Harry Potter’s Grint takes adult role in Snatch
PASADENA, California — Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley, Harry Potter’s best pal in the Harry Potter films, is all grown up. And he’s walking on the wild side as the hoodlum Charlie in Crackle’s new series, Snatch.
“It is a much more adult project,” says Grint, 28. “It’s just kind of a natural progression, I think, as I’ve gotten older and moved past, [it’s] more kind of grown-up and more kind of edgy. I would still say it’s got kind of family elements to the show.”
In Canada, Snatch will be shown on CraveTV, starting April 7.
Snatch is an updated and rakish take on the movie of the same name. It’s based on a real-life gold bullion heist by a group of young hooligans who find themselves in deep water when they get involved with organized crime.
Though these characters are constantly on the con, deep down they’re just good lads gone bad, says Grint. “What it is with these characters, they’re all kind of with Charlie, they’re all trying to escape something, particularly from their home life. They come from quite complicated home foundations. With Charlie, he has these kind of bohemian, hippie parents that have these weird sex parties and grow weed. So he’s always trying to escape that ...
“And, obviously, when we get the gold, it kind of changes things. We’re just small-time scoundrels and find ourselves in some really deep, deep trouble that could have some lethal consequences. And it’s interesting how the characters kind of deal with it in their different ways,” he says.
It sounds like gritty neo-realism, but executive producer Alex De Rakoff says that’s way off-target.
“You look at Snatch, the original film, you have a lot of characters that are much larger-than-life and of all nationalities, and I want to take that and infuse our show with that,” he says. “I think what is really interesting, is we take all these irreverent, interesting kind of diverse and dynamic characters, and there’s a lot of hustles and a lot of scams, a lot of action and a lot of energy, but you get to know them and you get to see them in relationships and with each other and what it’s like to be young and figure s— out as you go.
“And I feel that’s something that separates the show from other stuff that’s on television right now . ... So realism certainly wasn’t the top of my agenda.”
The series also features Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl, Wicked City) as a Miami-born Cuban. The 29-year-old who hails from Hertfordshire, England, says he had to scramble to manage the dialect.
“I spent a fair bit of time kind of looking for different people who I was based on. I settled on Pitbull, the rapper. I don’t know if I actually end up sounding like him, but it felt like a good fit,” he says.
Made in England with a mostly British cast and crew, the series sports a different vibe from the movie, says De Rakoff. If it had been made in America, he says the characters would be much more heavily armed.