Hype: Katie Leung
By Ashley Bird (November 2005)
Source: Total Film

Harry Potter's object of adolescent desire is not as innocent as she might seem ...

He's an unlikely sex symbol, Daniel Radcliffe. Barely old enough to buy a lottery ticket, fresh-faced and with all the raunchiness of your average vase. But it's amazing what some strategic wand-waving can achieve. Thanks to his heroic role as Harry Potter, 16-year-old Radders is now one of the planet's most desirable adolescents.

Scottish 18-year-old Katie Leung is, in turn, now the subject of fierce internet teen envy, having been plucked from obscurity (or rather Motherwell) to play Harry's love interest - Ravenclaw's Quidditch seeker, Cho Chang - in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "There's always jealousy," she shrugs as Rough Cut sits down with her in London's Claridges hotel. "That's inevitable because Dan's got so many fans, but that just makes me feel even luckier."

Lucky's right. Amazingly, until the day her father saw a TV ad for a Harry Potter casting session, acting had never been an option for Leung. "I wanted to be an interior designer," she explains. "I only went to the audition because it would be an experience." Two months later she was at Hogwarts, whipping up sparks with the boy wizard. "Daniel makes you feel so relaxed," she says coyly. "He kept telling me I was a natural and kept asking me if I was all right, just little things." Little charmer. So Danny-boy was trying it on? "Did he fancy me? No! I don't think so..."

Leung is still to decide whether she'll pursue acting as a career but, if so, she'd like to follow in the footsteps of Kate Winslet with varied, challenging rolse. But don't be fooled. This teen star isn't quite as demure as you'd think ... "You know what I'd really like to play?" she says conspiratorially, leaning towards the tape recorder. "A psychopath, I think I'd enjoy that."

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