PolyGram Filmed EntertainmentIf you grew up in the Nineties, you can pretty much guarantee two things.
One: You watched The Borrowers scuttle round and evade capture at the hands of lawyer, Ocious P. Potter, repeatedly, whenever it was inevitably aired every Sunday on Channel 5 between the No Man’s Hours of noon and 4pm.
Two: You’re utterly, utterly obsessed with the Harry Potter franchise, and you’ve read every book and seen every film. You probably even have the trivia game and think you know every nook and cranny of the plot, cast and characters.
Warner Bros. PicturesDespite this, there’s a pretty good chance you didn’t know there was a connection between the two titans of children’s cinematic excellence.
In fact, the acting career of one of the famous magical students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry started small. Very small, in fact.
Tom Felton himself, who plays the evil and enigmatic Draco Malfoy, began his now-illustrious acting career as Peagreen Clock, son to Pod and Homily, sister to Arietty.
PolyGram Filmed EntertainmentThe Harry Potter films were released from 2001, but four years prior, in 1997, when Tom was just 10-years-old, he starred alongside the greats, Jim Broadbent and John Goodman in The Borrowers.
The plot follows the Clock family trying to escape an evil baddie who was trying to capture them and demolish the house in which they hid from humanity.
In a twist of fate, his next big role would see Felton become the bad guy of the piece, as the blond-haired, blue-eyed rich, snotty and wizard-racist Year 7 bully.
The fresh-faced young witches and wizards graced our screens first almost a decade ago, and Tom is barely recognisable now.
Just goes to show what a difference a huge movie franchise can make to a young star… It’s almost like magic. Or the inevitable passage of time and the consequences of puberty, perhaps.
In case you need your memory jogging, here’s The Philosopher’s Stone trailer:
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Funnily enough, Felton’s small-sized dad from The Borrowers, Jim Broadbent, also ended up in the Potter franchise, on the side of good again, as Professor Slughorn.
Felton has only gone from strength to strength ever since he got stuck in that bottle and dropped in a pile of dog poo.
Everyone’s got to start somewhere, and he literally started from the bottom.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.