Harry Potter’s Dudley Dursley Actor Is Open To Starring In A Musical

Dudley Dursley actor Harry Melling has made it clear that he is very open to the prospect of being in a musical. Melling made his acting debut as Dudley, the titular wizard’s odious cousin, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001, before reprising the role a further four more times across the magical franchise. Audiences will see him play his first major lead role in Amanda Kramer’s ’50s greaser drama Please Baby Please later this year, as well as in the upcoming horror-thriller The Pale Blue Eye as Edgar Allen Poe.

Following his final performance as Dudley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, the actor has since gone on to enjoy an impressively varied stage and screen career. The actor hasn’t completely said goodbye to the fantasy genre as a whole, having appeared in His Dark Materials and Merlin, Melling has proven he is a versatile performer post-Potter. Garnering roles in the Coen Brothers’ western anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Netflix’s hit period chess series The Queen’s Gambit, and more recently in Joel Coen’s acclaimed Shakespeare adaptation The Tragedy of Macbeth, the former wizard foil is becoming a more familiar face on the big screen.

Now, it seems that the actor is looking to expand his repertoire even further. Promoting Please Baby Please in an interview with THR, Melling details his relationship with theater and the risks he took whilst filming Kramer’s drama, before being asked where he feels he is now with his career. Addressing how he appears to have avoided being typecast from his most famous character, Melling describes his approach of being “very forward-thinking” with his roles and not having “really sort of dwelled in the past too much.” He then elaborates on his thoughts for the future:

For me, it’s always been about the work, about trying to find good and interesting and unique work. And I’ve always loved the magic that happens when you see actors transform into the different people who you don’t recognize. It’s like a magic trick. I’ve always wanted to be that kind of actor, one that can shift between genres, between theater and film, and maybe even musicals, who knows?

Melling isn’t the only Potter actor to take on more diverse roles, and it’s apparent that doing a musical isn’t something he feels completely unprepared for. “Please Baby Please is probably the closest thing that I’ve ever come to doing a musical professionally. That dance at the end was a lot of fun to do” he notes, before adding the rather unexpected overview of the film as “West Side Story-meets-David Lynch”. But, according to Melling, it’s this devotion to being a more multifaceted performer that has enabled him to move beyond “the stigma of being a child actor“.

With the star beginning to earn himself more and more leading performances, as well as the musical successes of other Harry Potter actors, the prospect of Melling appearing in a role requiring more physical and vocal dexterity certainly seems highly plausible. Indeed, it could well provide him with the opportunity to say farewell to any Dudley-related type-castings for good. However, whether the actor will be seen singing and dancing sometime in the near future or not, there is no question that, with his two upcoming lead roles, Harry Melling has now properly established himself as a distinguished star of the screen.

Source: THR

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