Before we begin, I need you to take a journey back with me. Back to the halcyon days of 2001 when the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise stretched before us with what seemed to be a never-ending promise of films every other year. During this time, a chubby young boy named Matthew Lewis was cast as Neville Longbottom aka ‘The Boy Who Might Have Been’ – an alternate reality of Harry Potter. Awwww, just look at his adorable smile!
Photo Credit: Warner Bros
After the first couple of films though it became painfully obvious the actor playing Neville was suffering from the greatest affliction that can befall an actor. The bane of looking like a normal human being instead of a flawless inhuman icon on a pedestal. Lewis suffered from the curse of appearing as if he would be right at home in a Muggle Biology classroom instead of an all-powerful wizard. Poor kid.
Photo Credit: Warner Bros
But then, something truly magical began to happen. For 99.9999% of the human race, puberty hits us like a Mack Truck. But while the rest of us were fighting off the first mild panic attacks that the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise would one day end and leave Potterheads the world over bereft, the the gods of adolescence (and the Potter producers) smiled benevolently on teenaged Lewis. He was allowed to shed the prosthetic buck teeth, grew over a foot, and was graced with a blemish free face. Things were finally coming up Millhouse Neville.
Photo Credit: Warner Bros
By the end of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ both Lewis and his character had grown from small, mousy kids into confident attractive adults. Nonplussed by this development, wardrobe put Lewis in sweaters garish enough to make Bill Cosby blush. The it worked. Audiences were tricked into believing Neville was merely cute. BUT WE WERE FOOLED. The truth was yet to come out. But now it is here.
Photo Credit: Warner Bros
Are you ready?
You might want to take a minute to prepare yourself.
Seriously.
Okay.
You sure?
Let’s do this.
…..
………
Sweet mother of mercy.
Source: Matthew Lewis’s Twitter
On December 23rd, 2013 Lewis dropped that image into selfie history. He was encouraging fans to tune in to see him join the cast of BBC Three’s ‘Bluestone 42’. There’s probably a lesson to be learned here about not judging people by their looks, or it’s what’s inside that counts, or don’t pick on the chunky kid with bad teeth in sixth grade because he’s going to show up at the ten year reunion looking like he just stepped off a romance novel cover but for the life of me, I can’t think of what it is. Instead, just enjoy.