In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Rupert Grint talks about Ron in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, other actors and much more!

“It felt like the last day at school,” says Grint. “Packing up all the stuff in my dressing room, all the old toys still there from when I was 11… I’d underestimated how emotional it would be. We all cried.”

“I suppose when they selected us as kids, they weren’t expecting us to act that much. They didn’t really want kids from drama school. I always felt quite a strong connection to Ron. I don’t know if it was just a ginger thing though,” he says, laughing. His hair is actually less carroty in real life: “Yes, the sun calms it down a little bit.” As for the Rupert-Ron intermingling, he says: “Possibly I’ve taken on some of his characteristics and we have merged into the same kind of person.”

“When he first started he was really cute and really shy,” recalls Julie Walters, who has played Grint’s screen mum Molly Weasley from the start. “My abiding memory of him is at the first premiere and Grant, my husband, and I looked at Rupert and there was a beautiful little moon face, and he looked like a rabbit caught in the flashbulbs. He was such a sweetheart you wanted to cuddle him.”

“Alan Rickman [who plays the menacing Severus Snape] fascinates me,” says Grint. “He always seems to be in character. He’s really quite intimidating with that air about him. Actually, he’s nice to talk to, but he’s got this presence that makes you feel like he’s unapproachable.” Julie Walters is one of his favourites. “I’m quite close to her. She’s warm. She really is like my mum, and she’s seen us grow up.”

Thanks SS!