Harry Potter actor Jessie Cave has claimed she was “treated like a different species” on set after gaining weight in between films.
Cave, who portrayed Lavender Brown in the final three Harry Potter films, opened up about her experience in a new interview with The Independent.
“I gained a lot of weight after doing Harry Potter,” she said.
She continued: “I wasn’t starving myself, I was growing up and people tend to gain weight as they get older. That’s just what happens. So I did.”
“And so going back to the last film[s], I was treated like a different species.”
Cave continued on to describe the experience as “really uncomfortable” and “horrible”, explaining: “It wasn’t a time where actresses were any bigger than size eight… you get a bit bigger, or you’re not as relevant, and it goes off, and you have to make your way in the dark. I definitely felt invisible.”
“Since then, it’s definitely made me have weird issues with weight and work. And it’s just so fucked up, but it’s just how it is.”
Now working as an author, illustrator and comedian, Cave added that she feels “safer” because she changed careers.
If I’d stayed thin – unnaturally thin, unhappily thin – I would have probably got more acting roles, and then I wouldn’t have started writing,” she said.
“And then I don’t know who I would be now because writing is who I am. I’m almost grateful that I gained all that weight.”
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Check out Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:
