Star of 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' says he had 'recurring nightmares' before show's debut
Anthony Boyle and Sam Clemmett are creating a stir on Broadway.
Both star in the critically-acclaimed “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a show that focuses on the adult lives of our favorite Harry Potter characters.
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” has 10 Tony nominations and tickets are near-to-impossible to snag.
Boyle plays Scorpius Malfoy, the son of Draco Malfoy. He recently spoke to Peter Travers about his very first performance.
“It’s weird, I always thought that the play was amazing from reading it. I thought this is like the most beautifully crafted play written by Jack (Thorne) and John (Tiffany) and J.K. Rowling,” Boyle said. “It was about three seconds before I went (on) and I thought, ‘oh my God, this is dreadful. This play is going to bomb. I am going to be awful in it.'”
Boyle said his nerves got the best of him and he started to dream about reactions to his performance.
“I had these like recurring nightmares,” he said.
Boyle couldn’t have been more wrong. Audiences and critics alike have praised both his and Clemmett's performances, and the two have developed a great chemistry onstage. Clemmett plays Albus Potter, son of Harry Potter.
Clemmett said they bonded right away.
“We’ve become very, very, very close friends. We pretty much hit it off from the get-go,” he said. “We had each other to support and help each other through this really, really long, huge process which was creating this beast.”
Boyle and Clemmett were Potter fans before landing their roles. After Clemmett was cast as Albus, he decided to re-read the original Potter stories to prepare for his stage performance.
“It [had] such a profound and very different impact on me,” Clemmet said. “The humanity within these stories is so beautiful. And the richness of these characters had a completely different meaning to me."
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“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is playing at Broadway’s Lyric Theater.
Be sure to watch the full interview with Peter Travers, Anthony Boyle and Sam Clemmett in the video above.
