How Did Harry Potter's Tom Felton Feel About Emma Watson's Childhood Crush?

Plus, Rupert Grint reflects on how weird it was to kiss Watson, and more from the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 junket

By Natalie Finn Jul 11, 2011 9:59 PMTags

Considering how a 12-year-old Emma Watson felt about fellow tween Tom Felton back in the day, it's a shame Draco Malfoy didn't get to do the kissing honors in the latest film.

"This is a testament to how far we're going back now," the now 23-year-old actor told E! News at a press event for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. "We're talking a good decade ago...And it was very flattering for a 12-year-old boy, but it's nice that we've become friends since then and we can kind of look back and have a laugh at it."

Aside from their tender ages, it's no wonder Felton never acted on Watson's interest: Draco was too busy crushing on Bellatrix Lestrange!

"Coincidentally, that was my childhood crush," Felton said of costar Helena Bonham Carter when she was mentioned as one of the supreme talents he had the good fortune to work with as part of the Harry Potter series.

Did he ever confide his feelings to her?

Oh yes, Felton said, he wrote her a sweet note in a card "after the third or fourth film." But then he met Bonham Carter's longtime partner, Tim Burton, on the set of the fifth film, and let's just say that Felton doesn't expect to be offered a role in a Burton film anytime soon.

As for Rupert Grint, whose Ron Weasley actually gets the girl in the end, it apparently took quite a bit of acting to make the Big Kiss between Ron and Watson's Hermione believable.

'It was [a] completely mutual, weird experience," Grint reflected. "We've grown up with each other, and suddenly to do this...It wasn't just a normal kiss, it had to be this really quite romantic moment, building up for so long.

"It was a challenge to make it look like we wanted to do it, when neither of us wanted to," he said, laughing.

As for the end of the Harry Potter creative experience, which technically occurred a year ago when shooting on the second half of Deathly Hallows wrapped, Grint felt the usual Twilight-esque mixture of sadness and relief.

"Initially I did feel...a quite empty feeling, really," he admitted, although not playing Ron is something he's "always been looking forward to doing."

And now, sniff [tear], he can.