talk about.'
Wade into the myriad of interviews Radcliffe, Watson and Grint have given over the years and the words they use to describe becoming global megastars so young are ones like 'scary', 'dehumanising', 'surreal and odd', 'weird' and 'vulnerable'.
They have talked about feeling 'detached' from other teenagers. Grint said in 2018, when he would go back to his old school and see his peers, 'We had very little in common, which is quite isolating in a way.'
Radcliffe, Watson and Grint won their roles in 2000 and yet here we are, 25 years later, and their careers and public identities are still indelibly shaped by a movie they started shooting a full year before 9/11 even happened.
Smartphones didn't exist yet. Instagram had barely been invented when the final Potter movie came out.
So, what will the future be like for McLaughlin, Stout and Stanton? They are about to embark on a project that will make them some of the most instantly recognisable teenagers in a world saturated by social media. How will they get through this unscathed?
I'm sure their parents, HBO and every producer involved will do absolutely everything in their power to look after them; that they will all take every precaution and hire every child psychologist and adolescent specialist and on-set advocate to try and protect McLaughlin, Stout and Stanton as much as possible.
But surely there is only so far a well-meaning studio and the most thoughtful and best of parents can go to shield them from real world consequences of their roles.
Just think about what lies ahead. McLaughlin, Stout and Stanton will have to go through the profound, innate awkwardness of adolescence – the hormones, the physical and emotional changes – with People keeping a around-the-clock watch.
Their faces will be on screens the world over. For a new generation, they will be Harry, Hermione and Ron. They will become immutable parts of the cultural furniture and nothing can ever change that.
There will be no going back. They are making what could be a lifelong choice at 11.
There will be at least one season per book, with the first out in 2026 meaning that, assuming there is one series per year, the final one could be screening in 2034.
McLaughlin as the titular Harry will be 19-years-old by then. How will they be on the other side of this?
I hope that what lies ahead for McLaughlin, Stout and Stanton is all the joy and fun and magic of bringing these characters to life. I hope against hope that they can somehow dodge having to walk the tough path that many other child stars have over the years.
I hope. I so very dearly hope. And if all else fails, they can buy themselves an ice cream van I suppose.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
8 hours ago
- ABC News
Too Much? The return of Lena Dunham's messy white women
More than a decade after HBO's Girls made her "a voice of a generation" for white millennial women, Lena Dunham's back with Too Much, a rom-com series for Netflix. Hannah and Bev peel back their layered feelings about Lena Dunham, and get into whether Too Much, starring Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe, meets expectations. And the sidebar is in session, making rulings on Emmy nominations and Dr Orna Guralnik's fashion. Get in touch: Share your pop culture takes with us! Write or send a voice memo to stopeverything@ Show notes: Lena Dunham rises again Girls creator Lena Dunham returns with Too Much Meg Stalter is the prettiest girl in America We all want to dress like Orna
ABC News
9 hours ago
- ABC News
The wild ride of Ozzy Osbourne, from snorting ants to performing in an armchair
Black Sabbath reunited for the first time in 20 years in July for what Ozzy Osbourne predicted would be his final concert. Addressing the 42,000 fans in Birmingham, and the more than 5 million who streamed the show online, Ozzy said, "Let the madness begin!" Madness would be a fair word to describe the career of the 'Prince of Darkness', a man who pioneered heavy metal music. Wild stories followed wherever he went, the clergy condemned him, parents sued him, and the Sabbath flock idolised him. However, from his black throne onstage at Villa Park on July 5, Ozzy presented a different view. The rock star, who the world knew as wild, enthusiastic, and outlandish, looked frail and delicate. But true to style, he put on a show. At times, he appeared to tear up, and at one point said, "you've got no idea how I feel". After a day-long metal festival on July 5 featuring the likes of Anthrax, Metallica, and Guns N' Roses, Ozzy ascended the stage via an elevator platform and was met with adulation. Estimated to be the highest-grossing charity concert of all time, the event has donated approximately $290 million of profits to three different charities. Ozzy told the crowd that he had been "laid up for, like, six years" before this gig and that he wanted the crowd to "go crazy". Staying seated, the rockstar then performed five songs solo on stage, starting with his 1980 hit I Don't Know. That meant the first lyrics he sang in his final gig were "people look to me and say 'Is the end near, when is the final day?'" During the set, fans saw Ozzy struggle with both his pitch and timing, which at times was painful but endearing. He was on the brink of tears as the crowd sang him home during the middle of the set before the legend finished his solo showing with a conquering rendition of Crazy Train. It wasn't the physical performance of long renown, but it was memorable. For a man who once said he would "rather see twenty thousand smiling faces than twenty thousand crying people", perhaps tearing up in front of a crowd of emotional heavy metal fans was the most metal thing he could do. The original members of Black Sabbath then joined him on stage for their first appearance together in 20 years. Tony Iommi, Terence "Geezer" Butler, Bill Ward, and Ozzy treated the Sabbath faithful to a nostalgic but short set with Paranoid, one of their most famous songs. The last lyrics he ever sang on stage were, "I tell you to enjoy life, I wish I could, but it's too late." The song Paranoid is from Black Sabbath's second album of the same name, released in September 1970. It is consistently ranked among the greatest heavy metal songs of all time — and even the best. In it, Ozzy sings "people think I'm insane" and "[I] think I'll lose my mind if I don't find something to pacify". The song is about bassist Geezer Butler and his feelings as a depressed teenager; however, the lyrics lend well to Ozzy Osbourne and his manic life. Untrained as a singer, Ozzy had to be insane and wild to stand out as a top-level frontman, by his own admission. "I think there's a wild man in everybody," he said. "All I am is a conductor of mayhem." The most pressing example of that is when he bit the head off a bat. At a gig in Des Moines, Iowa, in January 1982, a fan threw a bat on stage, which Ozzy in turn savaged. He said afterwards that he assumed it was a rubber toy, not the dead animal it turned out to be. The moment is enshrined in rock lore, but not before Ozzy was rushed to the hospital for rabies medication. Bats notwithstanding, anything could happen at a Sabbath show. Those in the front rows were mooned, spat on, screamed at, and more by the singer at his peak. Black Sabbath fired him in 1979 for his legendary excesses, like showing up late for rehearsals and missing gigs (he reunited with the band in 1997). However, that just birthed Ozzy, the solo artist — an even crazier concept. During the Diary of a Madman solo tour in 1981, he had a bit where he would hurl raw meat from a catapult at audience members. Off stage, Ozzy's outlandish exploits included indecency, arrests, and much alcohol and drug use. He tried everything and got away with most things. While on tour with US rock band Motley Crue in 1984, he snorted a trail of ants drawn to an ice block left on the ground next to a pool. Tommy Lee of Motley Crue said everyone had been trying to "out-rockstar and out-gross" each other, and that Ozzy won. Two years earlier, in 1982, Ozzy urinated on a memorial for fallen soldiers in Alamo, Texas, while wearing one of his wife Sharon's dresses. He later apologised and donated thousands of dollars to the group that maintains the site. That didn't stop him from urinating on a police car in Memphis in 1984 — unintentionally, he claimed. Sabbath crew member Graham Wright reckoned "Ozzy had a weak bladder". It wasn't a weak bladder that got him in trouble at the White House in 2002. In front of a room of 1,800 people, Ozzy reportedly was jumping on a dining table after having too much to drink, prompting then-US president George Bush to say, "This might have been a mistake". Ozzy battled alcohol and drug addiction throughout his career and, as late as 2013, admitted he was still using. He eventually stopped, telling Revolver magazine in 2018 about his sobriety, admitting he regretted his earlier antics. Some of them at least. "I was the rock and roll rebel for a long while. But that's alcohol and drugs," he said. Ozzy Osbourne died aged 76 on July 22, 2025.
ABC News
14 hours ago
- ABC News
Tributes flow for mighty rocker Ozzy Ozbourne
Sabra Lane: The pioneering heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne died when he was 76. He was the frontman of Black Sabbath, selling more than 100 million records, and he was famous, or perhaps infamous, for his wild antics as a 20th century rocker. Myles Houlbrook-Walk takes a look back on the life of the singer affectionately known as the Prince of Darkness. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: There were few musicians quite like Ozzy Osbourne. He had a distinctive vocal style, some described it as eerie, that catapulted his band Black Sabbath and him to heavy metal international stardom. As the band grew, so did their onstage antics and Osbourne's persona. Murray Engleheart is a music journalist and saw Black Sabbath several times as well as interviewing Osbourne. Murray Engleheart: An amazing performer, charismatic, energetic, get the worst crowd on the planet on their feet. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Watching them in concert, Murray Ingleheart says there was a striking and unique sound that would go on to influence many musicians. Murray Engleheart: If it wasn't for him, there wouldn't be half the bands on the planet that there are now. They brought a sound that was really, really unique that thousands of bands have picked up on since. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Osbourne lived up to his reputation off stage too, his cocaine and alcohol abuse eventually catching up with him. His wild ways saw him kicked out of Black Sabbath, the band he founded. Murray Engleheart: Back in the 70s, it was that sort of excess, that was pretty normal. I mean, he did it really well or really badly, whichever way you want to look at it. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Ozzy then forged a solo career, which also produced remarkable success. His manner on stage continued to provide shock and awe. Most notably, a live bat was thrown onto the stage during one of his shows. He proceeded to bite off its head. Ozzy Osbourne: And somebody threw a bat. Now, to find someone who goes to a concert with a bat in their, a real bat, you always get the joke ones, you know, you get like the rubber ones you buy from the corner joke shop. And I picked it up, I thought, this is gonna be good. Bit into this bat. You bit it? Believe me, if I've ever known it was a real live bat, I would never have picked it up. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Beyond his music, he also forged a career on reality TV alongside wife and manager Sharon Osbourne in the early 2000s. Music critic Bernard Zuel says Ozzy was fearless in allowing his family to become a spectacle. Bernard Zuel: You are the into some kind of artiness as a film star, or maybe you became one of those showmen who would do television cabaret or something like that. He made the idea of supposed real life, the way to tell your story. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: In his later years, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, losing his mobility. But the Prince of Darkness had one final very public act performing in his hometown of Birmingham earlier this month in front of tens of thousands in a farewell gig. He survived by his wife Sharon, six children and his music. Sabra Lane: Myles Houlbrook-Walk.
