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First-time actress Evanna Lynch is just perfect as Luna Lovegood, a girl who believes in faith, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

In her debut performance as Luna Lovegood, 15-year-old Evanna Lynch virtually steals many of the scenes in the movie. Playing Harry Potter’s newfound friend at Hogwarts, Lynch is soft-spoken and slightly quirky, uncannily like the character she plays.

Her performance has been described by director David Yates as being “remarkable, very believable and real”. Author J.K. Rowling has said that Lynch was perfect for the role.

Every fan’s dream: Evanna Lynch (pix below) was selected from among 15,000 girls to play Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
According to producer David Heyman, “The difference between Evanna and the other girls we interviewed for the part is, the others could play Luna; Evanna is Luna.”

Luna, says Rowling, is the anti-Hermione; she believes things on faith alone as opposed to the always-logical Hermione. Though the Lovegood family is mentioned in the fourth book, Luna only appears in The Order of the Phoenix.

An avid fan of the Potter books and movies, Lynch fell in love with the character of Luna as soon as she read book five.

“I didn’t immediately say ‘that’s me’. I never thought that actually. But she was someone whom I thought was quite perfect whom I aspired to be like. I felt I understand her thoughts and how she came to be, who she is and I felt I could do her justice,” said Lynch.

She felt so strongly about the character that she made tapes of her acting out the role and sent them to casting agents.

“I was not happy to just sit and wait for fate to take its course. My friends were great…they played Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and anyone who was needed,” said Luna in a recent interview with the online edition of New York Post.

Unfortunately, Lynch’s audition tapes amounted to naught. She did, however, write to Rowling and, believe it or not, she got a hand-written reply.

“I was overjoyed. It gave me hope. It showed me that us regular fans can connect with those elite people,” said the Irish lass.

Fast forward a few years. Lynch is no longer just “a regular fan”. Not only did she secure the part of Luna (a major role), she aced it.

From the straggly, waist-length blond hair to the slightly dazed look, the misty eyes and the slightly loopy behaviour, Lynch has got it down pat.

How did she finally land the part?

When she heard there were going to be open auditions for Luna, Lynch knew she had to try out.

“I had to go…I was meant to go,” she said.

She persuaded her father to take her (her mother was not as enthusiastic, not wanting her daughter to be disappointed) to London (from their home in Termonfeckin, southern Ireland) for the auditions.

Once there, Lynch found herself competing against 15,000 other hopefuls for the role. She was unperturbed.

“I did not think (at the auditions) whether I was going to get this part or not. I said to myself, ‘I am going to do my impression of Luna…my vision of her and I hope it matches,” Lynch told reporters at a press conference to promote the fifth movie in London recently.

Added producer David Barron, “Actually, you did say at the time, Evanna, that if we did not choose you it was not because you weren’t good but it was because we were wrong!

“Of course, you said it in the nicest possible way.”

Unfazed, Lynch said, “That’s what I meant. If you did not choose me it meant you did not understand Luna.”

Said Barron, “Fiona Weir (the casting director) met all 15,000 of the girls and eventually distilled the choices down to 29 whom she put on DVD and sent to us.

“She told us there was one girl to watch out for but she did not tell us which one. I got as far as the ninth one and rang Fiona and said, ‘It must be number nine’ and it was. It was Evanna. She was just fantastic.”

Lynch was thrilled, naturally. However, it took some time for reality to sink in.

“It was a bit unreal and daunting. You’ve been watching them for so long that you forget they are real, you know, because they seem kind of fictional.

“When I first went to the set and saw them (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint), I wanted to touch them to see if they were real,” she said.

Source: Star e-Central

The Irish star of the new Harry Potter movie says she will definitely be in the next one – but she doesn’t intend to make a career of acting.

Dozens of fans turned out to greet Evanna Lynch as she arrived at Dublin’s Savoy Cinema this evening for the premiere of ‘The Order of the Phoenix’.

The 15-year-old from Termonfeckin in County Louth said she thinks the film is ’spectacular’ but admitted she’s nervous about what her friends will think of it.

The teenager, who plays the young witch Luna Lovegood, said she always knew the part was for her.

“It wasn’t any part and it wasn’t any movie: it was Luna in a Harry Potter film, and I didn’t think, ‘oh there’s going to be thousands of people, how am I going to do it’, I just thought ‘I know Luna more than anyone could’,” she explained.

She said she hasn’t got any sneak previews of the final book in the Harry Potter series, and said she’ll be “queuing up” to buy the book when it’s released on July 21st.

Source: Belfast Telegraph

She’s gone from super fan to superstar.

Harry Potter freak Evanna Lynch, 15, steals the spotlight in her silver-screen debut as Hogwarts space cadet Luna Lovegood in the highly anticipated film “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which opens July 11.

Lynch’s spot-on portrayal of the eccentric outcast in the fifth Harry Potter flick cast a spell over the crowd at a screening last week and is sure to capture the hearts of fellow fans all over the world.

Author J.K. Rowling, who penned the absurdly popular Harry Potter series, is already impressed. On her Web site, Rowling said “there is only one possible thing to say” about the young actress: “Perfect.”

Lynch, a diehard Potter fan since age 8 who grew up in Termonfeckin, Ireland, has always had a connection with Luna, immediately loving the character when she first appeared in the book “Order of the Phoenix.”

“I loved her disarming honesty, her unassuming wisdom and her innocent purity,” Lynch told The Post. “She has no masks or insecurities. She simply is.”

Lynch, an avid fan of the Potter films who “quite enjoyed acting,” dreamed of playing Luna on the big screen.

She “was not happy to just sit and wait for date to take its course,” so she recruited some friends to play fellow Hogwarts students, made tapes of herself playing Luna, and sent them to casting agents at Warner Bros.

“In the end, the tapes came to nothing,” said the Lynch, who has waited in line for Potter books, routinely reads fan sites such as The Post’s Potter blog and has a cat named Luna. “But it is still a cool fact that we made them.”

Lynch even sent a letter to Rowling telling her how much she wanted to play Luna, but feared it would never happen because she was from a “humble village where not much happened.” She got a handwritten letter back.

“I was overjoyed,” Lynch said. “She told me that she also came from a sleepy little village, so how could that not give me hope? Of Termonfeckin, she also said, ‘At least it has a great name.’ ”

“I read that letter to death and I still do,” she said. “I carry them with me in my handbag always.”

Lynch eventually got her opportunity to try out for Luna at an open casting call – along with 15,000 other girls.

“I loved Luna as much as anyone could,” she said. “I knew that I had just as much of a chance as anyone else there.”

Lynch nailed the audition and got the part.

She said she is “extremely grateful” that Rowling, whom she got to meet in March 2006, has divulged some secrets about Luna’s future to help her play the part, but is glad she hasn’t shared too much before the last Potter book’s July 21 release.

“I wouldn’t want to know before anyone else,” she said. “I think that would be like Christmas coming early.”

Source: NY Post