Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint (born August 24, 1988 in Harlow, England) is a British actor, best known for playing Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films. Of the three principles, he's the most similar to his character in Real Life, including the easy-going personality, the large family, and even the fear of ginormous spiders. Grint got an audition for the part of Ron by sending in a tape of himself performing a rap while dressed as his female drama teacher. Much to the disappointment of his fans (though presumably to Grint's relief), this tape has failed to turn up on the Internet.
Within the world of Harry Potter, Ron is Overshadowed by Awesome and is often thought of simply as his best friend Harry Potter's sidekick. As it happens, Grint is in a similar situation in Real Life as the media tends to ignore him in favor of Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson. However, while Ron sometimes gets touchy or jealous about his sidekick status, Grint seems to lack his character's inferiority complex. On the plus side, the situation gives him the ability to slip under the radar. After all, Radcliffe caused a stir by appearing naked in Equus, while Grint made the very mature independent film Cherrybomb (2009) to less fanfare.
His post-Potter career, like his two Potter co-stars, has found him trying several more diverse roles to avoid typecasting. He starred in Norwegian anti-war film Into The White, played Jonny, the loser manager of a hippie rock band in Moonwalkers, and appeared as Inspector Crome opposite John Malkovich as Hercule Poirot in The ABC Murders. He currently stars as Julian Pearce in the horror series Servant and can next be seen in the anthology series Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities and in the film Knock at the Cabin.
Selected Filmography:
- Harry Potter series (2001–2011) as Ron Weasley:
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part One (2010)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part Two (2011)
- Thunderpants (2002) as Alan A. Allen
- Driving Lessons (2006) as Ben Marshall
- Cherrybomb (2009) as Malachy McKinney
- Wild Target (2010) as Tony
- American Dad! (2012) as Liam (voice) (1 episode)
- Into The White (2012) as Gunner Robert Smith
- CBGB (2013) as Cheetah Chrome
- Postman Pat: The Movie (2014) as Josh (voice)
- Underdogs (2014) as Amadeo (voice, UK dub)
- Moonwalkers (2015) as Jonny Thorpe
- The ABC Murders (2018) as Inspector Crome (main role)
- Servant (2019-23) as Julian Pearce (main role)
- Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities (2022) as Walter Gilman (1 episode)
- Knock at the Cabin (2023) as Redmond
Tropes associated with Rupert Grint's roles:
- I Am Not Spock: Along with almost everyone else to act in the Harry Potter series. It might not be so bad for him, considering he and Ron are basically the same person by most accounts.
- Playing Against Type:
- Also from his early film career, playing the nerdy, Mad Scientist best friend in Thunderpants.
- A non-film example - playing a creepy, obsessed stalker in the music video for Ed Sheeran's song "Lego House". It really says something about how good an actor he is when he can play a role like that and still sell it with no dialogue to work with.
