Shirley Henderson reveals: I was 37 when I played the 14-year-old Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter
According to the CinemaDrame News Agency, Shirley Henderson, known for her role in the Harry Potter films, has revealed that she was 37 years old when she auditioned for the 14-year-old character Moaning Myrtle. The Scottish actress, who turned 60 this week, says the creators of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets asked her not to disclose her age.
She told The Independent: “The casting director said, ‘Give it a try — but don’t say anything about your age.’ I doubted I could play a 14-year-old girl because I was in my mid-thirties at the time.”
Henderson, who had previously appeared in films such as Trainspotting and Bridget Jones’s Diary, said she initially found the idea of playing Myrtle “ridiculous”:
“I performed the short scene for them and they thanked me. A few months passed and I thought it was over, but then they contacted my agent saying they wanted to see me again — and they offered me the role… Myrtle is an adult trapped in a young person’s body, and because she’s ghostly, there’s a kind of ambiguity. You don’t really look closely at her face, so it worked.”
She added that this appearance allowed her to avoid the fame that followed many other Harry Potter actors:
“I don’t think anyone recognizes me at all.”
This year, Henderson reprised the role of Jude in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
