Harry Potter star Evanna Lynch says fan culture around series is ‘not healthy’

Actor who played Luna Lovegood in the franchise said she ‘stalked’ Daniel Radcliffe

Harry Potter star Evanna Lynch has said she used to be obsessed with the franchise, adding that the fan culture surrounding it is “not healthy”.

The actor, who played Luna Lovegood in four of the films after being cast in the franchise aged 14, said it was strange going from being a superfan of Harry Potter to starring in it.

“It was so weird to go from being a fan that used to stalk Daniel Radcliffe to being someone people send fan mail to,” she told the Talking Tastebuds podcast.

“I was a really obsessive Harry Potter fan. I started reading [the books] when I was about eight, and that was just my whole identity for a while.”

Lynch continued: “It’s quite embarrassing. I did everything, I queued up for the books, I wrote fan mail to Daniel Radcliffe and got his autograph and I wrote fan mail to JK Rowling and we became friends.”

She added that the “whole fan culture is not healthy”.

“When I met Daniel, Rupert and Emma,” said Lynch, “I knew everything about them: their pets’ names, birthdays, I knew their parents’ names. I had to pretend I didn’t. It also meant I had nothing to say to them, I just adored them. I was suddenly confronted with, ‘Who am I?’ and when they asked me what I was interested in, I realised I didn’t even know myself, I didn’t know what to say.”

She called being an obsessive fan “disempowering” and said it is common for teenagers to think of celebrities as “godly”.

Lynch also revealed she doesn’t respond to fans who message her saying they are her best friend, because she doesn’t think it’s healthy.

The actor made headlines recently for saying she was “so saddened” that trans people have felt “abandoned” by the Harry Potter franchise following comments made by author JK Rowling.

The children’s author was criticised for a series of “transphobic” tweets criticising an article for using the phrase “people who menstruate”, with many accusing the author of rejecting the young transgender fans who had found a community in her books.

Actor Laurence Fox recently called Harry Potter stars “spoiled millionaires” for turning against Rowling in the row.