Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’s Daniel Fredrick on Growing Up With Ron Weasley

Daniel Fredrick has portrayed Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway for so long that the two are almost indistinguishable. When he joins our video call from his dressing room at the Lyric Theatre, he's sucking on a lollipop he may as well have picked up at Honeydukes between shows. A self-proclaimed Ravenclaw, Fredrick's Hogwarts house is the only difference he can point to between himself and his character. The actor's sense of humor and loyalty to his loved ones shine through as he details his journey from a 10-year-old Harry Potter fan to a Cursed Child audition reader before ultimately landing the role.

What was your relationship to the Harry Potter universe before joining the production?
Very close. I always loved Harry Potter. I was 10 years old when I read the first book. I devoured it. I think I read it in a day. I feel like I grew up along with the characters because when I started reading them, that's the age that I was. I enjoyed the movies, but I was really a books kid when it came to Harry Potter. It was very special to come to the play later in life. My wife and I saw the original cast in London. We were in our late 20s and thought someday it'd be great to be a part of, as the characters are in this new phase of their life. I felt like the play did such a great job honoring the versions of these individuals as children that we loved and also being really clear-eyed and honest about who they would be in their 30s, 40s, becoming parents, getting married. All their best qualities come to the fore and also the things about their character that make them difficult to be around or make them struggle as parents or as friends.

Can you share your history with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child?
I was an audition reader for the show for six or seven years with Carnahan Casting. I was constantly coming in and being the reader for audition sessions with the kids. I was very connected to it and always thought… I had a baby face for a long time. Then I went through a pandemic and had a kid and got a lot more gray hair. [Laughs] There was one day where—it wasn't even a Ron scene—they were auditioning for Albus and I was reading Harry. Associate Director Jimmy Maize was like, "That was great. Next time something opens up, we should take a look at you for it." I was on my way to a session to be a reader when I got an email that said, "We're actually looking for a Ron for Broadway and we'd like to consider you. So you'll come in today, but all the sessions we booked you for are canceled because you'll be auditioning." It was off to the races from then.

Was Ron the character you imagined yourself playing?
I just wanted to be in the play. I would've done anything. I loved this play and I love steady work. My son was about a year old and this would tick so many boxes for us in terms of health insurance and a weekly paycheck. I was ultimately thrilled that it was Ron. I think had I been able to choose, this would've been the one that I wanted to go for, because it's such a great role. It's so much humor and so much heart. I love getting to have his connection with his wife carry him through the play, and you get to see these alternate universes where they're not together and how that affects him in the version where they are together. I can relate as a parent and a spouse. As Ron, his wife has this really busy job and he's taking care of the kids. It's easy to take things for granted. In the midst of this huge, epic spectacle, I really love getting to have Ron's journey be so much about his connection to his family.

In what other ways do you identify with Ron, and are there ways in which you differ?
After three years, maybe no. [Laughs] There's a lot of similarities, because he has a hard time letting go of what his relationship with Draco was in the past, both because of the ways in which Draco was nasty to him and the ways in which Draco was nasty to the people he loves; his best friend, his sister, his wife. It takes him a while to let go of that, and I can relate. There's things that happen, particularly if they happen to somebody who I care about, I'm like, "Oh, you're dead to me forever." And my wife is always very encouraging, like, "Maybe, let's see what happens." There's certainly more similarities than differences.

You joined in November 2023, and in November 2024, a new version of the one-part show debuted.
My first year in the show, it was about three and a half hours long, which was tough for an audience. I remember the week that we opened this new, three-hour version that we're doing now, Sonia Friedman asked, "What do you think of it?" I said—and I still believe this is true—that I think it's the better version of the one-parter. I think the storytelling is really clean and clear. There were some things that hurt to lose, but friends of mine who have seen both versions said, "I couldn't really tell."

Was it challenging to re-learn parts of the show?
It was an arduous process to get it down into this newer, shorter version. Our show does things a little bit differently than a lot of other long-running shows on Broadway, where replacements are happening throughout the life cycle. We do it all at once. In the fall, we start our re-tech process. So the folks in the show staying for the upcoming year were doing double duty, rehearsing the new show with new cast members during the day and doing the old version of the show at night. For about a month after we opened the new version, I felt like I was having a series of mini strokes as I was trying to do this new version that was similar but different enough to give you fits. It was a challenge, but so is coal mining and I'd rather be doing this.

Being from Kansas City, was it difficult to find Ron's English accent?
I always had a good ear for it growing up. My mom had an aptitude for it and showed us a lot of foreign films and English movies. I grew up hearing it. So no, that was probably the one part of it that was like, "At least I have this. At least I can sound like this." Everything else was just like, "All right, I hope this is the place where I stand and don't get lit on fire."

What was it like learning the stunts? Do you still rehearse?
For me, there's only one thing that frequently comes up where we have to rehearse. It's been long enough that it's all sort of muscle memory. But when I started, for the first two months of being in the play in front of a paying audience, it was the same thing I felt bringing a newborn home from the hospital. I don't retain any of that information. I don't remember what it felt like. I was just trying to survive and get to the point where I felt like I was an actor again and I was in scenes and I was telling a story. I think that's probably what a lot of people feel when they're replacing in a long-running show. Maybe in our building, it's a little more magnified by the fact that there's flying and wires and dementors and fire and all these things going on that, certainly when I am doing Shakespeare in the Park, are not happening.

How much of the stage magic are you privy to?
I know less about the play than I did before I was in it. I used to be so curious about it and I was like, "I got to know how they do this stuff." I'd be pressing friends in it for secrets, and I'd go back and see it and be like, "Oh, I think I know." Now I'm in it and I take it all for granted. I know how my stuff works a little better. It's all demystified, but it's also so much more accessible that you go, "Oh yeah, I keep meaning to ask how they do that."

Do you have a favorite scene?
The illusion that took my breath away the first time I saw it was when the kids take Polyjuice Potion. That just blew my mind. I said, "There's no way. I have no idea how they did it." Now I'm part of that every night and don't even think about it anymore. Illusion-wise, that's really special. My favorite scene is the scene at the top of Act 2. My favorite scene that I'm not in has to be Moaning Myrtle. Our Myrtle right now, Allie Re, is so wonderful and such a good friend. Allie and I are the two primarily comic relief characters, so we're having a lot of conversations about, "How's the audience feel? Did this work for you?" If I could jump in and be a fly on the wall for Moaning Myrtle every night, that'd be a lot of fun.

After almost three years, do you ever try different things on stage?
Constantly. Not in a huge way, but in terms of how you approach a certain scene or what state of mind you might be in, it's constantly changing. They probably wouldn't read as seismic shifts, but when you do things enough times a certain way then shift your approach a little bit, it all of a sudden feels very new. That can be a lot of fun. Especially when you have a scene partner like Rachel Christopher, who plays Hermione. Anything that one of us does, the other one's like, "Great, right there with you. You want to go this way? I'll go that way with you."

How have you, Rachel and John Skelley formed that believable onstage bond?
That's the thing—you have to do it onstage. We get tech time during the day, but you have to build the plane in the air in front of a paying crowd, which is sort of terrifying. Especially as a young actor, I'd go, "It has to be a finished product before I show it to anybody." Replacing doesn't allow for that, in a way that I ultimately have found pretty freeing. Through the rehearsal process we can get it to the point where it's safe and we know our lines. The rest of it we have to find while we're doing the play. Each relationship is going to be different. Cara Ricketts, who's brilliant, was the first Hermione that I came in with. We did get to rehearse together, so that was great. Our relationship was so different from mine and Rachel's, but both have led to what I think are really special portrayals of this Ron and Hermione relationship on stage.

Do you feel a responsibility to fans of the character?
Absolutely. When I go sign or have a conversation with somebody who's seen the show, the thing that means the most to me is when they talk about this version of Ron. When they say, "I love your Ron. It feels familiar. You are Ron." The version that is written on the page, the version that is on screen, the Jim Dale version that is in the audiobooks, there's this shared thing that we're all trying to be a part of, and everybody's is unique in its own way. But I think with something like this, you do want people to feel like, "Oh yeah, that's the guy I know." However they know the character, whatever medium they've encountered him in, you want them to feel like, "Yeah, that's him." I absolutely feel that. There is one thing in the play that I do where I really do try to go full Rupert Grint, just to have one thing in there that's kind of an homage. The rest comes from trusting that I'm super steeped in this world and in this character. I do know enough about it that I have a pretty good sense for things that are like, "That feels like him."

What do you love most about the production, and why do you think audiences keep coming back?
I think it's a very special play. It's a very special story. It's not a small thing to spend money and leave the house. And people travel; just today, people came from Mexico City, Brazil, Australia. For me, it's also not a small thing to bring people a piece of pure entertainment that has so much heart, so much humor. It's such a rich story and I think it's told in really involving ways that are so skillful from a theater-making perspective. The amount of talent and energy and brainpower that was put into designing and staging and putting this play together truly blows my mind. I have seen a lot of great stuff on Broadway. I've been going to see shows since I was 11 years old, and I've never seen anything like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. There have been so many things that I've loved as much as this show. I've never seen anything that I loved more. So I guess that's my pitch. If you want to spend your money and spend your afternoon, your evening, your three hours with us, you're going on a ride. And if you want to fight it and resist it and not go for it, that's totally fine. We can't change your mind about that. But if you come in here and you're game, you're going to have a really good time.

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