‘Looking like Draco Malfoy made my life a living hell’

‘Yeah,’ said Harry, ‘but you, unlike me, are a git’

Bristol bristol tab Draco Malfoy Harry potter lookalike national noad selfie student the tab bristol Tom Felton university of bristol

As young children we all grew up with the Harry Potter books and everybody loved them.

Gus, though, hated them.

He put up with people going on about polyjuice potions, flying cars and other nonsense. It didn’t really affect him.

However, the moment they chose a young British actor called Tom Felton to play Draco Malfoy, it would change his life forever.

Too much polyjuice potion?

Since the day a friend mentioned to him that he looked like Malfoy, it stuck like a panicked first year caught in Devil’s Snare.

As the films continued more and more people mistook Gus for the aforementioned anti-hero/dickweed, Draco Malfoy.

Gus told us: “Strangers throw random incantations at me, and want me to pose for pictures with them all the time.

“My own appearance meant every time I talked to someone when I was growing up, we ended up talking about a book I hated.”

It was a colossal pain in the wand.

Can you tell the difference?

Having a famous celebrity lookalike doesn’t seem like a problem at first. Saying it sucks is about as reasonable as Dumbledore bestowing the weight of an entire civilisation’s hopes and dreams on an infant with a scar.

Gus himself even admitted it comes in handy sometimes. He told us: “I’ve used it as a pulling tactic on nights out.

“Just throw out ‘I must have had some Felix Felicis, because I’m going to get lucky’ or even ‘I think you won’t last 10 minutes in first. Father disagrees. He thinks you won’t last five!’ and for some reason more people are attracted to Draco than you think.”

Despite this, he says it’s still a curse. From a young age Gus was labelled as the slimy kid in Slytherin, with bleach blond hair and a face even Hermione would punch. It’s now a permanent nickname in his job, daily life and even sports.

“This doppelgänger has haunted me, and will continue to for years to come.

“As the winey kid in the franchise, his most quotable line is ‘I’m telling father’. Hell he couldn’t even kill (REDACTED FOR SPOILERS)!

Behind that smile, he’s dying on the inside

 

“Draco isn’t even included in the usual list of attractive characters, he’s one of the oddly attractive ones only weirdos pick.

“Not like I’m bitter or anything.”

Perhaps the most difficult thing for Gus has been how his looks make it completely impossible to have a normal night out.

“Nights out are a weird ritual for me. I will always get asked, several times a night, ‘Has anyone ever told you, you look like Draco Malfoy?’ to which I then grumble ‘Yes’.

I can’t even…

“It’s weirdest when strangers hug me without asking, saying ‘ahhh…. well done Draco…. well done’ with an embrace as cold as a dementor”.

He continued: “I’m always compared to an attractive Hollywood star with fame, money, and all the chambers of secrets he can open. When people realise it’s me, the normal non-famous one, there’s always a glimmer of disappointment in their eyes which haunts me. It really does suck.

“If you’re out there Tom Felton and you read this, please get plastic surgery.”