Evanna Lynch wrote ‘Harry Potter’ fan fiction before getting cast as Luna Lovegood

• Evanna Lynch recently said she wrote “Harry Potter” fan fiction before she was cast as Luna.
• She was a superfan of the franchise and “stalked” her fellow actors online before joining the cast.
• Lynch was picked out of thousands at an open casting call for Luna Lovegood.
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

“Harry Potter” star Evanna Lynch was a superfan of the fantasy franchise long before she was cast as Luna Lovegood in the fifth film. 

On Friday, she reunited with her “Harry Potter” castmates James and Oliver Phelps, who played Fred and George Weasley, on an episode of their “Normal Not Normal” podcast.

Lynch told the brothers that prior to being cast as Luna, she was an avid visitor on Mugglenet, a popular “Harry Potter” fan site, where she dabbled in reading and writing fan fiction.

Lynch is a self-proclaimed ‘Harry Potter’ superfan 

On Mugglenet, she read forums and followed along with the creation of the movies with the huge community of fans online. Lynch even said she contributed to the fandom. 

"I actually did get into fan fiction for a little bit ... Who was I writing about? I was probably writing about Luna ... I was definitely a big part of the community," she said. 

During the interview, Lynch said that after reading the first "Harry Potter" book when she was 8 years old, she was totally enthralled with the fantastical story and relatable characters. 

"I got utterly obsessed," the actress said. "... It just took over my whole identity. I loved it so much." 

She said she also plastered her bedroom walls with "Harry Potter" posters.

She was picked to play Luna from a group of thousands of fellow auditioners 

Lynch also recalled her whirlwind audition story on the "Normal Not Normal" podcast.

After writing directly to the production team asking if she could play Luna, she saw on Mugglenet that they were holding an open casting call in London.

She was one of the thousands of 13- to 16-year-old girls who showed up to the audition, and after waiting for hours, she got in front of the casting director.

In the end, she was singled out and chosen for the part of Luna Lovegood. 

Once she was on set, she found it hard to shake her fangirl past

Once Lynch was cast in the fifth movie, she said she "felt like a bit of a traitor" for knowing all the "secrets" and having to keep them from this online community.

She said she also felt starstruck by her coworkers.

She told the Phelps twins that she didn't know how to act around all the stars when she got to the set for the first time.

"I was stalking everyone," Lynch said. "... When people would be like 'How are you? What do you like?' I'd be like, 'You.'"

In addition to feeling weird about knowing so much about the actors' personal lives from years of following them from afar, Lynch said she often felt "inferior" on set. 

The second part of her "Normal Not Normal" interview is set to be released this week. 

Read More:

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• Tom Felton pointed out that his real-life grandpa is in the 1st 'Harry Potter' movie
• THEN AND NOW: The cast of the 'Harry Potter' films 19 years later
• 11 things the 'Harry Potter' cast loved about making the films, and 8 things they hated