A few years ago, on a post on this very platform I exhorted us all just to #BeKind to each other. It doesn't take much thought or effort to take otherss into consideration and I recently came across and article that I found somewhat disturbing. I have moreorless lifted its content, but added my own flavour to it, so it very much reflects my own views on the matter. I didn't do a particularly deep dive on this so information is unverified, but whatever the truth the point about kindness still stands
There are a lot of fans of Harry Potter out there and they will all recognise that Draco Malfoy played by John Felton was one of the "baddies". Incidentally could just as easily have written this about Jack Gleeson who played the infamously evil King Joffery in Game of Thrones.
Jack Gleeson, probably more than Tom Felton embodied exactly what the problem is - that is (through no fault of the actor's own) when a certain obsessive group of fans over-identify with the character. Jack is not Joffery and Tom is not Draco! I think also it is both fair to say and fairly obvious that the internet seems to offer a level of anonymity, which creates a perfect playground for online trolls - petty minded sad little people who need to get a life.
Back to Tom, as with most of the actors, he was still in school when he was filming Harry Potter and at the time, many kids considered Harry Potter to be bookish and not a "cool" thing.
He openly said that he “missed months of school to come back with bright, bleached blonde hair. [he] was bullied and bullied at school for being in that film; [He] wasn’t beaten every day, but there was insults and jealousy. [He] just wanted to do things like go out to lunch with friends or, uh, ski with the cool kids, but [he] couldn’t do that…”
He was alone at school because months of filming and absences hadn't led him to make many friends. And the friends he did have at school had all grown tired of him. He would often mention what he had been doing, for example filming a scene with the late great Alan Rickman and the kids weren't interested and would just drift back into their own conversations leaving him feeling even more isolated
He also struggled with a stutter and cried constantly during filming because of the anxiety caused by his stutter. He was afraid the directors would replace him. There was a rumor circulating recently, which turned out to be false, that Tom Felton had abused a 16-year-old girl. The girl who claimed to have been abused by Tom Felton admitted she had faked it. But poor Tom had to deal with harassment and death threats, as well as tweets comparing his appearance to other actors or comparing him at 21 to how he looks now. It's disgusting.
There was also a TikTok where the user captioned it: "No celebrity has died in a while... I hope no one does, but just something" or something like that. There were some comments saying they hoped Tom Felton would literally die next. The comments section was eventually closed by the creator.
But then there were also some female fans who idolised him on TikTok. I'm sure that made him uncomfortable. There's a video clip of Tom Felton just trying to walk down the street, but he kept getting stopped by fans for autographs. He looked absolutely miserable signing a whole series of autographs for free, without any further comment or anything.
Overall, Tom Felton is a great actor, and there's nothing wrong with his looks or personality. He's a nice guy, honestly. Just leave the celebrities alone, man.
Poor guy just needs some kindness coming his way.
As always stay safe and well my friends.
