Shanghai TV Weekly Article

In "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" Harry falls in love with Cho Chang, a Chinese girl, and gave her his first kiss. People have said that Cho Chang will be a key and tricky character in GoF.

Actually, Cho Chang should've appeared in PoA, unfortunately, because an Asian girl couldn't be found in time, she was delayed until GoF. To find an actress for Cho, a large open call audition was organized in Feb 2004, TV stations in China were even asked for help. At the end, 4000 young girls participated in the casting call. This is probably the largest open call audition since "Gone with the Wind".

At that time, Katie Leung, like any other girl, had only one thought in mind: catch the judges eyes and hearts. Finally, Katie won them over with her pure Asian appearance and fluent Scottish accent, and they believed that she, was Cho.

It so happens that Katie comes from a rich family. Her father Peter Leung runs a Chinese restaurant in Scotland. Katie lives in Glasgow, Scotland in a house that’s worth $400,000 US and enjoys a wealthy life with and her father, stepmother, a younger sister and two younger brothers. Rumor has it that the school she used to go to costs 5000 pounds a year.

Katie’s father and mother met in Scotland. Hong Kong born Peter was preparing to open his own department store. After the divorce in 1986, Katie’s mother lives alone in Babetteshire, and her father married a woman from Cicily, Italy.

Today, Peter Leung is a millionaire, and owns a hotel and a wholesale business in Glasgow. Although he had seen many big occasions, he still feels inconceivable about what happened to his eldest daughter.

“Katie and I found out about the audition while watching the Chinese TV Channel. I didn’t know why I asked her to go to the audition. She never told me that she likes acting. She has never participated in any school performances. In many people’s eyes, she is just a girl who focuses on school, not knowing anything about her future.

“Now, I don’t think she will go to university. Maybe she would like to continue with acting. But she is still a student. Even during filming, she has a tutor with her.”

Katie’s sister Violet, who is four years younger than her, told the reporter that Katie is a nice person, “she always wears feminine clothes, and never forgets to wear jewelry. She sees me as an annoying little girl, and I see her as a boring, mature teenager.”

A teahouse manager in Glasgow describes Katie as “pretty”, “doesn’t talk much” but “has a pretty smile, long hair, large eyes and an intelligent appearance.”

Goblet of Fire or Goblet of Poison?
After the filming starts, Katie said a temporary goodbye to her comfortable, rich life and dives into her role. However, as a seventeen-year-old girl soon found out the role of Cho Chang brought her displeasure and risks.

Dan Radcliffe described Katie as “pretty and cool”, while GoF’s probation doctor, Jessica, says that “she is friendly and beautiful, and talking with her is really enjoyable. The photographs we find online cannot match her true quality.” That didn’t stop many Harry Potter fans from attacking and insulting her. The wealthy girl has never had such an experience; the only reason is because she is going to play the girl Harry loves.

The Goblet of Fire is more like a Goblet of poison for Katie.

Warner Brothers Company might’ve foreseen this embarrassing situation, therefore concealed her all the time and didn’t put her on any public events nor allowed interviews or photographs.

And still, the Harry Potter fans continued their attack, especially young students. They insulted and abused Katie on the Internet, “I hate you as long as I live.” “I hate her because she’s a stupid idiot and she is going to play Cho Chang and kiss Daniel Radcliffe!” Others said that she is not pretty or made fun of her Scottish accent. And there were countless fake blogs and posers putting their own photos online – the girls that wanted to become famous using Katie as their alias.

Because of all this, forty-two-year-old Peter was very worried about his eldest daughter, “I’ve seen those websites, every one of them. When I saw ‘I hate Katie’, my entire body was shaking. This is unbelievable; Katie was only seventeen, she never had any acting experiences, other people have no idea what she has said, or done but these sites… even more unfortunately, I know Katie saw these sites too. She is under a great deal of pressure. Katie is still filming in London, and it will be a while before she returns home. Of course, she has telephoned me, but I have no idea how she is right now, Katie’s life might change forever.

“I cannot believe things would become like this. Katie told me before the producer’s consent, she hadn’t made any interviews yet, but this is progressing so fast.”

But nothing stops J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, from not having confidence in Katie. She supported Katie and insisted on having this completely unknown girl play Cho Chang, and would not use a famous actress, such as the Korean Singer BOA because she thinks Katie is a “pretty girl and more importantly, I think she is strong headed, she won’t be influenced by all the fame. She really matches up with Cho Chang, looks and age. I am anticipating her scenes with Dan.”

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