Harry Potter hottie: Does Freddie Stroma put you in a coma?

Freddie Stroma, the latest edition to the 'Hogwarts set' is the perfect fit for the part of Cormac McLaggen. An outspoken, self assured and dreamy Gryffindor, McLaggen, is the breakthrough star of the most current Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. In the film, Stroma plays the Quidditch rival to adorable ginger, Ron Weasley, and simultaneously poses a threat to the budding romance between the show's protagonists. According to Stroma, McLaggen is “a bit arroganct” but thanks to his public school upbringing at the prestigious Radley College, the actor found it “not too difficult” to channel his inner nob as “the accent and energy were really easy to slip into.”

It came as a bit of a shock to avid fans, myself included, that when quizzed on his Potter knowledge, Stroma decidedly came up short. The actor does not claim to be an expert on the infamous series, having impressively won the casting directors after only read three of the books: “When I heard about the audition I bought the book and researched the character so I’ve only read the first two books as a child and more recently, the sixth.”

When asked whether his fellow actors had exhibited any diva behaviour on set, Stroma thoroughly denied any real life rivalry, describing the cast as “incredibly friendly and supportive”. However, Stroma’s memories of filming are bittersweet and marked with tragedy. Shortly after production ended, Rob Knox, who played a minor part in the film, was stabbed to death in London when he attempted to protect his brother from a knifeman. As a result, Stroma has stayed in touch with many of the cast and crew members who attended the memorial and funeral together: “it was really awful and we were all really good mates with him so we’ve kept quite close. We try to make time for each other. “

The female student body at Stroma’s alma mater, University College London, were well aware of his budding fame and impressive abs for a number of years prior to the film’s release. They can rightfully claim to be his first fans, having set up the popular Facebook group, ‘Freddie Stroma puts me in a coma’, which fortunately refers to the actors' chiselled good looks rather than his acting ability. Stroma seemed humbled and flattered by the amount of attention he has already received but has already experienced some of the more worrying drawbacks of fame: “it’s quite weird, I was expecting something like this because of the fame that comes with being part of the Harry Potter films but I really wasn’t expecting to have facebook fan groups or ‘MySpace’ pages claiming to be me."

With the scripts flowing in and hot wizards looking set to trump unfashionably pale vampires as this summer's most eligable British exports, Stroma has good reason to be optimistic for the future. His studies, however, were clearly important to him and he managed to make time for his Neuroscience degree during gaps in filming.
And ladies, he’s not single, so please don't spend a better portion of the year hanging around UCL's neuroscience building. He's graduated.

Our thoughts: Stalking is for losers but there's nothing wrong with a good old fashioned bit of idol worship. We express our sincere regrets for insinuating that Rob Pattinson's current title as 'hottest cinematic mythological creature' looks set to crumble before his gold...but no, brown...but no, gold eyes.

CF