Tom Felton has opened up about his relationship with his “brother” and former Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe.
The Draco Malfoy actor has said he always have a close bond with Daniel and praised him for “always being collaborative” on the set of the film franchise, which they first joined as children.
Speaking on US TV’s CBS Mornings, Tom gushed: “I love the man dearly.
“I don’t see him as much as I’d like to — that’s the same for all of us, really. But I consider him a brother, definitely. Huge amounts of respect for him.”
Tom went on to praise the way Daniel “brings a certain energy to any room that he’s in”.
He continued: “But it was important to me, looking back, how important his enthusiasm and his eventual professionalism runs down the ranks, if you will.
“He could’ve very much easily, I think, coasted a lot of those years. And it seemed to me, on set with him, that he was always up for bringing as much as he can to the table, always being collaborative.
“And I think he learned that the same way that I did: from the other chaps around us.”
Tom also admitted he agrees with fans who have theorised that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy “could be” two sides of the same coin.
He said: “You have one boy who has no parents, no money, no status, but he has everything that is good with the world: He has love and compassion and friends and truth and honesty.“And the other side is the slightly darker one, very powerful parents, lots of money, big house, all the toys, but also a bully and someone that can’t find a way of expressing his light, because he hasn’t been shown any his entire life.
“These are broad sweeps of the brush, but I think it’s fairly true.”
Fellow Harry Potter star Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger, recently hailed Tom as her “soulmate” and admitted she struggles to explain their relationship to people.
Writing the foreword for Tom’s new book, Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard, Emma said: “Like Tom, I always struggle to explain to people the nature of our connection and relationship.
“For more than 20 years now we’ve loved each other in a special way, and I’ve lost count of the times that people have said to me, ‘You must have drunkenly made out, just once!’ ‘You must have kissed!’ ‘There must be something!’
“But what we have is far deeper than that. It’s one of the purest loves I can think of. We’re soulmates, and we’ve always had each other’s backs. I know we always will.”