She admits to having a crush on Rupert Grint

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everyone’s under the spell of new harry potter starlet Jessie cave

totally wizard‘i think Rupert [Grint] is a little scared of me,’ says 22-year-old quirky blonde actress Jessie cave, who plays lovesick lavender brown in the latest harry potter film. the envy of teenage girls, the starlet gets a lot of jealous mail because she spent last year ‘psychotically bouncing around the harry potter set, trying to kiss Ron’. a london girl (she went to latymer School and studied illustration at kingston university), Jessie was at first happier offstage than on. ‘i wanted to be a stage manager, but while working backstage at [South london’s] unicorn theatre i secretly auditioned and then got an agent.’ She’s never looked back. her first screen role was as the face of a nokia advert: ‘they only chose me because i was wearing bright clothes. i dress eccentrically.’ She certainly does – she’ll be shunning couture for something homemade at the premiere of harry potter and the half-blood prince.

before being asked to audition for harry potter, she landed a bit part as a water nymph in the film inkheart with dame helen mirren and paul bettany – ‘one day paul came on set. we were pretty much half-naked and soaking wet!’ – and spent a summer filming the award-winning bbc docudrama series Summerhill. ‘we are huge harry potter fans at home, so it meant a lot. for the final audition i was kitted out in hogwarts uniform and driven in a golf-buggy to the Gryffindor common room. i had to improvise in front of a room full of people with Rupert and a paper biscuit for half an hour.’

Jessie is now a full member of the potter gang. She tells stories of joking around with daniel Radcliffe and mixing with the cream of british actors: maggie Smith, Jim broadbent, alan Rickman and michael Gambon. ‘Someone on set said, “look, you’re opposite three oscars and a bafta!”’ She went to emma watson’s birthday party. ‘it was so embarrassing,’ she giggles. ‘i was wearing heels that were too big for me.’ and then she couldn’t find automat.

next is her stage debut as the precocious thomasina in tom Stoppard’s arcadia at the duke of york’s theatre in the west end. Stoppard is in the theatre most days. ‘oh my God, i love him,’ she gushes. he has even inspired her to write a play.

Set to be in the final potter film, Jessie is also currently single – but admits to having a crush on Rupert Grint. ‘i thought there might be a link there,’ Jessie says. ‘who knows, maybe in the future!’ we’ll have to wait and see. bel trewharry potter and the half-blood prince is released on 15 July.

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