Reading this interview with Rupert Grint, you have to wonder how it's affected the lives of the actors who play the main Harry Potter characters to spend a formative decade of their lives impersonating some of the most famous literary figures of the era. Grint sounds sort of Ron-like, living at home with his folks, without definite direction, but cheerful anyway. Daniel Radcliffe's been doing very serious theater and taking on some movie work. And Emma Watson is, Hermione-like, at Brown.
I mean, obviously there's more to all of them than that. But even if they're not method actors, which I don't think any of them are, these aren't parts they've been able to discard and replace with another version of pretend after a while. They've had to keep coming back to these characters over, and over again. I have no real acting experience (I did choreograph a bunch of a production of Schoolhouse Rock, Live! once upon a time, though), but I'd be curious to hear from those of you who have. Just like I sometimes feel while I'm reading fiction that it's hard to come back to the real world, are there parts it was difficult for you to leave behind, characterizations you decided to keep after the performance was over? I tend to be curious about how we construct ourselves more generally, so the thought of having the opportunity to try on different personalities for the sake of art is something I'm interested in but can't really envision the experience of.