'Harry Potter' Star Tom Felton Talks 'Iconic' Villain Draco Malfoy

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is J.K. Rowling's book of love and violence. For Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, that meant a movie filled with romantic dreaminess, unrequited love and the first tentative steps into loving relationships. But for Tom Felton, who plays nefarious student Draco Malfoy, the ongoing battle between Lord Voldemort and the Hogwarts crew meant a chance to establish his character as one of the classic villains in cinema.

When MTV News had a chance to chat with Felton at the red-carpet premiere for "Half-Blood Prince" in New York, he enumerated the characteristics of all great bad guys. "Cold eyes, I've been told," he said with a smile on his face. "A pretty pasty face. I think it's quite iconic, Draco, in the way he looks."

That'd be a platinum-blond mop on his head, ice-blue eyes staring ruthlessly at his nemesis Harry, and a seething energy barely contained within his slight frame. "I think to be evil you need an iconic look," he said. "Like a James Bond villain, with the scar or a cat. Something like that definitely helps."

Though his co-star Freddie Stroma, who makes his debut as Hogwarts student Cormac McLaggen during the film, doesn't play a villain, he does serve as a romantic adversary — and all-around arrogant jerk — in "Half-Blood Prince." "It's fun to do the comedy stuff and play that slimy, horrible guy and have [Emma Watson's Hermione] feed off it and her kind of just trying to ignore me all the time," he told us.

But McLaggen eventually receives his comeuppance, when Harry Potter himself convinces the rascal he just swallowed a "dragon's ball" during a dinner party, making him vomit all over a teacher. "I can't tell if it actually was [a dragon's ball], or it was Harry saying that just to make me feel bad," Stroma admitted. "I should probably do some more research on that — find out what I actually ate."

For his part, Felton would take a little bit of villainy over a love scene with his co-stars and longtime friends any day. "I was luckily left out of that," he laughed. "I heard it was a little bit awkward, so I was grateful not to be involved with the snogging."

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‘Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince’ Stars Get Over Kissing Qualms

'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince' Stars Get Over Kissing Qualms

Back at the turn of the millennium, they were just a bunch of kids — some with a bit of professional acting experience, most completely raw — that were fortunate and talented enough to be cast in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." The film conjured up almost $1 billion at the worldwide box office, and as "Potter" movie after "Potter" movie went into production over the years, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and the rest of the core cast essentially grew up together.

Almost a decade after their first witch-and-wizard adventure, the child actors have morphed into young adults — and the story lines have matured along with them. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (in theaters July 15), the sixth film in the franchise, presents all manner of love triangles, broken hearts and blossoming relationships. The difficult trick for the cast, though, was jumping lips-first into these romantic scenes with co-stars who had become like family.

"The snogging snuff is always a bit challenging, because they've grown up together, so when you get Bonnie [Wright, who plays Ginny Weasley] and Dan having that first snog together, it's a bit like brother and sister," director David Yates told MTV News at the movie's New York premiere on Thursday. "You've got to just encourage them to think about their characters."

"I've known her since she was 9 and I was 11," the 19-year-old Radcliffe said, adding that Wright looked gorgeous making her way down the red carpet. "So, that was kind of weird at first. But we got used to it. We got over it pretty quickly."

Wright herself saw both the good and the ugly in making out with her childhood friend. "It helps, because you've known each other and it's not just a stranger," she said. "But then it's really weird when you're having to look at someone in a different way in a scene when they're that close."

The actors won't escape the task of playing kissy-face on set just yet. The final two films — the two parts of "Deathly Hallows" — will keep the romantic elements front and center.

"I did the kiss with Emma a couple weeks ago, and it was quite strange," said Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley. "I've known Emma since she was 9 years old, and it felt a little bit wrong being that way with her. But it was over quite quickly."

While Watson also called the kiss scene "really awkward," she did compliment her partner. "He's a gentleman, and he was a great kisser," she told us.

For Yates, who's worked on the series for years, watching the actors grow up together has been one of the most captivating aspects of the entire experience. "You're seeing them develop and evolve," the director said. "In their own lives, outside the film set, they're obviously having their own experience of love and love life. I encourage them to bring that into Hogwarts and share it, to help their acting have a basis in reality."

Check out everything we've got on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

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'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince' Stars Get Over Kissing Qualms

Back at the turn of the millennium, they were just a bunch of kids — some with a bit of professional acting experience, most completely raw — that were fortunate and talented enough to be cast in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." The film conjured up almost $1 billion at the worldwide box office, and as "Potter" movie after "Potter" movie went into production over the years, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and the rest of the core cast essentially grew up together.

Almost a decade after their first witch-and-wizard adventure, the child actors have morphed into young adults — and the story lines have matured along with them. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (in theaters July 15), the sixth film in the franchise, presents all manner of love triangles, broken hearts and blossoming relationships. The difficult trick for the cast, though, was jumping lips-first into these romantic scenes with co-stars who had become like family.

"The snogging snuff is always a bit challenging, because they've grown up together, so when you get Bonnie [Wright, who plays Ginny Weasley] and Dan having that first snog together, it's a bit like brother and sister," director David Yates told MTV News at the movie's New York premiere on Thursday. "You've got to just encourage them to think about their characters."

"I've known her since she was 9 and I was 11," the 19-year-old Radcliffe said, adding that Wright looked gorgeous making her way down the red carpet. "So, that was kind of weird at first. But we got used to it. We got over it pretty quickly."

Wright herself saw both the good and the ugly in making out with her childhood friend. "It helps, because you've known each other and it's not just a stranger," she said. "But then it's really weird when you're having to look at someone in a different way in a scene when they're that close."

The actors won't escape the task of playing kissy-face on set just yet. The final two films — the two parts of "Deathly Hallows" — will keep the romantic elements front and center.

"I did the kiss with Emma a couple weeks ago, and it was quite strange," said Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley. "I've known Emma since she was 9 years old, and it felt a little bit wrong being that way with her. But it was over quite quickly."

While Watson also called the kiss scene "really awkward," she did compliment her partner. "He's a gentleman, and he was a great kisser," she told us.

For Yates, who's worked on the series for years, watching the actors grow up together has been one of the most captivating aspects of the entire experience. "You're seeing them develop and evolve," the director said. "In their own lives, outside the film set, they're obviously having their own experience of love and love life. I encourage them to bring that into Hogwarts and share it, to help their acting have a basis in reality."

Check out everything we've got on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

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'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince' Stars Talk 'Snogging' At NYC Premiere

NEW YORK — Two days after braving torrential rainstorms at the London premiere of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the stars crossed the Atlantic and were greeted by blue skies and rabid fans during the NYC premiere at the famed Ziegfeld Theatre.

Fans arrived as early as 4 a.m. to catch a glimpse of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and others, and each star made sure to greet the onlookers, signing posters and posing for pictures, before stepping in front of the flashing lights and outstretched microphones on the carpet itself.

"It's like traveling with the Beatles," director David Yates told MTV News.

The sixth film in J.K. Rowling's boy-wizard series, "Half-Blood Prince" sees the students at Hogwarts growing up and beginning to deal with romantic impulses, heated entreaties and painful rejections. For the stars, who've been working together since they were young kids on 2001's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," the need to film "snogging" scenes, as those Brits put it, made for some uncomfortable moments on the set.

"I've known Bonnie [Wright, who plays Ginny Weasley] — even though she's obviously stunningly beautiful, as you have seen tonight — I've known her since she was 9 and I was 11," Radcliffe said. "So that was kind of weird at first. But we got used to it. We got over it pretty quickly."

Watson seconded that opinion. "It was really awkward. Rupert's like my brother, so it just felt very, very strange," she admitted. "But he's a gentleman, and he was a great kisser."

Joining Radcliffe and Watson under the city lights and in the middle of the "Potter" madness were their co-stars. Wright, with her red hair swept up high and clipped in the back, spoke to us about her unnerving make-out scenes and her fantastic Quidditch matches. Freddie Stroma, making his debut in the film franchise, complimented his castmates for welcoming him into the fold. Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman and Warwick Davis also made appearances.

Other celebs coming to check out "Half-Blood Prince" included Ashanti, Lance Bass, Vanessa Williams, Chevy Chase, Diane Sawyer and Kelsey Grammer.

Check out everything we've got on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

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Hayden Panettiere Recalls Her 'Wild' High School Days

Hayden Panettiere, best known as a cheerleader-turned-superhero on "Heroes," took on yet another high school role in "I Love You, Beth Cooper," in theaters Friday (July 10). In the movie, based on a novel by the same name, dorky Buffalo Grove High School valedictorian Denis Cooverman (Paul Rust) proclaims his love for Beth Cooper during his speech at graduation and manages to get the attention of both Beth and her vindictive boyfriend in the process.

MTV News caught up with Panettiere to talk about the Chris Columbus-directed teen flick, her work as an animal-rights activist and whether she really was like Beth Cooper herself back in high school.

MTV: I'm guessing you were a fan of the book the movie's based on from the get-go?

Hayden Panettiere: I actually had never read the book.

MTV: What was it like working with author Larry Doyle, who did the screenplay as well?

Panettiere: Larry was great. He was on set all the time, and we all had fun. We were a big happy family. It's more the collaboration of him and Chris and everyone. I had less interaction with Larry when it came to the process of creating the film than others did.

MTV: Did you have a lot of input the character Beth Cooper? Was there room for improv?

Panettiere: We definitely, definitely had fun with it and put our spins on it. There wasn't a massive amount of improv or changing of dialogue or anything like that, but it was pretty great right off the bat anyway. There was not much changing that needed to be done.

MTV: Did you relate to it? How close was this to your high school experience?

Panettiere: In ways, it was very close. I had a great high school experience. I had a lot of fun, and I was wild and went crazy and was reckless, but I didn't have the traditional high school experience. I was going through home schooling. But I went to prom, and I went to homecoming, and I was in the yearbook. No crashing of cars. I went to games and all that good stuff.

MTV: What's next for you after this?

Panettiere: I'm in the fourth season of "Heroes." We just started filming, and we'll be filming for the next seven months, so that's what we're up to right now.

MTV: What can we expect in the next season of "Heroes"?

Panettiere: There's something called the Carnival that coming in that's sort of the opposite of what the Company was. There's a lot of new cool characters.

MTV: Do you have a dream project or role that you can't wait to play?

Panettiere: I mean, there's a lot of them. I've never wanted to slot myself in just one category, one certain kind of character, genre, film, so there's a lot that I'm still wanting to do and still excited to do, but I've never really tried to plan it out. I've always been more of the spontaneous type, like, I just can't wait to see what comes my way.

MTV: I've always admired your animal-rights activism [working to end commercial whaling]. What is like having the forum to communicate with people and get this message out there?

Panettiere: It's great. There's ups and downs to being in this industry and being in the public eye, and one of the great things is we get to speak out on behalf of things that we're passionate about. We're just chipping away at it, so it's going to take some time. We're going to keep on keeping on.

MTV: Do you ever see yourself going to the other side of the camera? Do you ever want to write or direct?

Panettiere: Definitely, maybe someday. Someday, when I get my fill of acting for a bit. There's a lot more to learn when it comes to becoming a director, but you have the experience of being an actor working with directors and getting to work with brilliant ones, and you get to take a lot from them.

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'Harry Potter' Sidekick Ron Weasley Has Girl Troubles

Harry Potter's two closest friends since the first installment in the series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," also share one of the saga's most strained relationships. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger may embody predestined puppy love more than any of their Hogwarts classmates, but the bombshell kiss that Ron shares with Lavender Brown in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" threatens to drive a permanent wedge between them, even as the darkest threat the series has ever seen descends on their school.

Born into one of Hogwarts' largest families, with five older brothers having enrolled there, Ronald Bilius Weasley's father was committed to the fight against Lord Voldemort as a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Both Hermione and Harry initially encountered Ron during their first-year trip on the Hogwarts Express, and though he would grow closer to both of them over the course of the series, as his immature impulses that early on sparked catty spats with Hermione also came to characterize their relationship.

Rupert Grint may have had one of the most unique entry methods into the now-famous "Harry Potter" cast. The previously inexperienced actor reportedly submitted hip-hop lyrics describing his character, which in turn earned him a screen test. The preteen freshman star was enthralled when he first saw "The Sorcerer's Stone" put together, calling the special effects "wicked" over and over again, in stark contrast to the maturing international star he has since become.

While Grint has matured, however, Ron Weasley's boyish mannerisms and shenanigans have lingered on. Even as Ron blundered, failing to impress Hermione when he invited her to the Yule Ball in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," she remained reservedly charmed by him. Her enduring patience will be tested, though, when Ron latches on to Lavender.

Even if Ron's antics have finally put him in the doghouse with Hermione, his constant screw-ups at Hogwarts have gone a long way to launch Grint's career. Easily one of the most successful acting novices to emerge from Chris Columbus' "Sorcerer's Stone" recruits, Grint earned a role shortly after his part in the first film, alongside Stephen Fry and Paul Giamatti, in the family comedy "Thunderpants." Meanwhile, between his work on two "Potter" films this year, he has still managed to appear in the U.K. release "Cherrybomb," in addition to director Jonathan Lynn's new film "Wild Target," which also features Grint's recently revealed costar in the upcoming "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," Bill Nighy.

Check out everything we've got on "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

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'Twilight' Star Peter Facinelli Oversees Buddy's Bikini Dance

HOLLYWOOD — This morning, I watched a grown man dance down Hollywood Boulevard in a string bikini, singing Beyoncй's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)." And the weird part is, I really enjoyed it.

But not nearly as much as "Twilight" star Peter Facinelli, who devised the devious dance as punishment for his friend Rob DeFranco — an entrepreneur who bet the man otherwise known as Dr. Carlisle Cullen that he couldn't get half a million followers on Twitter. With help from his 500,000 best friends, Facinelli won — and this morning, shrieking Twilighters came from far and wide to watch DeFranco shake his tail feather.

"Rob obviously lost the bet, and so here we are today," grinned Facinelli, looking around at the good-sized crowd gathered on the street corner. "We tried to take this bet and make something positive out of it, so Affliction, the clothing store, got involved and sponsored the event, and they donated $10,000 to the Christopher Reeve Foundation in honor of my Twitter followers. I wanted to show that the power of unity, even for something this silly, can actually achieve something good ... [Rob is doing] a bikini dance for everybody. I just hope we don't scar anyone's children."

At a little bit after 10 a.m., DeFranco dropped his robe to reveal a tiny bikini bottom and string top. Surrounded by female models from Affliction who held a speaker blasting Beyoncй, Rob unveiled some impressive moves — karate kicking, windmilling and even falling into the screaming crowd at one point. An overjoyed Facinelli, meanwhile, sat down on the sidewalk and looked up at curious office-workers staring out building windows at the half-naked man down below.

"I'm not gonna say that Beyoncй should have him as one of her backup dancers, but I've got to be honest: He looks good in a bikini," Peter laughed. "I think he might start a whole new trend — you might see the man-kini out there on the beaches this summer."

"I had fun, but it was a little nerve-wracking," explained DeFranco after he put his robe back on. "I had to make sure that all the bits and pieces stayed in where they needed to stay."

"Rob's been trapped in his hotel room for about a week, learning Beyoncй's moves," Facinelli said of his friend. "I think he could have spent a month more and probably still wouldn't have gotten it right — but he tried really hard. And he even threw in a windmill, which I think almost took out some little kid's eye."

Luckily for the young "Twilight" fan, Dr. Cullen was available for emergencies. "Thankfully, I play a doctor on television and in movies," joked the star, who also is a castmember on "Nurse Jackie." "I was there on the scene, and the little girl was fine."

And if the fans are wondering what it would take to get Peter himself into a bikini, Peter revealed that he'd be willing to do it — if the Twilighters really flex their numbers.

"10 million followers," laughed Facinelli, possibly regretting his statement as soon as he said it. "If I get 10 million followers on Twitter, I will dance in a bikini."

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