A masturbating baboon and a 'giggling fine': 10 things we learnt from Tom Felton's memoir.

It's a huge week for millennials who base a large part of their personality on their Hogwarts house (...so, me).

Tom Felton, a.k.a Draco Malfoy, has released a book, Beyond The Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard, documenting memorable moments from filming the franchise, his experiences as a young person who grew up in the public eye and yes, his relationship with Emma Watson.

Here are 10 interesting things we learned.

He didn't know anything about Harry Potter when he auditioned for Draco.

Felton said he approached the Harry Potter auditions with his "usual lack of overt enthusiasm", saying he "bullsh*tted" his way through an instance where director Chris Columbus asked what he was most looking forward to seeing in the films.

He believes this helped him land the role.

"They were looking for people who were these characters. With Daniel, Rupert and Emma, they nailed it. They pretty much are - or at least they were - Harry, Ron and Hermione. And while I like to think Draco and I were not exactly alike, there was surely something about my general nonchalance that caught the eye."

Felton had secret run-ins with the law as a teenager.

After the first Harry Potter film release, a 14-year-old Felton was hanging with friends at a mall when he tried to impresss others - by offering to steal an 'adult' DVD.

Doh.

"You might think, and rightly so, that with my distinct blonde hairdo I'd be well advised to avoid trouble," he says, "but teenagers don't do sensible things."

He did not succeed, and a headshot was plastered on the wall of the store. He said he was terrified that someone would find out about this and he would be fired as Draco.

In another hush-hush incident, which not even Warner Bros. found out about, Felton recalled how he was arrested for weed possession during "a typical adolescent phase".

His and Emma Watson's relationship didn't get off to the best start.

Felton recalled his early interactions with Emma Watson, which included scoffing at her for questioning a boom mic during an audition and laughing at a dance she'd put together to show the cast.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tom Felton (@t22felton)

He said that he later came to regret his early behaviour. He said he realised that Watson had the "most to deal with", as the youngest cast member and only girl.

"So the last thing she needed, in an environment that should have been — and normally was — safe and friendly and familial, was Josh [Herdman, who played Goyle] and me laughing at her dance," he explained.

"That's why I feel ashamed by the memory of our behaviour. And that's why I'm glad that our friendship did not founder on the rocks of my insensitivity."

Felton and Watson have a mutual love for each other.

For a long time, fans of Felton and Watson have speculated about 'Dramione', hoping that the real life actors behind the characters would date.

Watson long ago admitted that Felton was her first ever crush, and the pair have regularly shared photos from their catch-ups over the years, but it seems like fans will have to leave that dream behind.

"I've always had a secret love for Emma, though not perhaps in the way that people might want to hear. That isn't to say that there's never been a spark between us. There most definitely has, only at different times," Felton wrote.

He added: "I loved and admired her as a person in a way that I could never explain to anybody else... we were kindred spirits."

Watson also wrote a super sweet foreword for the book.

"You know that person in your life who makes you feel seen? That person who is somehow a witness to all that unfolds? That person who knows - really knows - what is happening to you and what you're going through, without anything having to be said? For me, that person is Tom Felton," she wrote.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emma Watson (@emmawatson)

She said their friendship had allowed her to move through some of the most challenging and soul-searching moments of her life.

"We're soulmates, and we've always had each other's back. I know we always will," she wrote. "It makes me emotional to think about it."

Felton almost quit acting after Harry Potter.

Felton recalled a period in his life after the Harry Potter films, where he considered quitting acting altogether.

He said his then-girlfriend Jade Olivia, a stunt assistant who also played his onscreen wife in the final movie, was a "driving force" for him to keep going. She helped him make audition tapes and run times, and he wrote "had it not been for her encouragement, I wouldn't have a career now".

Tim Felton and Jade Olivia in 2015. Image: Getty.

After Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Felton starred in films such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes, supernatural horror The Apparition and indie drama From the Rough opposite Taraji P. Henson.

In 2022, he made his debut on London's West End, and will star in Canyon Del Muerto alongside Val Kilmer and Abigail Breslin.

He wrote that he hoped to have a career like his on-screen father, Jason Isaacs.

"It's a goal of mine to follow in his footsteps - but don't you dare tell him I said that," he joked.

Felton developed substance abuse problems after moving to Los Angeles.

Felton recounted how he began drinking heavily and developed substance abuse problems after he moved to Los Angeles.

"It came to the point where I would think nothing of having a drink while I was working," he wrote. "I'd turn up unprepared, not the professional I wanted to be. The alcohol, though, wasn't the problem. It was the symptom."

He said the situation became so bad that his girlfriend, manager and agents staged an intervention.

"Everybody in the room had written me a letter," he recalled. "I listened to Jade and the others as they told me how concerned they were about my behaviour, about my drinking and my substance abuse. I was in no state to hear them."

He said one letter "hit the hardest". It was from his lawyer, the person in the room he "knew the least".

"My lawyer, whom I'd barely ever met face to face, spoke with quiet honesty. 'Tom,' he said, 'I don't know you very well, but you seem like a nice guy. All I want to tell you is that this is the seventeenth intervention I've been to in my career. Eleven of them are now dead. Don't be the twelfth.'"

Felton said those words  "cut through", and he entered a rehab facility in Malibu.

But less than 24 hours after checking in, Felton escaped and began walking towards a bar in LA.

He broke up with his girlfriend before entering a second facility. He was there three weeks before he was kicked out after being found in a woman's room.

"On a couple of occasions, the therapists caught me canoodling with [a woman] round the side of the building when we were pretending to put the bins out. One evening I committed the cardinal sin of sneaking into the girls' house and into her room," he recalled. "I honestly didn't have anything particularly nefarious in mind. She had been quiet at dinner and I wanted to make sure she was okay."

His stint was cut short, but he said it was enough time to be "life-changing".

Afterwards, he adopted a dog, started volunteering and moved to Venice Beach. For years, he wrote, "life was better than ever".

A few years later, he returned to rehab.

Felton wrote that a few years later, "the numbness returned, without any warning and with no particular trigger".

He decided to go to rehab again.

"I can honestly say it was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. But the very fact that I was able to admit to myself that I needed some help - and I was going to do something about it - was an important moment," he shared.

It helped him get back on track and he now wants to normalise therapy and being open about feelings and mental health.

"I am not alone in having these feelings. Just as we all experience physical ill-health at some stage in our lives, so we all experience mental ill-health too. There's no shame in that. It's not a sign of weakness. And part of the reason that I took the decision to write these pages is the hope that by sharing my experiences, I might be able to help someone else who is struggling."

"I'm no longer shy of putting my hands up and saying: I'm not okay," he wrote.

A... self-pleasuring baboon ruined one Hogwarts lesson.

Ok, now for something a little... lighter.

In one chapter, Felton recalled filming a transfiguration lesson scene for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Professor McGonagall's lesson required the use of animals, including snakes, toucans and a "rather ill-mannered baboon".

Image: Warner Bros.

Felton said the baboon began masturbating while they were in the middle of filming, "unaware of the niceties of social interaction and set etiquette" and "in particular he was unaware of what behavior is appropriate to exhibit in front of a bunch of kids".

The baboon's actions ended up ruining a number of takes.

"You can imagine the chaos that ensued each time one of us kids saw what was happening out of the corner of our eye and shouted, 'Oh my God, look at that baboon!'"

There was a 'giggling fine' on-set.

Chris Columbus directed the first two Harry Potter films, which meant dealing with a lot of children. That'd be difficult on any day, let alone when there's a masturbating baboon in the room.

So, Columbus came up with a 'red card' strategy to keep everybody on track.

"Any time one of us disturbed a take, we were given a red card," Felton wrote. "A red card meant you had to put ten pounds into a bag and, at the end of the shoot, all the money was donated to charity. It was a good plan to keep us on the straight and narrow, but it didn't always work.”

He said Rupert Grint, who played Ron, was the worst offender.

"I think he gave away over £2500 for the first two films alone, such was his inability to control himself when he giggled," Felton wrote.

That right there is big Weasley energy.

He's had some... interesting experiences with Harry Potter fans.

Felton spends a lot of time writing about his experiences with Harry Potter fans, including not just the good and the bad, but the bizarre as well - like the time a family once turned up at his school.

But he's also developed "a relationship of sorts" with others.

He wrote about how, for years, he'd noticed a British woman at any event he'd go to.

"In the early days, I thought it was pretty unhealthy... then one day, she stood outside an event for four hours simply so that she could give me a card teling me how sorry she was that my dog Timber had passed away.

"It was a kind, heartfelt, gesture and it caused me to re-evaluate my opinion of her. I eventually visited her home and learned that she never had any children of her own and in her head she had kind of adopted the Potter kids. Since I was the only one who engaged with her in anyway, she latched onto me.

"It was an unusual situation, but a reminder of the importance these stories and films have played in people's lives."

He said that often, experiences with fans were "humbling".

"I've met with fans who have explained that the books and films have helped them through hard times. It's a humbling truth to hear," he wrote.

Feature image: Getty.