If you’ve spent a good chunk of your pandemic binge-watching movies and TV series on Netflix, there’s a good chance you’ve seen a former Harry Potter character and not even known it. Harry Melling, most known for playing Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films, appeared in three Netflix projects last year (via Screen Rant). One of his most prominent roles was Harry Beltik in the hit-series The Queen’s Gambit, but if the last time you saw Melling was in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One back in 2010, you definitely wouldn’t have known that was him.
The reason you may not recognize Melling is the now 31-year-old actor has gone through an almost wizarding world-worthy transformation that actually started around the time that the final Harry Potter films were being shot. Melling revealed that he was almost recast for his final performance due to his weight loss, but was able to wear a fat suit and play Dudley one last time (via People).
The transformation allowed Melling to start anew
Not only was Harry Melling’s transformation from Dudley Dursley a glow-up, but it allowed the actor to consistently work without being recognized for his Harry Potter role. Melling told People that it allowed him to “sort of cause a new start.” Since that new start, Melling has been working consistently both on stage and screen. You may have seen him in the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in 2018 or on HBO’s His Dark Materials (via E! Online). The British actor will even be joining Joel Coen once again for the upcoming Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington (via Deadline).
Though, if you’ve seen these projects, you probably weren’t aware it was Dudley the whole time. While watching The Old Guard on Netflix, it took some fans almost the entire film to realize that the familiar face they were seeing was Melling’s (via Elite Daily). You may have even tuned into Netflix’s The Devil All The Time for Robert Pattinson, and had no idea you were seeing a Cedric Diggory and Dudley reunion. It almost makes you want to do a rewatch now knowing who Melling is, and there’s plenty to rewatch. If 2020 was a hint at what’s to come, you can expect to see Melling in even more projects that you can say, “Hey, that’s Dudley!” while watching.
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