Tom Felton’s “Beyond the Wand” Is Perfect for Spring Break
With spring break just around the corner, you might need a good book for the beach. If so, consider Tom Felton’s recent autobiography, Beyond the Wand, which debuted this past October. We recommend the audiobook since Tom Felton’s familiar voice will spark an undeniable sense of nostalgia that Harry Potter fans will love.
Credit: Penguin Random House
At about six and a half hours, Felton’s book is a reasonable beach or poolside companion. It begins with a fond foreword from Felton’s friend and former co-star, Emma Watson. Fans have wondered and speculated about the relationship between Watson and Felton – a fact she doesn’t altogether sidestep in her introductory pages (and with an entire chapter dedicated to Watson, Felton doesn’t ignore the subject either).
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From there, Felton leaps into his account of life before, during, and after the Harry Potter films. Readers will be delighted to learn that some of the bad-boy Draco appeal was inherent to the real Felton. In fact, somewhere out there, there’s a Polaroid mugshot to prove it, thanks to a shoplifting-gone-awry episode that graces his opening pages.
From there, Felton divulges intimate details about his creative, protective, and sometimes bullying older brothers (all in good fun). His father and especially his mother also played key roles in a family life that properly set the stage for a confident young acting life.
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Unlike some of his child-actor co-stars in the Harry Potter movies, Felton came into the films with notable experience. His descriptions of this phase thoroughly charm and entertain. Beyond the Wand is full of laughable accounts of his various commercial gigs, absurd auditions, and on-set encounters with famous faces (including Jodie Foster, whom Felton accidentally kicked in the face while filming).
There’s no shortage of surprises in these pages. Some of the most jolting are just day-to-day facts of his life that took place while he was becoming world-famous. For instance, he describes working as a car-parking attendant at a local fishery, despite his rising profile in the wake of his debut as Draco Malfoy. Yes, you read that right: In the early 2000s, had you gone fishing at the break of dawn at Bury Hill Fisheries in Surrey, England, a little Draco Malfoy might have parked your car for you. Bizarre!
By Chapter 8, Felton kicks off what feels like a VIP, behind-the-scenes dream tour of his early memories of the Harry Potter auditions, casting processes, and wizarding film environments. By his own account – and as luck would have it – his smirking tone, flippant attitude, and lack of preparedness might have been what made him stand out among thousands of hopefuls, rather than his acting experience.
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During one excerpt, Harry Potter film director Chris Columbus asked auditioning participants to share what they were most excited to see on screen. Felton recalled not only his own distinct boredom with the question but also a cheeky improvised reply – because he hadn’t even read the books.
That irreverent and ill-prepared attitude was exactly what Chris Columbus wanted. From there, the central focus of Felton’s autobiography shifts into his enchanting and comical accounts of life as a Harry Potter star (which is why you need this book for Spring Break).
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Felton’s window into the Wizarding World absolutely dazzles. The glimpses are at times hilarious, like an excerpt that describes how Felton ridiculously mistook a famous actor on set – Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) – for part of the film’s cleaning crew. Or a comical account of Alan Rickman as he warned his co-stars in a moment of stern frustration, “Don’t step on my f***ing cloak.” And don’t even get us started on Felton’s surreal descriptions of a cigarette-smoking, Ferrari-driving Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) – what an image. These rich, delightful middle chapters are pure gold to a Harry Potter fan.
For a book that largely charms and amuses, there are low points, too. With stark honesty, Felton discusses the loneliness, substance abuse, mental health lurches, and aimlessness that visited his post-wizarding life.
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Yet Felton examines even those periods through a uniquely optimistic lens. And he encourages his readers to think the same way:
Rather than see therapy as the emergency consequence of excess or illness, we should start to see it for what it can be: An essential opportunity to take time out from the voices in your head, the pressures of the world, and the expectations we place on ourselves.
If you bring Beyond the Wand with you for spring break, leave a comment here and tell us what you think of the book.
