In 2014 Harry Melling, best known as Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter movies, made his New York stage debut as Lear's Fool in King Lear opposite Frank Langella at BAM.
At the time, Theatermania asked the actor a question Shakespeare never answered: "When the Fool disappears, where does he go?" "My interpretation, at the moment," Melling replied, "is he goes off to kill himself."
Now we know the real answer: He goes back to England to stage his own solo show. Peddling, written by and starring Melling, runs April 10-19 at the HighTide Festival in Halesworth, then arrives in New York for a run at 59E59 April 23 - May 18.
Harry Melling took some time to answer a few questions for us about his career on stage and screen.
Classicalite: You made your New York stage debut in January, playing the Fool to Frank Langella's King Lear at BAM. Was that also your U.S. debut? And did it whet your appetite to return to New York with Peddling?
HM: Yes, it definitely whetted my appetite. New York is the most exciting place on earth. There’s so much going on. It was my U.S debut, and it was great to be performing Lear in such a beautiful operatic space at The Harvey at BAM.
CL: Is Peddling the first play you've written? The first play you've had produced?
HM: Yes. There have been many versions of this play. I think I must’ve started writing a version of it when I was around 16. But only in the last two years, I’ve felt a real need to complete it, probably because I was worried that I’m getting too old to have a go at playing him.
CL: I understand it's a monologue based on a real experience you had when you were a boy. Tell us a little more about it. What should audiences expect?
HM: When I was very young, a young door-to-door salesman knocked on my parents’ door. We used to get quite a few cold calls of this nature, and sometimes bought something, sometimes didn’t. On this occasion, my dad didn’t buy anything and the boy politely walked away. And then he completely flipped. He camped outside our house, throwing stones at the windows. We must’ve been the last straw in a very long day. I must’ve been about eight at the time, and it just always left a lasting impression on me. Who was he? Where has he been? What did he go? What if he was given an opportunity to change his life? How difficult/easy would it be for him to take that step? Hopefully that’s the play.
CL: Why did you construct it as a solo piece? And does that put more pressure on you?
HM: This play didn’t start as a solo piece. It was originally a duologue, with two peddler boys. But then I figured that the isolation of this boy was a very important story to tell. They don’t go in groups to houses, they go on their own. It’s very much a solo mission.
CL: Most people in the U.S. know you best for the Harry Potter movies, so tell us a bit about your stage background prior to Fooling and Peddling.
HM: After Harry Potter, I went to drama school. I went to LAMDA, and left a year early to perform in Mother Courage and Her Children at the National Theatre, alongside movie-mum Fiona Shaw. I then went on to do another show at the National, Woman Beware Woman. And have been lucky enough since then to be steadily working, which is any actor's dream.
CL: Have you taken any lasting lessons, career-wise or otherwise, from your long movie run as Dudley Dursley? And what have the lasting effects been, for good or ill?
HM: I think it has taught me a lot. I might not be very articulate in explaining what exactly, because it was all happening at such a young age.
I know Fiona Shaw and (the late, much missed) Richard Griffiths taught me a lot.
I think the most important thing it taught me is that I need to do this, I need to tell stories.
Luckily I still remain relatively unnoticed in public, which is a joy! It hasn’t pushed me too hard into a corner, casting-wise, which I also feel can only be a good thing, as Dudley is such a particular casting. It all sounds awfully positive, I’m sure the negative things are out there, but I’m ignorant to them.
CL: What's next for you?
I’m not sure yet. Maybe this might have a further life beyond New York, who knows?
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