What happened to Tom Felton who is best known for playing nemesis to “The Boy Who Lived”, after Harry Potter? Donning the mantle of pureblood-sympathizer Draco Malfoy, Felton starred alongside Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint in all eight installments of the film series.
Apart from being an integral part of Harry Potter, a beloved franchise in the fantasy genre, as Harry Potter's school-based nemesis, Felton has had a career comprising of dynamic roles, starring in Barclaycard commercials when as young as eight years old.
Prior to his big break, Felton’s cinematic debut was the role of Peagreen Clock in the live-action fantasy comedy The Borrowers, which also featured actors Jim Broadbent and Mark Williams, who played the roles of Professor Slughorn and Arthur Weasley respectively. Apart from this, he also portrayed Louis T. Leonowens in the 1999 period drama, Anna and the King.
Tom Felton Was Harry Potter's True Cult Hero
Tom Felton brought the complex, layered character of Draco Malfoy to life — be it his snobbish sense of entitlement, his animosity towards Harry, or the inner struggles the fledgling death eater was plagued with since The Half-Blood Prince. Rowling introduces Draco as a foil to Harry’s nobler personality traits, as his presence is a rude awakening to the segregationist politics prevalent in the wizarding world. While Draco is a mean-spirited bully through-and-through — something that stems through his upbringing and his father’s overbearing influence — his character, especially in the later books, is more a victim of circumstances unable to detangle from the ideologies he was born into. Draco donning the robes of a death eater seemed more like a situational inevitability rather than a conscious choice, with matters getting more complicated with Voldemort’s presence in Malfoy Manor in Deathly Hallows Part I.
Felton portrays this inner turmoil masterfully, especially in certain scenes of The Half-Blood Prince, which was praised by critics as a “breakout performance.” Beneath the guise of Draco’s off-handed exterior is fear — fear that he will fail the Dark Lord, and fear that he will fail to preserve his family’s legacy and honor. In the scene wherein Draco breaks down in the bathroom due to his inability to fix the Vanishing Cabinet, Felton is able to sway audiences enough to perceive Draco’s predicament with sympathy, especially when he is bleeding out due to the Sectumsempra curse. This becomes possible due to Felton’s nuanced ability to flesh out Draco’s grey areas, including his inability to kill Dumbledore, and his hesitation to identify Harry on Bellatrix’s persistence in Deathly Hallows Part I.
What Tom Felton Starred In After Harry Potter
Across the 2000s, Felton starred in a string of films, including British thriller The Disappeared, a cameo appearance in Get Him to the Greek, and 13Hrs, a horror flick. Apart from appearing alongside Jack Osbourne in the reality TV show Adrenaline Junkie, Felton bagged a seminal role as chimp-tormentor Dodge Landon in the 2011 science fiction blockbuster Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Among his most well-known roles are the ones Felton played in Risen as Lucius, alongside Joseph Fiennes, the supernational horror The Apparition, the critically-acclaimed 2013 period drama Belle, and the romantic drama A United Kindom, which garnered favorable reviews.
In 2018, Felton was cast as Laertes in an intriguing retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia, alongside Daisy Ridley of the Star Wars fame, who assumes the titular role. Prior to these endeavors, Felton had notable TV roles: he starred as CSI Julian Albert aka Doctor Alchemy in season 3 of the CW series The Flash. He was also a series regular on the science fiction drama, Origin, which was canceled by Youtube after the first season. Felton is also a musician, performing covers of songs like All I Need and Time Well Spent on his YouTube channel, ‘Feltbeats.’ He has also released an original tracked named Hawaii in collaboration with the independent record label, Six String Productions.
How Tom Felton Became A TikTok Star
TikTok became a massive cultural phenomenon in recent times, and Tom Felton has his own TikTok channel, experiencing explosive popularity when he reacted to the trend #DracoTok. His reaction video to the trend alone amassed 2 million views within the first two hours of posting. Apart from this, Felton uploaded a string of videos in which he parodies Draco’s character, be it through his failure to cast the Meteolojinx Recanto spell or recreating an iconic Draco moment from the Chamber of Secrets. Whether singing tunes while playing the guitar or showing off his adorable puppy, Felton on TikTok exudes pure Hufflepuff energy.
What Tom Felton Is Starring In Next
While Felton’s most recent role was that of Brandon Walker in the 2019 comedy-drama Braking for Whales, he is set to appear in multiple upcoming projects, including the fantasy film, A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting, in which, he assumes the role of The Grand Guignol. Additionally, Tom Felton is also set for the Dutch war drama The Forgotten Battle, to be released in 2021, along with the films Canyon Del Muerto and Burial in the near future.