Former Harry Potter star Rupert Grint has revealed that he almost reverted to selling ice cream after the massive franchise came to a close back in 2011. It’s quite hard for fans to picture Grint with popsicles in his hand versus his traditional wizard wand, as his incredibly loyal kinship to Harry would be incredibly missed.
Grint is infamous for his portrayal as Harry Potter's best friend and confidant, Ron Weasley. When Grant landed the role and was cast in the very first film in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, he was just eleven years old. Almost like Harry Potter magic itself, Grint's life seemingly changed overnight. He suddenly found himself with a long-standing professional career, overflowing success, and an insane amount of fame - all before he even hit puberty. Even though he may have not known it at the time, Grint would go on to play Ron Weasley in all seven films throughout the series for the next decade of his life. Most people spend most of their adolescence and early adulthood trying to figure out their purpose, contemplating what they are supposed to be doing with their lives. Since Grint had the rare experience of having that answer served to him on a silver platter at such a young age, in many ways, portraying the character of Weasley was all he ever knew.
So naturally, when that chapter of his life finally closed, in its place he found nothing but this giant black hole - a glaring, red question mark: now what? Grint recently revealed in an interview with The New York Times that during this transitional phase of his acting career, he was nearly ready to switch gears and become a full-blown ice cream man. NYT reported that, “when the Harry Potter films ended, Mr. Grint was worried that he may not make it as an adult actor. He knew how to play Ron, Harry’s brave, anxious, sidekick. He didn’t know if he could play anyone else.” Grint shared that he definitely did have the thought: "is it too late to do something else?"
“He bought a pink and white ice cream van, which he drove back to his family home just north of London on his last day of shooting. He thought briefly that he could make a go of that,” wrote NYT. Luckily that thought was not permanent and after taking a year off from acting entirely to figure out what he wanted to do with this new phase of his life, he returned to the screen. His adult acting career began to flourish after waiting for all the material that basically echoed his iconic character of Ron Weasley to die out. Instead, Grint waited patiently for more eccentric, edgier, challenging roles for him to take on. He took a stab at theater and participated in a Jez Butterworth play, and he starred in the Crackle crime dramedy, Snatch.
It’s quite evident that Grint needed a long-overdue break from playing the exact same Harry Potter character for nearly a decade, no matter how much he loved the character that he was portraying. Grint craved and needed change, although when it finally did arrive, it was quite scary and daunting. It was so much out of his comfort zone that he almost resorted to selling ice cream instead. Regardless, all Harry Potter fans are incredibly grateful that Grint's love for acting didn’t disappear as fast as ice cream cones melting on a hot summer day.
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is now available for streaming on HBO Max.
Source: The New York Times