Beyond the Wand
Summary:
From the magical moments on set as Draco Malfoy to the challenges of growing up in the spotlight, get a backstage pass into Tom Felton’s life on and off the big screen in this #1 New York Times bestseller.
Tom Felton’s adolescence was anything but ordinary. His early rise to fame in beloved films like The Borrowers catapulted him into the limelight, but nothing could prepare him for what was to come after he landed the iconic role of the Draco Malfoy, the bleached blonde villain of the Harry Potter movies. For the next ten years, he was at the center of a huge pop culture phenomenon and yet, in between filming, he would go back to being a normal teenager trying to fit into a normal school.
Speaking with great candor and his signature humor, Tom shares his experience growing up as part of the wizarding world while also trying to navigate the muggle world. He tells stories from his early days in the business like his first acting gig where he was mistaken for fellow blonde child actor Macaulay Culkin and his Harry Potter audition where, in a very Draco-like move, he fudged how well he knew the books the series was based on (not at all). He reflects on his experiences working with cinematic greats such as Alan Rickman, Sir Michael Gambon, Dame Maggie Smith, and Ralph Fiennes (including that awkward Voldemort hug). And, perhaps most poignantly, he discusses the lasting relationships he made over that decade of filming, including with Emma Watson, who started out as a pesky nine-year-old whom he mocked for not knowing what a boom mic was but who soon grew into one of his dearest friends. Then, of course, there are the highs and lows of fame and navigating life after such a momentous and life-changing experience.
Tom Felton’s Beyond the Wand is an entertaining, funny, and poignant must-read for any Harry Potter fan. Prepare to meet a real-life wizard. (Summary and cover courtesy of goodreads.com)
Review:
Obviously as a big Harry Potter fan I was intrigued to read Tom Felton’s autobiography simply to (hopefully) learn a little more of what happened behind the scenes on set as much as anything. I was not one of the fans that had a huge crush on Felton so I did not know much about him nor had really searched what he had been up to since the movies. In the first half of the book, it reads as a fan’s happy place. We got a lot of insights as to what it was like on set for Felton, the personality behind some of the other actors, and the shenanigans that happened among them. It is quite entertaining to me how happenstance a lot of the elements of his career initially rolled out and refreshing to hear how he had to essentially ‘reset’ after the movies and figure out what he was going to do next.
After the Potter years, Felton shared the raw truth and realities of the mental health struggles he managed for many years. I had noted his social media came across as someone who had done a lot of soul searching, but I had no idea that there were so many things he grew through. For this reason, I bumped up my rating to 4 stars for me (rather than 3). Without that detail we would have been left a lot of happy-but-average information. For those who don’t know much about Harry Potter I think the appeal would be fairly limited, but I am hopeful we get more writing from Felton in the future as I loved the ending!
Warning: Contains references to mental health struggles and substance abuse.
Rating: 4 stars!
Who should read it? Any Harry Potter fan, but older audiences.