Move over Hermione - there are three new girls vying for Harry Potter's attentions
(June 29, 2007)
Source: The Daily Mail

(...)

But it isn't his friend Hermione Granger, who has been the starring female character since the films began. Instead, it is Cho Chang, acted by beautiful Asianborn Scot Katie Leung.

Cho isn't the only new girl on the block giving Hermione competition in the glamour stakes. This time, the Hogwarts halls are filled not just with malicious Malfoys and their hangerson but with a group of girls who are clearly going to become the new Potter totty.

As well as Katie, 19, from Motherwell, who beat 5,000 hopefuls for the part of Cho, there is the Irish Evanna Lynch, 15, who appears for the first time as Harry's luminously beautiful new friend Luna Lovegood, and Bonnie Wright, 16, who has been in the movies before as Ron's sister Ginny Weasley, but is to move to a much bigger role in the sixth film as she steals Harry's heart from Cho.

"Of course we were jealous of Cho - it's hard not to be because she gets the first kiss and is a strong character. But I have to act the role of Ginny as if I don't know what's going to happen between her and Harry in the future, about the kiss Ginny gets to have with Harry. (Bonnie)

"When I read about the kiss I have with Dan later in the series, I wasn't expecting it. But I suppose I'll get a feel of what's to come when I see Katie and Dan's kiss in this film. It was a closed set so we couldn't watch." (Bonnie)

So how did Daniel and Katie get on with that first kiss?

"We wanted Dan and Katie to feel as comfortable as possible, so we made the set as intimate as we could,' says director David Yates. "Of course just outside the set there is a monitor and everyone can see what's going on.

"Kissing Katie was a comfortable experience especially when compared to being naked on stage - Katie will be relieved to know," he says. "I was slightly nervous because I knew Katie was nervous. It's not just about the kiss; it's about the complex relationship that Cho and Harry have. But we did it a few times and after that it was not a big deal, really. It was cool. We had fun." (Dan)

Katie, with the wisdom of being a few months older, seems equally selfassured. "It was certainly one of the perks of the job," she says. "We had to do around 20 takes of that scene. The crew and cast were teasing us for days beforehand, as we knew the scene was coming up, so that didn't help the awkwardness.

"We didn't do any practice kissing before. We just went for it. It's weird having a director telling you to tilt your head this way or open your mouth more when you're kissing someone, especially considering Daniel and I are friends.

"But the job had to be done and we all knew that. Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, he's a great kisser."

KATIE LEUNG - CHO CHANG

Katie 19, clinched the role of Harry's girlfriend without a single drama lesson. "I think they liked my Scottish accent," she says. "It set me apart from the other girls." Born to Chinese parents who emigrated from Hong Kong to Scotland, where they later divorced, Katie enjoyed a comfortable upbringing thanks to her father's profitable restaurant and Chinese food wholesale business. She now shares a London flat and planned to study interior design at university, but was recently tipped to play a female Chinese warrior in Mulan, a £13.2 million epic. "I want to carry on with acting," she says. "I can go to university any time; this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

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