Rupert Grint Harry Potter 7.2 Promo ShoIt’s certainly no easy task to follow on from 11 years playing such a pivotal role in one of the biggest and highest grossing movie franchises of all time. However for Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter series, it’s been something of an enlivening, reinvigorating experience post-Potter, as the young actor continues to tackle an eclectic range of projects, now starring in Postman Pat: The Movie.

“I quite like variety and doing something different each time,” he told us. “The decisions are just based on good scripts and the people involved. It’s fun doing new things, and I’m just learning a lot. Although I was on Potter for all those years, you felt like you were in a bubble, those films were so unique I don’t think I’ll ever experience that scale and budget again. So it’s fun to do it on a smaller scale, and I find it much more intimate and it’s good. I’m enjoying it.”

Of the three lead roles from Potter, Grint has certainly been the least active when compared to Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, yet he explains that he’s merely biding his time, as the 25-year-old is deliberately slowing down after such an intensive experience. “The more you do the more confident you get, and I guess that’s a natural thing. But I’m in no rush, I like taking things quite slow. I like living a bit. 11 years we were working solidly and it was nice to just slow down and take it easy.”

One role that did evidently lure him in, was Postman Pat’s debut endeavour on the big screen, and Grint tells us that he accepted this particular part prior to having even seen the script. “Postman Pat was a big part of my childhood, and it was one of my favourite shows,” he said. “I said yes to this before I’d even read the script, it was an easy decision. It’s a real honour to be a part of it.

“I used to absolutely love Postman Pat, it’s quite surreal. But it’s a very different Pat to the one I knew, these aren’t the wooden, stop-motion puppets, this is a modern, computer generated animation. Which is good, that Postman Pat has moved into the 21st century, it’s cool.”

Pat has been on television now for over 30 years, and has somehow managed to maintain that appeal to generations of different children. Now, as we build up towards his debut feature film, Grint explains what it is about Postman Pat that is just so special.

“It’s quite unique for a character to have that longevity, I mean, he’s still on TV now. For me, it was the fact he was just a regular guy. It was an achievable goal, you could become a postman. Making a hero out of that was really cool. Fireman Sam, too.”

In many cases, actors may be put off starring in films of this ilk, as they come with pre-established, expectant audiences, and children can be the most ruthless of critics. However having been in Harry Potter, Grint has become somewhat immune to such pressure. “I remember in the early Potter films, it was daunting because these books are so loved, and everyone had their own idea of the characters, so I felt some pressure there. But after a while, for me anyway, I blended in to the character and I didn’t think about it. It’s a pressure, but you’ve just got to put your own thing on it, and enjoy it.”

However, despite being in the industry now for well over a decade, the actor admits that he still struggles to watch himself on screen. “I’m not very good at watching films I’m in. I find that difficult. Animation I’m okay, so it’s good to enjoy it. It’s something that has got increasingly worse, some films I haven’t ever seen. I don’t know what it is, it’s just a bit weird watching yourself.”

Postman Pat: The Movie is out in cinemas now.