Rupert Grint talks uncertainty after ‘Harry Potter’ and his current phase

The New York Times

Rupert Grint, 33, covered his left eye with his hand and tried to read the top lines. “E, D, F, C, E, F,” he said slowly. “Almost!” replied Marilyn Blumengold, a saleswoman at Moscot, an eyewear store on New York’s Lower East Side.

This happened on a recent snowy afternoon. Grint, who is currently filming the fourth season of “Servant,” an Apple TV+ horror series, had come to town for a weekend off from his temporary residence in Philadelphia, intending to do some sightseeing. and maybe get an eye exam. He had noticed a blur in his vision with his right eye.

But Moscot, which has been operating for more than 100 years, didn’t have an optometrist on call on Sundays, so Grint improvised his exam, positioning himself about twenty feet from an eye exam table at the back of the store. “Near-perfect vision,” said Blumengold, in an encouraging tone.

Satisfied for the time being, Grint turned his attention to choosing an eyeglass frame, walking shyly through the store in an unassuming manner, not asking the salespeople for help but accepting it when offered.

“I’m a very private, introverted person,” he said. Grint was making his visit to the store wearing a black Issey Miyake suit that a stylist had chosen for the expedition. “Weird pajamas,” he defined the suit. “To my surprise, it looks good on me.” His red hair fell over some of the frames.

Grint looked confused. “There are so many choices,” he said, surveying the shelves filled with frames. Then he repeated the statement. “It’s very ‘Harry Potter,'” he added spontaneously. “How to choose a wand”.

It’s a subject Grint is sure to know about. He starred as Ron Weasley in the eight films in the “Harry Potter” series. (Ron’s wand? Willow, with a unicorn hair core.) Blumengold maybe knew this, maybe not. At one point, she indicated a pair of round black glasses, a $300 model called Zolman, which looked very “Potteresque.” “No,” Grint replied politely.

When the film series ended, Grint was worried that he might not get work as an adult actor. He knew how to play Ron, Harry’s brave but eager friend. But he didn’t know if he was capable of playing any other characters. “I certainly came to question whether it wasn’t too late to choose something else,” he said.

Grint bought a pink and white ice cream truck, which he drove to his family’s North London home on the last day of filming. For a while he thought that this might be a good job.

But after taking a year off, he decided to try a comeback as an actor. Many scripts similar to “Potter” had been sent to him in that period — always for the role of best friend — but he preferred to await offers from more complex, more adult characters. He worked on a Jez Butterworth play, learning to enjoy the discipline of theater, and debuted in “Snatch,” a crime comedy series, on the Crackle streaming service.

His most significant work after “Harry Potter” was in “Servant,” a series created by M. Night Shyamalan, a dark Apple TV+ drama about a couple who hire a nanny to care for a baby who is actually a therapy doll. . (The real baby died in an accident.) Grint plays Julian, the baby’s demanding uncle. “The topic is quite difficult, especially if you have a young child,” said Grint.

Midway through the series, in the second quarter of 2020, Grint’s partner, actress Georgia Groome, gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Wednesday G. Grint. “Having a daughter in the midst of that story certainly made me understand how painful losing a baby can be,” he said.

Wednesday turned him into something of a hypochondriac, he added. (Working on a show in which such terrible things happen to people in almost every episode — self-mutilation, self-harm, being buried alive — probably didn’t help.) “That’s why I wanted to get an eye exam,” he said. “I’m slowly becoming aware of how many pieces there are in a body.”

The final episode of season three will air on March 25, but Grint has already started filming the show’s fourth and final season. And no, he doesn’t know what the final plot twist will be. “It’s exciting to work like this,” he said. (It must be. He’s already signed on for “Knock at the Cabin,” Shyamalan’s next film.)

Blumengold started by showing him a classic Moscot model, the Lemtosh, an oval acetate frame with a 1950s look. Many of the frames have Yiddish names, although “Lemtosh” only seems to come from that language. Grint looked confused as he looked in the mirror. “Change your appearance,” he said. “Change your personality”. For what, he wasn’t sure. But he felt he was already seeing a little better. “Very good,” said Blumengold. “Very cute”.

Then he tried on a dozen more acetate frames, alternating between rounded models like the Genug (“quite” in Yiddish) and Frankie, and rectangular ones like the Kitzel (“tickle”) and Shindig, a retro unisex model. Most frames cost around $300. “I have a hard time making decisions,” he said. “Choosing is a big responsibility.”

After 40 minutes, he decided on the Yukel (“jester”) model, with thick tortoiseshell-style frames on top and thin metal frames on the bottom.

Blumengold created a consumer profile and added it to Grint’s file, in case he ever needs glasses. He can call the store, forward the test results and order the glasses.

But Grint didn’t want to leave empty-handed, so he decided to pick out a pair of sunglasses. After flirting with Boychick (a Yiddish term for a small boy), he returned to the Lemtosh, complete with brown acetate frames and dark brown lenses. After all, Grint is now a grown man.

While waiting for Blumengold to pack, he went outside for a quick puff of his electronic cigarette. Upon returning, she gave him a cleaning cloth for his glasses. “That’s going to be your last Yiddish word for the day,” the saleswoman said. “Shmatte, a rag”.