Evanna Lynch, the actress who played Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films, wrote a letter to JK Rowling before she had ever been cast in the film.
As we previously mentioned, she was struggling with anorexia and reached out to Rowling for help.
Rowling actually responded to the letter and it really stuck with Lynch.
And now she had really opened up about her disorder:
“When I was younger, I was about 11, I had an eating disorder. I was very tormented and, eventually I was just like, ├óΓé¼╦£I hate this, I don├óΓé¼Γäót want to be this person any more. My ├óΓé¼╦£Harry Potter├óΓé¼Γäó character Luna really inspired me, I thought, ├óΓé¼╦£I really wanna be someone like that.├óΓé¼Γäó”
She talked about how anorexia took over and really became everything that was her.
“It shaped me. I had to learn how to channel it. Those eating disorders are so much about you wanting to be perfect and be the perfect size, but I also had to learn it was a very cowardly thing to strive to be a certain shape.
What I learnt was that you could put that into creativity. You could put that fierceness, fire and ambition into something creative. It just takes a lot more guts. It├óΓé¼Γäós not certain, whereas when you are trying to lose weight it├óΓé¼Γäós certain you can keep getting smaller whereas with art, it may fail.”
So rather than using that energy to destroy herself, she used it for good!
“So it├óΓé¼Γäós definitely a braver thing to do. It├óΓé¼Γäós a good energy to have, and a good motivation.”
We’re so glad you got over your problem and that you got to play the character who inspired you to get better, Evanna!
What a truly amazing story.
[Image via WENN.]