Harry Melling Reflects on Life After 'Harry Potter' & His Push to Avoid Being Pigeonholed

Harry Melling is reflecting on his acting career post-Harry Potter.

He played Dudley Dursley in five of the Harry Potter films, beginning when he was 10 years old and finishing when he was 21. Now he’s 36 and starring in the romantic dramedy Pillion about a BDSM relationship between his character and Alexander Skarsgård‘s.

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Discussing his career, Harry told The Hollywood Reporter that he doesn’t “want people to know” him, which has sometimes been challenging because of how massive Harry Potter was.

When talking about what he sees as a “Harry Melling role” now, he said, “It’s very contrary to what this industry wants you to be, and that for me is the biggest compliment someone could ever pay me. I don’t want people to have an understanding of me prior to — I mean, obviously I kind of f–ked it up doing Harry Potter.”

“But I really don’t want people to have an understanding of who I am going into a movie. I want them just to see the character, which is maybe why it feels eclectic and you can’t pigeonhole it,” he added.

Despite being a child when he did the Harry Potter films, Harry notes that “people hold on to that.”

But he does appreciate that growing up on those sets allowed him to be around a bunch of talented stage actors and really hammered home his love of theater.

“Even when I was doing Harry Potter, I was obsessed with theater,” Harry said. “A lot of the more senior actors in the Harry Potter world were all these incredible stage actors — and I wanted to have that career. Then going to drama school changes what you want in coming out the other side. But at the same time, Harry Potter is this huge, huge franchise, and I never wanted to be in any way shackled to it. I always wanted to have a really big career and try lots of different things.”

Pillion will be released in the U.S. on February 6 by A24. Check out photos of Harry and Alexander from a London screening of the film!