“Harry Potter” Villain: Draco Stole My Childhood

Playing Draco Malfoy in the "Harry Potter" movies made Tom Felton rich, but not as happy as you might think.

It's not just that he played a villain that every kid in the world hated, it was more a case of losing his own childhood.

For "the past decade we haven’t had much freedom to do other projects," Felton told the London Daily Mail. "I ­certainly haven’t had much freedom to keep my own hair color, or lie in the sun, or do anything remotely dangerous like skiing."

The 23-year-old actor said all the money he made won't allow him to buy back being a kid.

"People keep on saying to me that the wealth and the fame must have made up for missing out on my childhood," he said. "But you will never get those years back and you can’t put a price on them."

And, he's discovered, "fame is not a positive thing," he explains. "The idea of being famous is a lot better than the reality."

He's staying with the acting thing, but it isn't easy starting over.

"My last audition was when I was 12, and now I have to put myself out there again," he said. "After my first audition in LA I nearly fainted."

He'll star in "The Apparition" sometime next  year, a horror movie in which he plays a college kid haunted by a ghost.

 Selected Reading: Daily Mail, IMDb.

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