Nymphadora: I'll tell Ulster secrets of the Potter films

News

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

By Eddie McIlwaine

Actress Natalia Tena who plays Nymphadora Tonks in the blockbuster Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix celebrates her 23rd birthday tomorrow - and signs a deal that will bring her to Belfast to meet her fans on Saturday, November 10.

Natalia, who will reprise the character in the next film in the series based on the books of JK Rowling, is to take part in a Potter festival at the Park Avenue Hotel in east Belfast.

She will be answering questions from fans about her character and her experiences on set, and signing autographs at the event organised by computer programmer Thomas Needham and make-up artist Denis Rush of UT Events.

"Natalie's character is one of the good guys," says Needham.

And next morning Natalia has to catch an early flight back to London to play Tonks once more, this time in the new production Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which will be screened in Belfast in a year's time.

Natalia - English-born with Spanish roots - got her film break when she landed the role of Ellie opposite Hugh Grant in About a Boy.

She has made numerous stage appearances in productions like Nights At The Circus.

And when the controversial sex film 9 Songs was being shot she was called in as the body double for star actress Margot Stilley.

Natalia, who will be making her first visit to Belfast, is set to appear in the film Lecture 21, the story of a musician, played by Noah Taylor, who travels to a remote mountain village - where he meets Natalia's local girl - in an attempt to better understand Beethoven's 9th symphony. Another of her co-stars is John Hurt, who plays a music professor.

Meanwhile, the Potter festival has also attracted three other actors from the films to Belfast - Paul Marc Davis, a Hogwarts ghost; Chris Rankin who has played Percy Weasley in every one of the series, and Jamie Yeates who has had the role of Marcus Flint in three films.