One year ago, we told you that British actor Paapa Essiedu was in final talks to portray the legendary anti-hero Severus Snape in HBO’s highly-anticipated TV adaptation of “Harry Potter.” At the time of his casting, fans were swift to express their covert racism and displeasure over the fact that Essidu looked nothing like how the character is described in the book and would thusly be switching up the role.
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Now, the star is calling it out in a new, lengthy interview with the London Times published over the weekend. If you’ll remember, immediately after Essiedu’s name was called for the Snape character, we questioned how hard it might be for Hollywood to turn someone as attractive as Essiedu into Snape, who was talented but not known for his good looks.
In the books and films, Snape, a professor at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was a 30-something, unattractive professor who had “greasy black hair, cold black eyes, sallow skin, a large, hooked nose, yellow and uneven teeth.” Snape was also an infamous bully and anti-hero who held thoughts and beliefs and performed behaviors equivalent to that of a Wizard KKK member, which further makes this casting such a confusing choice.
But according to Essiedu, this show is a challenge he’s more than down to accept, but he admitted that the vitriol he’s been subjected to has reached a dramatic point.
“I’ve been told, ‘Quit or I’ll murder you,” he told the Times. “The reality is that if I look at Instagram I will see somebody saying, ‘I’m going to come to your house and kill you.’ So while I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be murdered—that could age badly! But, yes, while I hope I’ll be OK, nobody should have to encounter this for doing their job.”
He continued: “Many people put their lives on the line in their work. I’m playing a wizard in ‘Harry Potter.”‘And I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t affect me emotionally.”
But while the backlash may be having somewhat of a negative emotional toll, Essiedu explained that he’s metabolizing it and turning into fuel in order to do a good job in the role.
“The abuse fuels me and makes me more passionate about making this character my own, because I think of how I felt as a kid,” he shared. “I would imagine myself at Hogwarts on broomsticks, and the idea that a kid like me can see themselves represented in that world? That’s motivation to not be intimidated by someone saying they’d rather I died instead of doing work I’m going to be really proud of.”
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