[About auditioning for parts after Harry Potter:] As a kid, I had auditioned for a hundred different projects before Potter came along. I had grown q… - Tom Felton

[...] Certain fans had difficulties distinguishing between Tom, the actor, and Draco, the character. Understandable in five-year-old, but perhaps a little harder to process in someone older. [...] In a way, the tendency some people have to conflate the character and the actor is a compliment. I don't want, in any way, to overstate my contribution to the world of Harry Potter and the effect the phenomenon has had on people's lives. If I hadn't turned up to audition that day, somebody else would have had the part and they would have done it well. The whole project would have been largely the same. But there is some gratification in knowing that my performance crystallized people's notion of the character. Even if it meant they occasionally mistook fantasy for reality.

[About difficulties part of normal life:] They were all parts of the regular rough and tumble of a normal childhood. At the very least, they were not part of the cloistered upbringing I could have easily have had forced upon me. I would have been a very different person if I hadn't been given the opportunity to experience the ups and downs of a normal life alongside the madness of being part of Harry Potter. At is was, I had the best of both worlds.

An audience can go back and watch a film any number of times they want. It's always there for them. For the cast and crew, the relationship with a film is more complex. The magic is in the making, and that process is a discrete unit of time in the past. You can reflect on that unit of time, you can be proud of it, but you can't revisit it.