The actor who portrayed Dudley Dursley is the latest from the Harry Potter series to experience a remarkable transformation.
It has been 25 years since the cherished fantasy film series debuted in theaters, featuring a very young Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and many other child actors for the first time.
We were also introduced to 10-year-old Harry Melling, who played Dudley Dursley, Harry’s overweight and cruel cousin, famously throwing a fit over his 36 birthday gifts.
From the 2001 inception, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, we watched Harry Melling grow alongside his fellow cast members, continuing through the first part of the series finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
Though the 36-year-old hasn’t been completely out of the spotlight over the past 15 years, he is making a significant comeback in a BDSM gay romantic film drama with Alexander Skarsgård. Fans are abuzz over his new appearance.
The trailer, hinting at intense sexual tension between the characters played by Melling and Skarsgård and featuring plenty of biker leather, has left many fans surprised — and hot under the collar — to realize the connection to the now ‘unrecognizable’ Dursley.
“Dudley omg,” one social media user commented. “Good for you.”
Another said: “I saw the trailer for Pillion for the first time last night and imagine my shock when I learned that guy is Dudley from Harry Potter.”
A third person recognized him only as the chess player from The Queen’s Gambit: “Now I’m impressed he’s actually English and was in fact Dudley from Harry Potter.”
Even as fans eagerly anticipate Pillion as a dom-com movie before its February release next year, it might come as a surprise that Melling didn’t need to stay overweight for his role as Dudley.
In truth, he underwent a significant transformation during his time filming the Harry Potter series.
In 2009, he lost substantial weight, sparking discussions of recasting him for the latest installment. However, Melling instead wore a fat suit to continue portraying his role.
After shedding an impressive five stone (70lbs) between the fifth and seventh films, Melling told The Telegraph at the time: “They did this double-take, ‘Oh my God, we are going to have to do something,’ and I felt very guilty.
“They could have recast, but instead they padded me out.”
He continued: “I can now shed the child actor thing, like the fat, and start a new career, because no one sees me as Dudley.”
And he did start anew – after trying his hand at playwriting with his one-man show Peddling in 2014, he secured significant roles and worked with Hollywood legends, including Liam Neeson in The Ballard of Buster Scruggs in 2018.
Melling also appeared in two Netflix successes in 2020: the thriller The Devil All The Time and as the Kentucky-based chess player, Harry Beltik, inThe Queen’s Gambit.
Additionally, he portrayed Edgar Allan Poe in The Pale Blue Eye in 2022 alongside Christian Bale and worked with Denzel Washington in the 2021 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Macbeth.
While Pillion began captivating audiences in the UK on November 28, US viewers will have to wait until February 6.