Unlike his big-screen alter ego in the Harry Potter films, Rupert Grint isn’t much of a wizard. The only thing he’s been able to make disappear is his schoolwork.

“There was nothing really there for me at school, except for art,” says Grint, who plays Harry’s best friend, Ron Weasley, once again in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. “That was the only thing I really had any sort of enthusiasm for.

“I didn’t do that well on my exams, and I was filming at the time, so it was gonna be a lot to deal with - the tutoring and the filming - so I just thought, ‘I can’t be bothered. I’m just gonna stick to the filming.’ And I haven’t really looked back.”

Grint, who will turn 19 on Aug. 24, quit school “as soon as I was legally allowed to leave” (at 16). He knows that young actors are often held up as role models, but he says he had to do what was best for him.

“I’m not very academic really,” he said by phone from London. “I just thought it was the best decision. I could always go back and do an A level or something; it’s not the end for education. But I’ve just been enjoying the freedom really.”

Not that the Potter series has given him much free time. Grint and castmates Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, and Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger, spent February through December 2006 filming the fifth Potter movie, Order of the Phoenix, which debuted in theaters on Wednesday.

When the three young actors were cast in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone seven years ago, Grint was probably the biggest fan among the three of J.K. Rowling’s books about Harry, the Muggle-reared young wizard, and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Grint - who, despite his aversion to schoolwork, will dive eagerly into one of Rowling’s 800-page novels - says he’s still excited about the books.

“When they first came out, I was really into them,” he said. “Now I’m really looking forward to the seventh book. It should be good.”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, due in stores July 21, is Rowling’s final Potter tale.

“As we do more, they just seem to be really good fun,” says Grint. “And this was a really good one.”

Grint appreciated the more grown-up nature of Order of the Phoenix, especially as it helped his character evolve.

“He’s a lot more mature now, I think,” said Grint, who has been able to fit only two other films, Driving Lessons and Thunderpants, into his schedule. “He’s gotten rid of the awkward stage that he was going through in the fourth one where he was a bit jealous and all over the place.”

The epic Harry Potter books can never make it intact to the screen. Grint was most disappointed that the school’s high-flying sport, Quidditch, was left out of the new film.

“But it’s such a big book, and it’s got so much stuff in it, it’s really hard to get everything in, so I can understand it,” he said.

[Betsy Pickle || 13 July 2007, Scripps Howard News Service || Original article found here]