'Harry Potter' star recalls first day at shooting: 'I was terrified'

Harry Potter star Matthew Lewis took a trip down memory lane and shared exciting details about his first day at shooting. 

In a new chat with People Magazine, the 34-year-old acting sensation looked back when he shot his first scene while playing the role of Neville Longbottom, aged 11, in JK Rowling’s blockbuster fantasy movie series. 

Reflecting on his hilarious attempt to ride a broomstick in 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Matthew said, "I was terrified because the scene was all about Neville,” adding, “and it was literally just a broomstick that they sat me on and strapped me to."

He also addressed, "Then what they'd done is they'd stuck it on a crane, and then put the crane on the back of a pickup truck, and then just drove the pickup truck around in circles in Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, and filmed it. “

“Then they had these contraptions — like a medieval trebuchet — and one had the broomstick on it, and it would just rotate like a corkscrew. Again, I was strapped to it. My poor stuntman [David Holmes] was as well," the actor continued to recall.

Later, he assured fans that all the safety precautions were being taken by the crew at that time as well noting, "I think they were just making it up as they went along [early on]."

"Then as the years went on, it all got very cool. As the films went on, they got much more sophisticated," he stated with a laugh after which he expressed amusement over the movie’s legacy and claimed, "It means so much to people” to date.