7 January 2026<\/time>\n <\/p>\nKatie Leung found her Harry Potter fame “overwhelming” and “difficult”.<\/p>\n
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Katie Leung was overwhelmed by attention<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old actress – who played Cho Chang in the wizarding movie series – doesn’t think she properly dealt with the attention she received and even now is still trying to work out how much of a long-term impact the scrutiny had on her and her life.<\/p>\n
Asked how she dealt with sudden global fame, she told The Guardian newspaper: \u201cI don\u2019t think I did. It was overwhelming from the get-go. <\/p>\n
“Being in the spotlight from that age, when you\u2019re already insecure, was difficult, to say the least.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, I was having a lot of fun. I thought: this is different from school, and I really did not enjoy school. So it was a way to escape. I\u2019m still trying to figure it out, really, how it affected me.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if anything could have been done back then to make things better or easier.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAt that age, you\u2019re curious. I remember being very curious about what people were saying about me, and I was Googling myself. Nobody could have stopped me, because I was old enough to make up my own mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nKatie thinks she became “less outgoing” as a result of the unkind comments she received online at the time.<\/p>\n
\nAsked how she coped, she said: \u201cI didn\u2019t. I think it just sat with me, and it affected me in ways like, \u2018Oh yeah, I made that decision because people were saying this about me.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n“It probably made me less outgoing. I was very self-aware of what was coming out of my mouth.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nThe Bridgerton star initially “gave up” acting after Harry Potter ended because she felt so “lost”.<\/p>\n
\nShe said: \u201cI remember coming out of it and thinking, \u2018Nothing\u2019s going to beat it,\u2019 because it was so successful.<\/p>\n
\n“I remember being lost, going, \u2018What\u2019s next? People will have these high expectations of me topping it, and it\u2019s never going to happen.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n“I think I was so afraid of meeting these expectations that I gave up, or didn\u2019t give myself the chance, after it, to try and continue acting.\u201d <\/p>\n
\nShe began a degree in photography but ultimately realised she wanted to act and won a place to study drama at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she tried to distance herself from her Harry Potter background.<\/p>\n
\nShe admitted: “I tried really hard not to mention it, even when we were doing introductions at the beginning of the year, even though everybody knew. I didn\u2019t want people to think that was the reason I got in. <\/p>\n
\n“Not that it was, but I was really hard on myself. I was trying to constantly prove I was more than just the actor from Harry Potter.\u201d<\/p>\n
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