{"id":475197,"date":"2026-05-30T20:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/475197\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T20:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T20:21:18","slug":"evanna-lynch-harry-potter-didnt-test-me-as-an-actor-now-im-seeking-a-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/475197\/","title":{"rendered":"Evanna Lynch: Harry Potter didn’t test me as an actor\u00a0\u2014 now I’m seeking a challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

When most people think of Evanna Lynch, the first thing that will come to their mind is her role of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films<\/a>. Lynch was just 15 when she first appeared in Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix as the much-loved Luna, but over 20 years later the character still looms large in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHarry Potter is the thing everyone wants to talk about. The films are very present in my life still because I don\u2019t make a living on theatre and short films, I pretty much make a living doing Comic Cons. But creatively, for me, that chapter is closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynch is 34 now, and still recognisable as Luna, but there is an obvious frustration when she talks about the Harry Potter films \u2014 especially given that her screentime across the entire franchise was just 17 minutes and 15 seconds. \u201cThat is not very much acting,\u201d she says. \u201cThere is a frustrated creative part of me that goes: \u2018You haven\u2019t tested me yet. You haven\u2019t seen everything.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EvannaEvanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood in ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.’ Picture: Warner Brothers<\/p>\n

Creatively speaking, Luna Lovegood is very much in Lynch\u2019s rear-view mirror. And as she takes on a role in the upcoming adaption of Mark Ravenhill\u2019s Pool (No Water) in Cork, it\u2019s clear she\u2019s trying to forge a new, more creatively challenging path.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like intensity in life. A lot of the time on film and in theatre, you\u2019ll have people going, \u2018Are you okay? Do you feel safe?\u2019 And I\u2019ve learned something about myself as an actor \u2013 I don\u2019t really want to feel safe. I want a little bit of danger. I want to be dangling off the edge of the pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

The edginess and uncertainty of Pool (No Water) clearly appeals to Lynch. She leans forward when she\u2019s talking about it. We\u2019re meeting in the team\u2019s rehearsal room. It\u2019s day three of rehearsals and the cast and crew are getting to know each other.<\/p>\n

Set in a deserted swimming pool deep underneath The Metropole Hotel, the play is intense and challenging, and heavy on themes of friendship, jealousy, self-doubt and ambition. These are familiar concepts for Lynch, and they\u2019ve sparked deep conversations within the cast.<\/p>\n

\"EvannaEvanna Lynch pictured inside the disused swimming pool beneath The Metropole Hotel, which will become the stage for the upcoming production of Pool (No Water) during Cork Midsummer Festival. Picture: Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been talking about why some people make it and are \u2018chosen\u2019 by the industry, and then you meet lots of other brilliant artists and people, and for some reason they never \u2018make it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lynch tells me these conversations have been \u201cexhausting at times\u201d, she has taken comfort that others experience \u201cartistic jealousy\u201d too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s made me realise it\u2019s not just me sitting there googling other actors on IMDB,\u201d she laughs. <\/p>\n

The Louth actor has had some ups and downs over the years. In 2023 she tells me she quit acting altogether due in part to her frustration at not securing challenging movie roles and trying to move past the Harry Potter phenomenon. \u201cI thought, this is it, I\u2019m done.\u201d<\/p>\n

An avid reader, she says an obsession with romantasy books pushed her back into the world of acting. \u201cI was just like, I want to be one of these characters, and to be honest, that\u2019s how I started acting, you know, it was reading books and going, damn it, I want to be in these worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quitting, then coming back to acting, she says, made her realise she wanted this for herself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n When no one really protested [my decision to quit] it gave me the space to go, \u2018I actually want this\u2019.\n <\/p>\n

\"EvannaEvanna Lynch pictured at The Everyman ahead of her starring role in Mark Ravenhill\u2019s Pool (No Water). Picture Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

Pool (No Water) might be just the project Lynch needs to get her teeth into. It\u2019s quirky and innovative and is tapping into another great love of the actor\u2019s life \u2013 dancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m a failed dancer. At 19, I auditioned for three dance schools, and they all told me my technique was awful, but I\u2019ve always loved physical expression. I find it really helpful to be able to use your full body, and Luke [Murphy], the choreographer, very much works that way. I think he appreciates the four of us are physically throwing ourselves into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynch says she\u2019s worked hard to maintain her flexibility and is loving this physical side to theatre work. \u201cI find it very exhilarating. And Luke really pulls that physicality out of us. He\u2019s there clambering up on the showers and getting covered in grime, and then we start to go, we\u2019ll do that too!\u201d<\/p>\n

She admits she\u2019s getting caught up in the energy and athleticism of the role. \u201cYesterday I fell through a chair. I got a bit over excited, and I tried to jump up on the edge of the pool, and I skinned my knees. I find that exciting. I don\u2019t get enough of that in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is an actor in her element. Chatting with Lynch it\u2019s obvious that she likes to push her body to its limits. In 2019 she began training in circus skills including the trapeze and aerial skills. These classes are also a key part of her self-care.<\/p>\n

Being part of the behemoth that is Harry Potter at such a young age meant she was thrust into an overwhelming world without the mental tools an adult may have. \u201cThe thing I sometimes regret about Harry Potter \u2013 and you can\u2019t help it because you\u2019re a teenager \u2013 is I was so wrapped up in my appearance, what boys thought of me, what the press thought of me, that I wasn\u2019t fully there. Like, I can\u2019t remember certain scenes because I felt so insecure, and I think as you get older, you worry less about yourself, so you\u2019re able to take in the world around you more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EvannaEvanna Lynch at the UK Premiere of ‘Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix’ in July 2007. Picture: Joel Ryan\/PA<\/p>\n

Lynch is doubling down on that self-care work by taking clown classes in London, where she lives. What began as research for a fiction novel she\u2019s working on, has grown legs, and, well, clown shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe clown class has been mind-blowing to me. The teacher says the clown delights in failure. So in class, every time <\/p>\n

we make a mistake, we have to share it, and I find that mortifying. Most of us try to cover our mistakes, we\u2019re so desperate to make it, or pretend that didn\u2019t hurt me at all, or that didn\u2019t embarrass me. I have a habit in clown class of when I\u2019ve done something embarrassing, I kind of put my eyes down, but my teachers say, \u2018share it, share it\u2019. It\u2019s fighting my instincts, but I think it\u2019s important as a performer.\u201d <\/p>\n

Now in her mid-thirties, Lynch says she has learned to hold back a little of herself when she\u2019s out in the world. This too is fighting her instincts. \u201cEarly on in my career I didn\u2019t realise that you could be a jobbing actor. I thought you had to exploit your own celebrity and create this caricature, and that that was supposed to help your work, but there\u2019s actors who live very privately and with a lot of integrity. As I\u2019ve grown, I see you can keep a lot of yourself back from your work and still work, I didn\u2019t realise that when I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaining a sense of self-worth is still a work in progress for Lynch. When she was younger, she says she would meet someone and would want \u201cto impress them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still do this to a certain extent, I kind of lean in, scrape everything out of myself, and kind of say, is that enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n As I get older, I\u2019m starting to realise I don\u2019t need to turn myself inside out. I don\u2019t need to show them the very pit of my soul to be enough, you can just show them the surface.\n <\/p>\n

There\u2019s an earnestness to Lynch as she talks about what she\u2019s discovered working in showbusiness for over 20 years. She\u2019s surprisingly unguarded when she tells me that although she\u2019s been auditioning for film roles, she\u2019s not getting them. That\u2019s not to say, she\u2019s not working. She has been doing a lot of short films lately, several of which have been critically well received \u2013 like Bus Girl (2022), Frog (2025), and Each Coming Night (2025), where she worked with actress, director and writer Dakota Blue Richards.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Dakota] started her career by playing Lyra in The Golden Compass when she was 13, so I really feel a kinship with her. We were cast by the same casting director, we didn\u2019t come from acting families, and we have been trying to navigate this business. It\u2019s amazing to just see someone go, \u201cYou know what, I\u2019m going to take the reins here\u2019. Working with young women doing that, it\u2019s changing my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her brain, she says, is \u201cticking over\u201d with ideas. She recently narrated the audiobook of the runaway hit Esther Is Now Following You by Dubliner Tanya Sweeney. She loved it. \u201cThat book was just so brilliant, so well written, and takes you on such a roller coaster.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Audiobook narration] is quite intense. It\u2019s three or four days of recording, but you just put the hours in. Beforehand you have to go through the book with a scalpel. And make sure you\u2019re aware of any accents!\u201d<\/p>\n

A previous audiobook narration job saw Lynch scrambling to perfect a Russian accent by watching YouTube videos on her lunch break. \u201cThat was an amateur mistake. I hadn\u2019t read the book all the way through,\u201d she cringes.<\/p>\n

\"EvannaEvanna Lynch pictured at The Everyman ahead of her starring role in Mark Ravenhill\u2019s Pool (No Water). Picture: Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also working on writing a fiction novel but admits she\u2019s finding the process difficult because she\u2019s applying her acting brain to novel writing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an actor you\u2019re just focusing on one character, and you can go very deep. But with writing, you don\u2019t have that privilege or that time. One of my friends said to me recently \u2018you can\u2019t be a method writer\u2019. You see, I was trying to deeply understand the clown character in my book. But I can\u2019t live as a clown.\u201d<\/p>\n

We mulled over this idea in the rehearsal room in The Metropole and surmised that maybe this could be Lynch\u2019s way of writing books \u2013 her unique selling point perhaps. \u201cIn clown class, we\u2019re encouraged to find our personal clown. I don\u2019t know why, but every time I get angry in clown class, the others find it hilarious. I really don\u2019t like it, I feel so out of control. I thought I was writing a clown that was one way, and now it seems I\u2019m writing an angry clown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being in Ireland, in Cork, agrees with Lynch. Though she\u2019s never visited Cork previously (\u201cmy dad\u2019s a Limerick man, so we didn\u2019t ever visit Cork!\u201d), after playing the character of Runt in Disco Pigs in 2017, she feels that \u201cspiritually I\u2019ve been here before\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to research the Cork culture of the 90s, and of course I spent a long time learning the accent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being here now, she\u2019s enjoying bonding with the cast and crew of Pool (No Water). \u201cBecause it\u2019s Ireland, we all have friends in common. I\u2019m hearing about what my friends have been up to through them and the choreographer knows a family member of mine as well. So we\u2019ve been climbing all over each other the last few days, and that is bonding for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pool (No Water) will run for two weeks this June as part of Cork Midsummer Festival. After that, Lynch says she\u2019d love to turn her hand to the small screen.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy vision board is saying TV. I\u2019d really love to book a TV role. I\u2019m so enamoured with the idea of working on a character for years and growing with them. Short of that, I think I will try and write this novel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pool (No Water) by Mark Ravenhill will be performed at the swimming pool at St Patrick\u2019s Quay, underneath the Metropole Hotel, from June 12- 27, as part of Cork Midsummer Festival. everymancork.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When most people think of Evanna Lynch, the first thing that will come to their mind is her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[122706,93,61,1693,60],"class_list":["post-475197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cork-midsummer-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-insight","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}