'This Is Ridiculous': Harry Potter Actor Recalls Auditioning For 14-Year-Old Moaning Myrtle While Aged 37

Harry Potter movie histrion Shirley Henderson has said she felt "ridiculous" auditioning for the relation of Moaning Myrtle — a ghostly schoolgirl little than fractional the actresses' existent age.

Henderson joined the formed of the Harry Potter movies for 2002's Chamber of Secrets, erstwhile she was 37 years old. Now, speaking to The Independent, Henderson has recalled however she had auditioned for the relation of the 14-year-old ghostly schoolgirl — and was encouraged by the film's casting manager to conscionable not notation however aged she truly was.

"The casting manager said, 'Go for it — and don't notation your age,'" Henderson said.

Shirley Henderson astatine Cannes Film Festival 2002. Image credit: Frank Micelotta/Image Direct via Getty Images.

"When I was archetypal asked for an audition, I didn't cognize who Harry Potter was," she continued. "But my sister, who was staying with me, had work the books. Still, I wasn't convinced I could play a 14-year-old miss due to the fact that I was successful my 30s astatine the time."

In the Harry Potter series, Myrtle is the unhappy shade of a erstwhile Hogwarts students who is usually recovered haunting the school's bathrooms. In Chamber of Secrets, she gives clues to the concealed Slytherin lair's hidden entrance. The quality past returns successful the 4th Harry Potter story, Goblet of Fire, wherever she observes Harry and different characters arsenic they bathe.

"I went to the audition dressed arsenic a schoolgirl — achromatic shirt, achromatic skirt, ponytail — thinking, 'This is ridiculous,'" Henderson said. "I did my wee spot for them and they thanked me. Months went by and I thought that was it, but past they phoned my agent, asked to spot maine again, and offered maine the part."

While Moaning Myrtle is meant to beryllium a erstwhile student, it's besides established that she died immoderate clip agone — backmost successful 1943 — making her acold older than her appearance. This, Henderson said, besides helped with her casting — arsenic good arsenic the information her ghostly peculiar effects assistance fell immoderate of her face.

"Myrtle is an aged idiosyncratic successful a young person's assemblage and due to the fact that she's ghosty, there's a benignant of mistiness," the histrion acknowledged. "You're not looking intimately astatine my face, truthful we could get distant with it."

Who volition play Moaning Myrtle successful HBO's Harry Potter TV reboot? The accumulation is presently inactive filming the series' archetypal book, truthful we whitethorn not find retired for immoderate time. This week, Henderson's chap Harry Potter prima Rupert Grint said helium would apt ne'er permission the "shadow" of Ron Weasley behind.

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Image credit: Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social