Katie Leung Says Racist Backlash Over ‘Harry Potter’ Casting as Cho Chang ‘Probably Made Me Less Outgoing’

Katie Leung told The Guardian in a new interview that her casting as Cho Chang in the “Harry Potter” film franchise and the resulting racism she received online from toxic fans “probably made me less outgoing.”

“It was overwhelming from the get-go,” Leung said about the instant fame and subsequent bullying that resulted from joining the “Harry Potter” movies starting with 2007’s “Order of the Phoenix.” “Being in the spotlight from that age, when you’re already insecure, was difficult, to say the least. At the time, I was having a lot of fun. I thought, ‘This is different from school, and I really did not enjoy school. So it was a way to escape.’ I’m still trying to figure it out, really, how it affected me.”

Leung said she was curious about how “Harry Potter” fans were reacting to her casting, so she decided to go online and hunt for feedback. Her character, Cho Chang, is Harry’s first love interest. Cho joins Dumbledore’s Army in “Order of the Phoenix,” with Leung reprising the role in 2009’s “Half-Blood Prince,” 2010’s “Deathly Hallows: Part 1” and “Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”

“I don’t know if anything could have been done back then to make things better or easier,” Leung said about racist backlash. “At that age, you’re curious. I remember being very curious about what people were saying about me, and I was Googling myself. Nobody could have stopped me, because I was old enough to make up my own mind.”

“I think it just sat with me, and it affected me in ways like, ‘Oh yeah, I made that decision because people were saying this about me.’ It probably made me less outgoing,” she continued about the racism she found online about her casting. “I was very self-aware of what was coming out of my mouth. And for the longest time, I may have tried to make up for it, and overcompensate.”

Leung appeared on the “Chinese Chippy Girl” podcast in 2021 and revealed her publicists told her to deny that any racist backlash over her casting was happening if she got asked about such matters in interviews.

“I remember them saying to me, ‘Oh, look Katie, we haven’t seen these, these websites that people are talking about. And you know, if you get asked that, just say it’s not true. Say it’s not happening,’” Leung said at the time. “And I just nodded my head. I was like, ‘Okay, okay,’ even though I had seen it myself with my own eyes. I was like, ‘Okay, yeah, I’ll just say everything’s great.’”

Leung is now getting ready to join another global franchise with her role as Lady Araminta Gun in the upcoming fourth season of Netflix’s “Bridgerton.” But her mindset is now much different.

“I still care about the craft [of acting], I still want to do well, but I can park it once I’m done for the day and go home and live this other life,” Leung told The Guardian. “It’s more like a job for me than the be-all and end-all, which is how I felt about acting when I was in my 20s.”