Last night J.K. Rowling held a fundraising event for her charity, Lumos, at the Harry Potter Studio Tour where a bunch of Harry Potter cast and crew attended. Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis, Alan Rickman and David Heyman all showed their support for the author.  Photos of the stars at the event may be viewed over at SnithSeeker.  Sky News interviewed Rowling at the event where she discussed the charity as well as the success of Harry Potter.

“As far back as 2000 I knew I would never top Harry Potter. I knew that before the series ended. If you’ve had the kind of success that you never expected you can think ‘oh no, how dreadful I’ll never ever top that’, or you can say ‘how incredibly marvellous and liberating that I made money beyond my wildest dreams and that I can affect issues I really care about’.”

Of the charity’s mission, which states “No child should be denied a family life because they are poor, disabled or from an ethnic minority. Lumos works to support the 8 million children in institutions worldwide to regain their right to a family life and to end the institutionalisation of children,” Rowling says:

“There are eight million children globally being raised in institutions and everything we know about institutionalisation tells us it is harmful to children’s physical and mental health. Drug taking and suicide are more likely and a lot of these children may be trafficked or end up in the sex trade. To take a child from their family we know must be damaging, it’s the worst thing you can do to a child.”

She added: “These themes are in the Harry Potter books. Voldemort […] was himself raised in an institution so, spookily, it was something I was very much thinking about. But we’ve started where the situation is particularly acute in Eastern Europe where there has been a cultural acceptance of institutionalisation that thankfully in the UK we’ve really overcome.”

The Irish Times has posted a new interview with Evanna Lynch where she discusses Potter, her future in acting and gaining confidence! A snippet from the interview may be read below, read the full interview at the Irish Times.

At 14 years of age, she snagged a role thousands of girls dreamed of, stepping into a colossal film franchise with millions of fans around the world. “At the time it was ‘I want to play Luna Lovegood, I want to be in the Harry Potter films,’” she says, as opposed to wanting to be an actor. She had already auditioned for another gig though, a short Irish film called 34A, “about girls who wanted to have big boobs.” The Harry Potter experience has undoubtedly changed the course of her life. The 22-year-old from Termonfeckin in Louth now speaks with an LA lilt and the kind of measured detachment that young actors exhibit.

When she reflects on it now, she can talk with some perspective about her life changing instantly. “I got a lot of independence,” she begins, mentioning how school became tutoring in England. “At 16 I was living by myself and getting up and going to work and all that, and doing school. So there was that juggling of normal life and adult life, like working in the real world.” Her friends didn’t change, her family didn’t either, but people were “more interested in me, I suppose . . . I think the biggest change was personally, I had to come out of myself.” She wasn’t too great at being herself. Interviews were a disaster, she’d just sit there, scared and answer “yes?” “I didn’t know how to ‘be’. It really scared me.”

Talking to actors on set, especially the older ones such as Alan Rickman, was intimidating. But she forced herself to come out of herself, recognising that unless she got good at existing in that context, she’d miss some of the best experiences related to it. She says she was like a little mouse, afraid of everything, “so yeah, it forced me to grow up quicker.”

It sounds like quite the ordeal. It’s hard to imagine a quiet teenage girl away from home, friends, family, thrust into a sort of superstardom. But the challenge was also a blessing, she says. “If I hadn’t gone through that, I probably would have gone through school and gone through college, but I still would have struggled with confidence.”

Acting has taught her that confidence is about putting yourself out there, that when no one else believes in you, you draw resolve from a well within. She thinks her insecurity comes from a collage of things, “personality” being one. “I have two sisters and a brother, and everyone was good at what they did, was very competitive, so yeah, I always felt that I had to try hard to make people like me or impress me. That was just a thing I had from childhood.” And with that insecurity, “it’s not like it switches off when you get something. You think, when I succeed at this exam or when I get into this college or when I get a boyfriend, then I’ll be confident, then I’ll be happy. But you’re never. You’re always searching for the next thing, and you’re always afraid that someone’s going to pull the rug out from under you, and you’ll be just . . . you’ll be back at square one.”

In a new interview, Evanna Lynch discusses her play, Houdini, where she will be playing his wife. This is her first appearance on the stage, unless you count her 10 year old self in a school production. Some snippets from her chat with the Irish Post can be read below with the full story at their website.

“It’s the elements they combine, there’s amazing story, the drama, the tension between the brothers and Houdini’s wife. Plus, they’re doing all of the illusions, you know, they have some vanishing acts so it’s gonna be so visual but also a story.”

It was the story — and particularly the feisty, strong-willed character that is Bess — that attracted Lynch to the role in the first place. “He [Harry] called her his lucky charm and I think it’s so interesting to explore the minds of these people who were in the background, who were supporting these people who become our idols,” she says.

[…]

So no apprehensions about the role then? “I guess I’m apprehensive about the casting of Harry (Jamie Nichols has since been cast in the role) because they [he and Bess] have such a unique relationship. They were inseparable,” says Evanna.

“They were two vagabonds just travelling around and they went to England and they went to Germany and it was just them and so to have that bond was so…” she pauses to look at her phone, which buzzes once more on her armchair. “I think it’s important like, obviously, not that I fall in love with this person, but just to feel [something]. Yeah. So I hope that goes welland I guess I’m nervous of going on tour,” she adds of the play set to tour across Britain from September, before finishing with a set of dates at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin in October.What are your thoughts about the first night of the first live show, I ask. “Oh my gosh, yeah. I don’t know,” says Evanna. “I am nervous about that, but hopefully all the rehearsal will help ease those nerves because yesterday, for the auditions, I was watching auditions all day and then I had to get up and I WAS SO NERVOUS. I was freaking out. So I hope I can overcome thatand it won’t get in the way.”

Of one of her smaller roles, she states:

She has worked on a variety of film and television roles, most recently in G.B.F. [Gay Best Friend], a US high-school teen comedy where she played a homophobic evangelical Christian. “I had to kind of become a character who I disagreed with in every way,” she says of the part, “and I felt disgusted by some of the things she was saying, but I had to play her not as a caricature, [but] as someone who was 3D. I had to empathise with her.”

Did you choose that role because you felt a need to break from type? “Yes. I wanted to try something different. It was a chance to do an American accent [too]. And it was a very different genre. I’d never done comedy before.”

When talking about the transition from film to stage:

“Well, first of all, you’ve so much preparation time, which I enjoy. Forfilm, you have a few weeks to prepareand you also don’t get any rehearsal time. Whereas this gives us a chance, especially with acting real people who had existed before, who had who lived 20 years before this will be experienced. It would almost be an injustice to them not to explore, not to give a lot of time and a few intense weeks of thought and exploration to discover their characters.”

She feels the experience gained as a teen actress has put her in good stead to face the world as an actress, without having been through formal drama training. “There are directors, like I remember David Yates [Harry Potter director], I’d ask him, ‘Should I be training?’” she says. “And he’d answer, ‘I want you to keep your sense of wonder and freshness and to not walk in a room and feel like you know everything.’”

Potter fan, and MM reader, Paul has uncovered a Kickstarter page that is raising money to create a documentary for Houdini, the new play Evanna is starring in. They are looking to raise £7,500 and have 24 days left! On their page they state:

As students our long term goals often seem like huge mountains and the idea of producing our own show leave you not sure where to start. This is due to the limited experience and knowledge we currently have. Magic in the Making will allow us to change all that and to view and understand the production of an incredible show that contains a vast amount of different aspects; from stunts, to make-up, set design and the in-depth characters that are developed in the play.

We would love to document the process of this journey as we believe the footage captured will help provide the kind of invaluable knowledge that can not be taught, only experienced. That is why it is now down to us to ensure we get the rest of this incredible journey on record. Filming each day, we are going to be bringing the recorded view of what goes on behind the scenes in the development of Houdini.

But to do this we need your help! And for helping, we’re going to be generous! For every pledge we will ensure you get a DVD copy of our Documentary! And… we have some other terrific rewards for you…. [view the Kickstarter page to see the rest of the rewards!]

Evanna Lynch, well known for her role as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films, will be taking the role of Bess, Harry Houdini’s wife and stage assistant in the new play Houdini. Houdini is a dramatic, darkly comic new play about two of the greatest performers the world has ever known – the Houdini Brothers: stuntmen, illusionists, magicians – will premiere at Stoke on Trent Repertory Theatre on September 9^th before touring the UK throughout September and October.  Featuring a dynamic script, sharply drawn characters and breathtaking live stunts, ‘Houdini’ was written by BAFTA award-winning actor (‘Risen’) and filmmaker Stuart Brennan who also stars as Theo Weiss.

TOUR DATES:

From May 6^th – tickets for Stoke on Trent can be obtained from Cafe Divine, 493-495 Hartshill Road, Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 6AA – Cafe Divine will also have an exhibition of the concept artwork from the WETA Workshop (see above) Tickets are priced from £15 to £20 and can be purchased by calling 020 7378 7840, online www.houdinitheplay.com or directly from Cafe Divine

The first clip of Evanna Lynch in the Sky miniseries Sinbad has been released online. The clip is from the final episode, airing on September 23rd in the UK.  The 12 part series follows the adventures of Sinbad and will air in the US on SyFy in April of 2013.

Evanna stars as Alehna, Taryn’s daughter, who Sinbad and the crew meet in the season finale, but Harry Potter fans will recognise her as Ravenclaw student Luna Lovegood, who appeared in four of the Harry Potter films.

Thanks to SnitchSeeker for the embeddable clip!