edp24 #5

No one could accuse Norfolk teenager Chris Rankin of letting fame go to his head, despite the transformation of his life and career prospects by a role in the blockbusting Harry Potter movie.

The budding actor faces 35 days of filming between now and June for the sequel to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - rubbing shoulders with A-list stars like Richard Harris, Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith.

But he is still determined to stay true to his roots - by finding time to tread the boards with his am-dram friends back home in Dereham.

And last night, the 18-year-old whose lucky break has propelled him into a career most wannabe stars can only ever dream about, spoke of his loyalty to the people who taught him his craft.

Chris' role as Hogwarts School prefect Percy Weasley really gets off the ground in the second movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. As well as watching Percy land himself a girlfriend, we will meet his father, played by Fast Show funnyman Mark Williams.

"Filming started last October, but I didn't have to meet up with the set until November," Chris told the EDP while waiting for a bus in Cheltenham after yet another hard day in front of the cameras. No stretch limousines for this man.

"Initially, it was a couple of days here and there, but over the last couple of weeks, I have been working non-stop five days a week, 10 hours a day."

Chris is now working with new arrival Gemma Padley, who plays his girlfriend, and has just completed his part in the action-packed duelling club sequence, when new Hogwarts tutor Professor Lockhart, played by Kenneth Branagh, instructs pupils to hone their spell-casting skills on each other.

But incredibly, while coping with the demands of a movie set in full swing, he is also finding time to come home to Norfolk to rehearse with Dereham Operatic Society Youth Theatre Company for its forthcoming production of Honk!, a musical take on the Ugly Duckling. And he is playing the lead.

As if that was not enough, Chris is also set to star as Joseph in a production of the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat late next month for his old school, Northgate High in Dereham.

And finally, he will be playing the voice of the BBC World Service in Dereham Operatic Society's production of 'Allo 'Allo in March. Oh, and the part of First German Soldier, too.

"Honk! will be my last show with the youth company and I was determined to do it," he said. "They showed me the right direction and I was not going to let them down. I believe in being loyal to the people I have worked with for years and I wasn't going to just dump them after Harry Potter."

Inevitably, Chris' film commitments have required a little rescheduling. Honk! was originally due to run at Dereham Memorial Hall from April 3 to 6, but will now start on April 2 with a gap in the middle while he works on the film.

He is also working on April 5, but studio bosses have assured him he will be able to get back to Dereham before the curtain rises.

"It is absolutely wonderful that Chris is still with us," said youth theatre company chairman Jeanie Woods. "He is still the same Chris to us as he has ever been."

As well as splitting his time between film and stage work, Chris is also nearing summer examination time. Luckily, though, he is sitting A-level theatre studies, so he will hardly be short of practical experience between now and then.

Article taken from EDP 24.