Father of former Harry Potter star gives serious warning …

By Charlie Sawyer

Published Jun 6, 2025 at 09:00 AM

Reading time: 2 minutes

Image courtesy of X

Emma Watson’s father, Chris Watson, has spoken out about the difficulties of being the parent to a child star in the spotlight.

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Chris Watson, father of Emma Watson, has issued an urgent warning to the new cast of the HBO Max Harry Potter series—specifically, to the three young actors set to play Harry, Hermione, and Ron. After waiting with anticipation for months, fans recently finally got to meet the three child stars cast for the roles.

With over 30,000 children attending an open audition, it must have taken executive producers numerous rounds of casting in order to find their three stars. Ultimately, it was revealed that Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout had snatched the roles.

Chris Watson, excited about the new series but understandably nervous about the welfare and wellbeing of the three young actors, spoke with Times Radio about his thoughts on the matter.

“As a parent, you have to be scared. This can be a very difficult thing for a parent and child to handle, or not. It certainly helped that I don’t actually watch movies. It’s not a big thing in the house, and so it was easier for us to keep her feet on the ground,” he explained.

Watson continued: “[W]hile there are many upsides, nothing is perfect and you have to recognise, there are going to be a whole load of downsides, and some of them you could not have imagined.”

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson weren’t even teenagers when they were initially cast in the original film series. And each of them have spoken at length over the years about how difficult it was growing up entirely in the spotlight.

In 2016, Emma Watson herself described how “terrified” she felt being a child actor: “The level of questioning I was under, coming at such a young age. People asking me, ‘What do you think of this? Who are you, who are you, who are you?’ I felt so inadequate because I just didn’t have answers yet. I had so many friends who had a clear sense of self. Who knew that they liked certain things, like the smell of grass, or what their favorite color was. I envied those girls because I was so unsure of myself.”

“I questioned everything. I was terrified by the level of interest in me. I spent most of my time trying to convince everyone I was incredibly boring because I needed privacy and a minute to figure myself out. I used to have to go numb and close myself off, for example on the red carpet, just to get through it,” the actor continued.

With the HBO Max reboot already marred with such controversy, it’s understandable why any parent would be wary about bringing their child into this environment. However, the production team have emphasised the importance of safeguarding and have made sure to include a fully functioning school on-site in order to make sure the children’s education isn’t jeopardised.