Harry Potter actress Katie Leung, who played Cho Chang for five movies in the franchise, opened up about the racist bullying that she faced as a teenager after bagging the role. She claimed that this was “overwhelming” from the start and very “difficult.”
Katie Leung talks about experiencing online racism after Harry Potter casting
Katie Leung, who joined the Harry Potter franchise as a teenager, faced a hard time adjusting to the famous life. It did not help at all when she faced a string of online bullying right after she shot to fame.
Leung, who stars in season four of Netflix’s Bridgerton, spoke to The Guardian recently and opened up about this turbulent time in her life. “It was overwhelming from the get-go,” the actress explained, “Being in the spotlight from that age, when you’re already insecure, was difficult, to say the least.”
She continued about her experience, “At 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’m still trying to figure it out, really, how it affected me.”
At the time, her curiosity got the better of her, and she tried to find out what other people were thinking about her. Leung ended up finding out that the internet was full of racist and hateful comments about her.
“I don’t know if anything could have been done back then to make things better or easier,” she continued, “At that age, you’re 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.”
But what she found out, did not work out very well for her. “I think it just sat with me, and it affected me in ways like, ‘Oh yeah, I made that decision because people were saying this about me.’ It probably made me less outgoing. I was very self-aware of what was coming out of my mouth,” Leung said about her reaction to the hate comments. She added, “And for the longest time, I may have tried to make up for it, and overcompensate.”
Despite the pressure and drawbacks, Katie Leung managed to survive in the industry and continued working on good projects. “I still care about the craft [of acting], I still want to do well, but I can park it once I’m done for the day and go home and live this other life,” the 38-year-old actress explained, “It’s more like a job for me than the be-all and end-all, which is how I felt about acting when I was in my 20s.”
Originally reported by Sourav Chakraborty on ComingSoon.
