Why Tom Felton Links His Childhood Bullying to James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger

Tom Felton has lived a weirdly split life: ruthless Slytherin on screen, regular kid off it. And the two collided in ways you might not expect.

School bullying, bleach-blond hair, and a Terminator joke

While he was playing Draco Malfoy across eight Harry Potter films, Felton kept showing up to school after long absences with freshly bleached, unmistakably Malfoy hair. As he tells it (in comments shared through IMDb), that combo — months away for filming and then returning with bright blond hair — made him a target. It was not daily beatdowns, but there was plenty of name-calling and jealousy.

He also admits that, as a kid, he did not think Potter was the cool gig. He cracked a joke comparing his wand-waving franchise to the James Cameron/Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi juggernaut — and yeah, to a 12-year-old, a shotgun-toting cyborg probably beats Herbology every time.

"You have to bear in mind that Harry Potter wasn't cool. I wasn't part of the Terminator franchise."

That take has softened with time — both series carved out huge fanbases and live in wildly different lanes — but it tracks for where his head was back then.

The Emma Watson moment he still regrets

Felton was 12 and Emma Watson was 9 when they started Sorcerer's Stone. In his memoir, Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard (as shared by Insider), he writes about one early cast moment that still makes him wince: Watson put together a little dance for friends in her dressing room. He and another castmate (Josh) went in smirking, kept snickering through her performance, and upset her. Felton calls it a dumb, awkward, teenage move — not malicious, just thoughtless.

He apologized, she accepted, and he gives her credit for carrying the heaviest load from the youngest age. The set was supposed to be a safe, family-like space, and the last thing she needed was a couple of older boys laughing at her. They stayed good friends, but he admits the memory still makes him feel ashamed.

• Who: Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy across all 8 Potter films)
• What he faced: School teasing for missing months of classes and returning with bright blond hair; not daily fights, but constant name-calling and jealousy
• His kid-brain take: Thought Harry Potter wasn't cool compared to the Cameron/Schwarzenegger Terminator movies
• The quote: "You have to bear in mind that Harry Potter wasn't cool. I wasn't part of the Terminator franchise."
• The regret: At 12, he laughed at 9-year-old Emma Watson's dressing-room dance; he apologized and she forgave him; he still feels bad about it
• Source context: Comments surfaced via IMDb; the memoir account is from Beyond the Wand (shared by Insider)
• Where to watch: The Harry Potter films are streaming on Max in the US