- Culture
- 27 Jun 17
The Irish actress has revealed how her love for the Harry Potter books helped her to cope with an eating disorder.
Evanna has bravely opened up about how she was hospitalised with an eating disorder before she was cast as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies.
Speaking on the 20th anniversary of the publication of the first Harry Potter book, Evanna recalled that before making the movies she actually wrote to J.K Rowling and the two struck up a friendship as pen pals, which helped her to deal with her eating disorder.
"I had an eating disorder at the time and I wrote to her because I felt that Harry Potter was the only thing that really took my mind off it and it was such a gift," she told ITV's chat show host Lorraine yesterday.
"And Luna especially inspired me because I think a lot of my problems were because I felt odd and felt weird and she made me see that that was okay and that was actually empowering me. And so I wrote to her and she wrote back and so we became friends, well pen friends, before I got the role."
The 25-year-old added: "I’m happy that’s all behind me. I’m grateful that happened before I became a part of the movies because that would have been difficult to deal with.
"I find those characters help me a lot and inspire me. People who are outsiders but they own it. I’m always inspired by that real originality."
You can watch the full interview here...