Katie Leung Is Fully In Her Post-Harry Potter Era

The same could be said of Leung. The actress, who at age 13 beat out thousands of girls in an open audition for the role of Cho, shares that while she was grateful for the life-changing opportunity to star in the Harry Potter films, beginning with 2005’s Goblet Of Fire, it also made her second guess whether she really wanted to pursue acting as a career — or that she was worthy of taking on new roles. “In my head, I was putting myself in a box, and I thought the only reason why anyone would want to work with me was for [being in Harry Potter],” Leung reflects. “And until I got that out of my head, I just felt a bit stuck. I think many people do when they play iconic roles where people keep bringing it up even though you’ve done loads of other things. I was really drawn to people actually, who would say to me, ‘Oh, I’ve watched this thing that you’ve been in,’ which is not Harry Potter. Suddenly I wanted to be their best friend.”