Neville Longbottom actor Matthew Lewis says he finds watching his 'Harry Potter' performance 'painful'

• In an interview with the New York Times, Neville Longbottom actor Matthew Lewis said he sometimes finds his performance in "Harry Potter" too "painful" to watch.

• Lewis said he finds it "difficult" when too much of himself comes through in a character, and that when he watches "Harry Potter," he thinks: "that's not Neville; that's you."

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Matthew Lewis said that he finds his performance as Neville Longbottom in the "Harry Potter" movies "painful" to watch as he sees too much of himself in the awkward Gryffindor student.

In an interview with the New York Times, Lewis was promoting his new PBS series "All Creatures Great and Small," and told the publication he doesn't like playing characters similar to himself.

"I find it quite difficult when too much of me starts to come through in a character. It's easier when I can play someone completely different, like a police officer in London or someone who's wealthy," Lewis said, before addressing the character that launched him into the film industry: Neville Longbottom.

"At times it's painful how much of me there is in Neville. When I'm watching, I'm like, 'that's not Neville; that's you.'"

Lewis started out as the lovable but clumsy Neville, but has matured since into something of a hearthrob, culminating in this role as the lead love interest in "All Creatures Great and Small" and best summarized when he was the cover star of Attitude Magazine in 2015.

In the NYT interview, "Harry Potter" director David Yates spoke about Lewis' transformation during the saga as he grew up.

Yates said: "Matthew was very much a supporting player when I arrived to direct 'Order of the Phoenix.' But he became more confident, more curious, more present as the films progressed. And more ambitious."

Lewis isn't the only actor to reevaluate their time on the "Harry Potter" movies as Draco Malfoy actor Tom Felton recently rewatched all eight movies in December live on Instagram.

Felton grew emotional as soon as he started watching the first movie, and had to tell himself to "keep it together" throughout the viewing as he began to tear up.

Meanwhile, Ron Weasley himself, Rupert Grint, also cast his mind back to his time on "Potter" when he recently said he developed a "bad reputation" when he couldn't stop laughing while shooting Dumbledore's funeral scene in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

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