- Emma Watson opened up about her friendship with Tom Felton in the foreword to her new memoir.
- Watson said she and her “Harry Potter” co-star have “one of the purest loves that occur to me.”
- “We are soul mates and have always supported each other,” she wrote. “I know we always will.”
Emma Watson shared heartwarming words about her friendship with her ‘Harry Potter’ co-star Tom Felton in the foreword to his new memoir, “Beyond the Magic Wand: The Magic and Chaos of Growing Up as a Wizard.”
“Do you know that person in your life who makes you feel seen?” Watson wrote in the book, published Tuesday. “That person who somehow witnesses everything that happens? That person who knows… really know – what is happening to you and what you are going through, without having to say anything? For me, that person is Tom Felton.”
Watson and Felton met through their roles as Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, respectively, in the “Harry Potter” films, based on a series of fantasy books written by JK Rowling.
Emma Watson and Tom Felton in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
Warner Bros.
Although the two actors are close friends now, this was not always the case.
“When we met, I was a lunatic and probably quite upset 9-year-old girl, following him around like a puppy, desperate for his attention,” she said.
Watson said that the overarching theme of the “Harry Potter” franchise is friendship, and that she is “very grateful that at crucial moments in my life, Tom has been there to reassure me and understand me.”
“The friendship we share has gotten me through some of the most challenging and soul-searching times of my life,” he wrote.
Watson called Felton “has a heart the size of a planet” and said he is completely authentic and far from his mocking “Harry Potter” character.
“He could have played a bully. He might even have felt like a bully at times. But believe me: I couldn’t be further from one,” he said. “He is creative, sensitive and wholehearted. He is a person who wants to love everything and everyone.”
Emma Watson and Tom Felton in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”
Warner Bros.
Watson and Felton, who co-starred in eight “Harry Potter” movies released between 2001 and 2011, have been the subject of romance rumors for years. On multiple occasions, actors have talked about their mutual adoration for each other but clarified that their relationship is platonic.
“Nothing ever, ever, ever, ever happened romantically with us,” Watson said on the “Harry Potter” 20th-anniversary reunion special released on HBO Max in January. “We just love each other. That’s all I can say about it.”
Watson shared similar comments in the foreword to Felton’s book.
“Like Tom, I always have a hard time explaining to people the nature of our connection and relationship,” she wrote. “For over 20 years we’ve loved each other in a special way, and I’ve lost count of the times people have said to me, ‘You must have kissed drunk, just once!’ You must have kissed! ‘There must be something!'”
“But what we have is much deeper than that,” the “Little Women” star continued. “It’s one of the purest loves I can think of. We’re soul mates and we’ve always had each other’s back. I know we always will. I get emotional thinking about it.”
Watson said that as a friend, Felton is non-judgmental and assumes the best of intentions.
“Even when you don’t have the whole picture, you will never doubt that I came from a good place and have done my best,” he said. “That is true friendship, and to be seen and loved like that is one of the great gifts of my life.”
“The world is lucky to have you, but I am even luckier to have you as my friend,” she concluded.
Emma Watson and Tom Felton in the “Harry Potter” reunion special for HBO Max.
Nick Wall/Warner Bros.
In the book, Felton recalled meeting Watson with frizzy hair for the first time at the “HP” auditions. Once they got their roles in the franchise, they didn’t hit it off right away, but that changed over time.
Felton was first made aware of Watson’s crush on him through “HP” hair designer Lisa Tomblin. Felton was 15 and Watson 12 at the time and “laughed”.
“I’ve always had a secret crush on Emma, though maybe not in the way people would want to hear,” Felton wrote. “That’s not to say there’s never been a spark between us. She definitely has, just at different times.”
Emma Watson and Tom Felton in 2011.
Joel Ryan/AP
Felton acknowledged that Watson had a very different experience in the spotlight as a youngster and “got very defensive of her, whenever she needed to defend herself”.
“Rumors began to abound that there was more to our relationship than we were letting on,” he recalled. “I denied that I liked her that way, but the truth was something else. My girlfriend at the time knew immediately that there was something unspoken between us.”
“I remember using the old familiar phrase: ‘I love her like a sister,'” Felton continued. “But there was more to it than that. I don’t think I ever in I love Emma, but I loved and admired her as a person in a way that I could never explain to anyone else.”