Shirley Henderson says she was told not to reveal her age during an audition for a 14-year-old role in Harry Potter.
The rule was established by the producers when she was 37 when she auditioned for the role of teenage ghost Moaning Myrtle.
“The casting director said, ‘Go for it and don’t mention your age,’” Henderson, now 60, told The Independent in a recent interview.
Henderson admits that she didn’t know much about Harry Potter at the time. “I wasn’t convinced I could play a 14-year-old girl because I was in my 30s,” she added, but her sister encouraged her to try.
The 6ft tall actress arrived at her audition looking like a schoolgirl, wearing a white shirt, black skirt and ponytail, and thought it was ‘ridiculous’.
She delivered her scene, thanked the casting team and assumed it was over.
Months later, she was called back and was eventually offered the role. “Myrtle is an old person in a young person’s body, and because she’s ghostly, there’s a kind of mistiness… you’re not looking at my face properly, so we can get away with it,” she explained.
Unlike her child co-stars – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint – Henderson was not widely recognized after the film’s release. Playing a ghostly teenager helped her stay out of the spotlight.
The Harry Potter universe has grown to include seven books, eight films and a play. Warner Bros. Discovery is now developing a new TV series that will adapt each book over multiple seasons.
