Ginny Weasley was a key figure in the Harry Potter novels, but over the course of Warner Bros.' big-screen adaptations, the character and her budding romance with the titular Boy Wizard became somewhat sidelined.
This is one of the major issues fans had with the movies, and as it turns out, actress Bonnie Wright shared their frustration.
Wright, now 32, debuted as Ginny in the first Harry Potter movie, The Philosopher's Stone, at the age of 9, and while Ron's little sister was a prominent supporting player in the first couple of films, she gradually faded into the background.
During an appearance on the latest episode of Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast (via Variety), Wright admitted that her character’s lack of screen time proved to be “a little bit disappointing.”
“I definitely feel there was anxiety towards performing and doing the best thing as my character built, for instance,” Wright said. “Like, ‘Oh gosh, will I do justice to this character that people love?’ So that was always hard to do, especially when, inevitably, a lot of the scenes of every character were chopped down from the book to the film. So you didn’t really have as much to show in the film.”
“Sometimes that was a little disappointing because there were parts of the character that just didn’t get to come through because there weren’t the scenes to do that,” she continued. “That made me feel a bit anxious or just frustrated, I guess.”
When asked if she ever approached the producers or studio execs with her concerns, she said it seemed like a pointless endeavour due to the perception that there was so little wiggle room when it came to making any changes to the scripts.
“There were a million executives going through them all,” Wright explained. “I think what I maybe took, which I don’t take so much to heart now, is I kind of felt that maybe my anxiety was about, ‘Oh, I’m going to be seen as badly portraying this character,’ rather than later realizing that I wasn’t really given the opportunity to do that. So it wasn’t really my fault, exactly.”
So, would Wright have any interested in reprising the role of Ginny if an adaptation of The Cursed Child ever materialized?
"It would be pretty fun because it's really about the children. It's not about our characters, so it wouldn't be a massive role. It would be really about these kids and the new generation. It would be fun, but I have no idea if they'll do it."
How do you feel about Ginny's lack of screen-time? Did it make a big difference to the movies? Drop us a comment down below.