\n\t\u201cBut baddies are just more fun to play \u2014 and there\u2019s just so much more you can do,\u201d he tells Variety. \u201cIt\u2019s better than being stuck playing the good guy forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAs it happens, Pratt did originally audition for the \u201cLord of the Flies\u201d good guy \u2014 Ralph, Golding\u2019s representation of civilization, democracy and order in his allegorical novel about societal collapse and humanity\u2019s inherent capacity for evil.<\/p>\n
\n\tHaving heard about the new series (from Sony Pictures Television\u2019s Eleven Films, the BBC and writer Jack Thorne) from a friend of his mum\u2019s who was giving him a lift to a drama group, Pratt \u2014 then around 11 \u2014 sent in a tape.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut I got a recall for Jack,\u201d he says. \u201cThey made me read for a lot of people, but Jack was the one that I was most compelled to, because he was so different to me. I felt like I could give him a good amount of depth and could do him justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe casting team \u2014 led by the \u201clovely\u201d star-finder extraordinaire Nina Gold \u2014 clearly thought the same, with Thorne\u2019s writing having broadened the world around Jack beyond his lurch towards savagery to show elements of his upbringing. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe\u2019d built these other layers onto him about why he is how he is and what he gets worried about,\u201d says Pratt. \u201cSo I felt I could make the audience feel more connected to him, because it\u2019s rough if he\u2019s just this one-dimensional person you can\u2019t relate to in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tLox Pratt (R) with co-star David McKenna in \u2018Lord of the Flies\u2019<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJ Redza\/Eleven\/Sony Pictures Tel<\/p>\n
\n\tShot in Malaysia in late 2024 and released in the U.K. earlier this year, the four-part \u201cLord of the Flies\u201d \u2014\u2014\u00a0in which there\u2019s an entire episode dedicated to Jack \u2014 has already proved to be a critical smash-hit before it hits U.S. TVs, hailed as one of the finest adaptations of the classic. For his first ever on-screen role, Pratt \u2014 along with many of his young co-stars \u2014 has now been submitted for Emmy consideration. The \u201cAdolescence\u201d comparisons with Owen Cooper have already been made (Pratt is presenting with co-star Winston Sawyers at next weekend\u2019s BAFTA TV awards, where Cooper is expected to complete his record-breaking collection of awards over the last year).<\/p>\n
\n\tThe youngster, born and raised in the south English country of Cornwall, says he\u2019d \u201clike to think\u201d he\u2019s taken it all in his stride, but isn\u2019t sure. Not that he\u2019s had much time to dwell on the success of his debut, having left the beaches of South-East Asia and headed straight to an extended stay at Hogwarts.<\/p>\n
\n\tGiven Malfoy\u2019s practically iconic platinum hair, it\u2019s easy to think why Pratt, with his curly blonde locks, was the perfect choice to take over from Tom Felton, especially having already honed his malevolent energy in front of the camera so perfectly. Pratt claims the directors (Marc Munden for \u201cFlies\u201d and Mark Mylod for \u201cPotter\u201d) did know each other, but says there were still \u201ca lot of screen tests\u201d to get the role.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Wizarding World\u2019s TV reboot is giving each \u201cHarry Potter\u201d book a full season, meaning that Pratt\u2019s Malfoy is being offered a much broader palette than the films (in which he appeared for just 30 minutes in total). \u201cHe\u2019s still very much Draco, but I\u2019m putting my own spin on him,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely got more layers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOn the surface, it\u2019s easy to consider Jack and Draco to be very similar when it comes to their antagonistic traits. But Pratt notes that, with their characters having been expanded beyond previous on-screen interpretations, it\u2019s \u201cnice to see the differences\u201d between them.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think they\u2019re two very different kinds of sadness and meanness. Draco\u2019s loved, but he\u2019s got this horrible, crippling family pressure. He\u2019s not quite who he wants to be the entire time and can\u2019t live up to his father\u2019s expectations. Whereas I felt with Jack that he got his own thing going on. He\u2019s just unloved and that\u2019s never been a thing that he\u2019s needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tLox Pratt as Draco Malfoy in \u201cHarry Potter\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHaving been kept mostly under an invisibility cloak of secrecy, the first trailer for the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d series was recently unveiled by HBO Max. In a blink-and-you\u2019ll miss it moment as every key character is introduced, Pratt\u2019s Malfoy was seen in one shot pulling his wand out (presumably to intimidate an off-screen Harry).<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019m glad they kept it quite minimal and it wasn\u2019t too exposing,\u201d says Lox (who acknowledges that there was a \u201cflood of messages\u201d after the trailer was released, but was happy that his friends showed their enthusiasm without going overboard). \u201cAnd I\u2019m glad it was very quick-as-a-flash. I\u2019m excited for people to see it because he\u2019s so different to how Draco was in the films.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHaving gone from one iconic literary baddie to another, Pratt admits that although he does enjoy playing such villainous roles he might try something else next time. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019d take another bad guy role straight after this,\u201d he claims.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut with seven terms of Hogwarts to get through, it could be the best part of a decade before that happens. It\u2019s something that his predecessor Felton knows only too well, having played the part from 2001 to 2011. The original Malfoy Jnr recently revealed he\u2019d reached out to Pratt with a note with his phone number should he need a word of encouragement. While he said he tried to avoid offering any advice, Felton did urge Pratt to \u201chave as much fun as possible, take as many pictures as you can, teal as many props as you can \u2014 they\u2019ll be worth a fortune.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHas he followed any of this?<\/p>\n
\n\tSays Pratt: \u201cYeah, I probably can\u2019t reveal how many props I\u2019ve taken.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The TV world appears to have crowned its newest on-screen villain. This time, he\u2019s just 14 years old.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,151257,75,4199,240906,240907],"class_list":["post-647471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-draco-malfoy","tag-entertainment","tag-harry-potter","tag-lord-of-the-flies","tag-lox-pratt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}