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Tom Felton and Emma Watson have been friends for years. In a new interview, Felton discussed their relationship and credited Watson for inspiring him to share personal details in his memoir, “Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard.”
In an interview with USA Today, Felton discussed the idea behind the book and how, at first, it wasn’t going to go into the personal details of his life and his struggle with addiction.
“Emma (Watson) was a big force of encouragement to be like, ‘This will resonate with people,’ ” Felton said. “It wouldn’t really seem right just to talk about all the fluffy stuff. ... After encouragement, I was given a bit more confidence in myself to go, ‘You know what? This happened, and this is part of my life.’ ”
Felton shared that he felt some reluctance and fear when sharing such a personal story with the world and that Watson was one of the first people who read the book. “I was slightly reluctant to talk about my family about my personal life, about not just the great moments, but some of the bad ones too. There’s obviously gonna be trepidation about sharing that with the world. She was a massive influence to say, ‘No, put it all out there. Trust yourself. People will really connect with this.’ ”
Over the course of the book, Felton discusses his friendships and memories with the different castmates, among them Watson. Interistingly, despite their long-lasting friendship, the two didn’t like each other at first. Felton shared that when they first met, he messed with her due to her acting inexperience. .
Watson has previously revealed that she used to have a crush on Felton when they were kids. “I used to come in every day and look for his number on the call sheet. It was number 7. And if his number was on the call sheet, it was an extra exciting day,” shared Watson on the Harry Potter documentary.
While Felton makes it clear that nothing happened between them, he also had conflicting feelings for Watson. “I remember using that familiar old line: ‘I love her like a sister,‘” he wrote in his book, according to an excerpt from Page Six. “But there was more to it than that. I don’t think I was ever in love with Emma, but I loved and admired her as a person in a way that I could never explain to anyone else.