• Shirley Henderson was 36 when she portrayed 14-year-old ghost Moaning Myrtle in 2002's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and techniques.
• The actress says a casting director for the movie informed her, "Don't point out your age."
• Henderson remembered going to the audition dressed as a schoolgirl and pondering, "That is ridiculous."

Moaning Myrtle is the epitome of uncomfortable hormonal adolescence — however she wasn't performed by a young person.

Shirley Henderson lately mirrored on enjoying the aggressive younger ghost in 2002's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as a 36-year-old.

"The casting director mentioned, 'Go for it — and don't point out your age,'" Henderson recalled in a current interview with The Independent. She in the end did "a wee little bit of moaning" through the audition, and impressed the filmmakers sufficient to land the function of the ill-fated Ravenclaw spirit.

Henderson informed the outlet that her life didn't change a lot after the discharge of the second movie within the wizarding franchise. "I don't assume anyone acknowledged me in any respect," she mentioned.

The actress — who had already appeared in notable movies like Trainspotting, Topsy-Turvy, and Bridget Jones' Diary by the point Chamber of Secrets and techniques got here alongside — additionally detailed her Hogwarts expertise in a current interview with the Radio Times.

"Once I was first requested for an audition, I didn't know who Harry Potter was," she recalled. "However my sister, who was staying with me, had learn the books. Nonetheless, I wasn't satisfied I might play a 14-year-old lady as a result of I used to be in my 30s on the time."

Henderson defined that she mentioned the chance with a casting director for the movie, who mentioned, "I haven't informed them your age." So to be able to look the half, she offered herself as a a lot youthful performer whereas studying for the function.

"I went to the audition dressed as a schoolgirl — white shirt, black skirt, ponytail — pondering, 'That is ridiculous,'" she remembered. "I did my wee bit for them they usually thanked me. Months glided by and I assumed that was it, however then they phoned my agent, requested to see me once more, and supplied me the half."

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Henderson thinks the age hole between herself and her character can partly be justified by Myrtle's ghostly nature — the character canonically died in 1943 and has been haunting the second-floor toilet for half a century by the point Harry enrolls.

"Myrtle is an previous particular person in a youngster's physique and since she's ghosty, there's a form of mistiness," the actress mentioned. "You're not wanting intently at my face, so we might get away with it."

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Henderson went on to behave in movies like Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, Bong Joon-ho's Okja, Danny Boyle's sequel T2 Trainspotting, and Joe Wright's Anna Karenina. She additionally received a Laurence Olivier Award for Greatest Actress in a Musical for her 2018 flip in The Lady from the North Nation, and obtained a Scotland BAFTA for Greatest Actress for her work in Southcliffe.

The actress additionally returned to play Myrtle in 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fireplace and later made a particular look on the TV competitors sequence Harry Potter: Hogwarts Match of Homes.

Henderson can subsequent be seen within the British TV sequence Summerwater. She additionally lately lent her voice to Pixar's Elio and acted in Brian Cox's function directorial debut, Glenrothan, which premiered on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition.

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