Katie Leung Says Harry Potter Racism ‘Made Me Less Outgoing’

Katie Leung told The Guardian in a new interview that her casting as Cho Chang in the “Harry Potter” movie franchise and the ensuing racism she obtained on-line from poisonous followers “probably made me less outgoing.”

“It was overwhelming from the get-go,” Leung said about the immediate fame and subsequent bullying that resulted from becoming a member of the “Harry Potter” motion pictures beginning with 2007’s “Order of the Phoenix.” “Being in the spotlight from that age, when you’re already insecure, was difficult, to say the least. At the time, I was having a lot of fun. I thought, ‘This is different from school, and I really did not enjoy school. So it was a way to escape.’ I’m still trying to figure it out, really, how it affected me.”

Leung said she was curious about how “Harry Potter” followers have been reacting to her casting, so she determined to go surfing and hunt for suggestions. Her character, Cho Chang, is Harry’s first love curiosity. Cho joins Dumbledore’s Army in “Order of the Phoenix,” with Leung reprising the position in 2009’s “Half-Blood Prince,” 2010’s “Deathly Hallows: Part 1” and “Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”

“I don’t know if anything could have been done back then to make things better or easier,” Leung said about racist backlash. “At that age, you’re curious. I remember being very curious about what people were saying about me, and I was Googling myself. Nobody could have stopped me, because I was old enough to make up my own mind.”

“I think it just sat with me, and it affected me in ways like, ‘Oh yeah, I made that decision because people were saying this about me.’ It probably made me less outgoing,” she continued about the racism she discovered on-line about her casting. “I was very self-aware of what was coming out of my mouth. And for the longest time, I may have tried to make up for it, and overcompensate.”

Leung appeared on the “Chinese Chippy Girl” podcast in 2021 and revealed her publicists told her to disclaim that any racist backlash over her casting was occurring if she obtained requested about such issues in interviews.

“I remember them saying to me, ‘Oh, look Katie, we haven’t seen these, these websites that people are talking about. And you know, if you get asked that, just say it’s not true. Say it’s not happening,’” Leung said at the time. “And I just nodded my head. I was like, ‘Okay, okay,’ even though I had seen it myself with my own eyes. I was like, ‘Okay, yeah, I’ll just say everything’s great.’”

Leung is now on the brink of be part of another global franchise along with her position as Lady Araminta Gun in the upcoming fourth season of Netflix’s “Bridgerton.” But her mindset is now a lot different.

“I still care about the craft [of acting], I still want to do well, but I can park it once I’m done for the day and go home and live this other life,” Leung told The Guardian. “It’s more like a job for me than the be-all and end-all, which is how I felt about acting when I was in my 20s.”