Harry Potter star who played Luna Lovegood reveals how the books helped her overcome eating disorder

‘It's very healing for me to talk about this stuff’

(Getty Images)

Evanna Lynch has spoken out about how reading the Harry Potter books helped her deal with an eating disorder prior to getting the part of Luna Lovegood in the film franchise.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the 27-year-old actor revealed she was “quite sick” prior to launching her film career.

“The books really helped me through an eating disorder,” she said.

“That's why it was so special,” she said of landing the role, “because it was the only kind of light that I saw in the world at a very dark time.”

Lynch, who is from a small village in Ireland just north of Dublin, describes getting the part as a “fairy tale” but was careful to clarify that it didn’t suddenly “cure” her from her eating disorder, as has been previously reported.

She went on to explain how complex her illness was and confessed that it upsets her the way her story has been simplified.

Lynch went on to explain that she couldn’t have gotten through doing the films had she remained unwell, describing her eating disorder as an “everyday internal fight”.

“You are constantly having to choose between the negative voice that's in your head telling you that you're terrible at everything, that you suck,” she said.

“And the then voice saying, 'No, I can be something.' That's what the work is every day. Being brave enough to say, or not brave enough, but just making the choice to say, 'I'm going to choose love.’”

Last year, the young actor and Dancing with the Stars performer went on Lorraine to mark the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

During the interview, Lynch recalled how she wrote to JK Rowling while she was in hospital for an eating disorder, prior to the films being announced.

“I was sick. I had an eating disorder at the time and I wrote to her because I felt like Harry Potter was the only thing that took my mind off it,” she told the TV host.

She explained how even then she identified with the character of Luna, who she would later play in four of the films.

“Luna especially inspired me because I think a lot of my problems were because I felt odd and felt weird and she made me see that that was okay and that was actually empowering me,” she said.

“And so I wrote to her and she wrote back and so we became friends, well pen friends, before I got the role.”