Name | Appearance | Character | Family | Heritage | Childhood | Education | Dislikes | Food | Girls | Driving Lessons | Travels
Name
- Rupert’s parents picked his name (Rupert) out of a hat! Among several other names they put in a hat— “Rupert” was the first name they pulled out.
- His name (Rupert) is of Germanic origin and means “bright fame”. His name Alexander means “the leader”, Lloyd stands for “grey/wise”.
Appearance
- Rupert is a natural redhead.
- he has been called ‘ginger’ and ‘ginge’ and ‘carrot–top’ and said he’s been mildly teased about his hair.
- his great-grandfather used to call him ‘copper knob’ or ‘Ginge’.
- he likes his hair because it got him the role of Ron Weasley.
- he stated that Warner Brothers “pretty much owns” his hair.
- he is proud to be ginger, and even prouder to made “being ginger cool!”
Character
- Rupert considers himself as very laid back
- he admits that he is not massively confident.
- he enjoys not having a high-profile.
- he considers himself to be very thoughtful and not very selfish
- he uses the words ‘cool,’ ‘sort of’ and ‘wicked’ very much.
- he says he doesn’t really take things seriously, which is why he likes to play a funny character like Ron.
- he like his main character Ron, Rupert “likes a laugh.”
- he would choose John Heder to play him in a movie version of his life.
- he would choose to be a Formula 1 (race car) driver – if he could trade places with anyone in the world for one day.
- when asked how much money in his wallet is at the moment, he replied “I don’t even have a wallet on me now.”
- when he was asked to fill in the blank: “When I was 17, I was ____________” – his answer was “Filming and learning to drive.”
Family
- Rupert lives with his family.
- he says his family is quite close, and he is closest to all his siblings.
- he spends Christmas together with his family (eating and opening presents) – he takes time to personally find a special gift for each member of his family.
- he claims his family is not too religious.
- he says his family is very supportive of him, treats him “normally” and keeps him “grounded.”
- he describes his parents as “pretty easygoing.”
- his Dad (Nigel) once ran a motorcar racing memorabilia company, which sells Formula-1 memorabilia, while his mom looks after the family.
- his dad accompanies him on his tours and events.
- he often brings one or more family members/siblings (and even friends, sometimes) to movie premieres and various other events.
- he claimed that his nan did not approve of all the swearing in his movie Driving Lessons and when he was asked about Cherrybomb he said: “Thankfully she has not seen it yet!”
- he says his brother (James) is bigger than him so, just like his character Ron, he occasionally does get “hand-me-down” clothes too – but is quick to add/joke that, fortunately, none are as bad as Weasley clothes.
- he still has arguments with his brother.
- when his youngest sister Charlotte was only 3 years old, she thought that the magic in the first Harry Potter film was real – but fortunately, hasn’t asked Rupert to do any magic.
- he says that life in such a big family can get “hairy” – but that he and his siblings do not fight so much now that they’re all growing older.
- he says that he absolutely loves rally and racing but is not as a brave as his brother who is racing regularly.
- in 2009 it was reported that Rupert purchased two country mansions, and also owns a third house.
- in September he paid 5.4 million pounds to acquire an 18th-century, Hertfordshire manor house on 22 acres. The mansion includes five reception rooms, six bedroom suites, two cottages and a pool dot the grounds.
- he bought a house for his parents/family after the 2nd Harry Potter movie.
Heritage
- Rupert’s grandmother is half-Irish.
- he claims that he does not have Scottish blood, though he looks like a Scot.
Childhood
- Rupert wanted to be an ice-cream man when he grew up.
- he had a collection of yoyos when he was young
- his favorite Simpsons character is Bart because he “kinda reminds me of Fred and George”.
- he got a unicycle for his 14th birthday and learned to ride it.
- he considers his childhood good, but not normal.
Education
- Rupert went to a Catholic primary school.
- he went to Richard Hale School, an all boys-school in his hometown.
- he likes to draw and did well in art.
- he did some animation in art class.
- he also liked chemistry.
- he took German as his foreign language in school.
- he can speak a bit of German, such as numbers and short phrases, and always enjoyed learning it.
- he has always been interested in drama, and took part in school plays.
- he did not enjoy school and found it hard to balance school and filming.
- he was sometimes unable to do his homework and his professors weren’t happy about it.
- he said that being in Harry Potter did not give him any special treatment at school.
- he had to revise/review for his GCSEs while making the third Harry Potter movie (Prisoner of Azkaban).
- he had several hours of detention when he returned to school, after he finished shooting the third Harry Potter movie (Prisoner of Azkaban) in 2004, because he had not done his schoolwork.
- he said he would like to be invisible so he could sneak out of detention at school.
- he preferred tutoring to regular school since, as he said, he was never top-of-the-class — and with tutoring there were fewer distractions.
- he took his GCSE exams between PoA and GoF (May/June 2004) at Richard Hale, Hertford.
- he chose to finish school after he completed his GCSEs at the age of 16, and did not wish to pursue further schooling in order to focus on his role in the Harry Potter films.
- he thinks that he can return to school if he needs/wants to, later.
Dislikes
- Rupert hates spiders (just like Ron).
- he claimed that he as a child he also was afraid of the dark.
Food
- Rupert once claimed that he is not the healthiest eater – he does not like vegetables.
- he is not much of a cook (can make himself a bowl of cereal though).
- he likes Hawaiian pizza because it is filling, easy to cook or heat up, and he can just order one in if he is feeling really lazy.
- he went on a haggis fest in Scotland, had haggis and tatties, haggis soup and, weirdly, haggis pizza.
- he has his own ice-cream van, and has become quite a connoisseur of his favourite dessert, Mr Whippy
- he enjoyed an authentic Japanese meal while being in Kyoto
Girls
- the girl fashion trend that confuses him most are leggings – thinks they are insane and said his 3 sisters wear them in bright colors.
- he has kissed a girl off-screen but currently has no girlfriend.
- he likes a girl with a sense of humour.
- he said that he has lots of friends who are girls, and is holding out for a girl who “likes him for himself.”
- he has no problem about dating a fan.
- he says that he is quite savvy when it comes to understanding girls because he has a lot of sisters so it helps him a little bit!
Driving Lessons
- Rupert took driving lessons from a school of motoring – his Dad said he is a good driver.
- he failed his driving test on his first attempt (3-point turn).
- he was embarrassed by how many lessons he had to take for his driving lessons.
- he says that he thinks he got his driving genes from his Dad (who is a bad driver) not from his Mom (who is a good driver).
- he wishes people would take more notice of learner drivers.
- he passed his driving test in the fall of 2006, his 2nd attempt.
- he wishes the speed limits were higher.
Travels
- Known places/countries he has visited on vacation with his family are: New England in 2005, Portugal (Algarve) in 2006, Disneyland-Paris, Switzerland, and just recently— Lanzarote-Canary Islands in Spain.
- when he was in Portugal, he only went to the beach one day because he is not used to the sun, but thought that the sea was “awesome”.
- when he and his family were on vacation in Switzerland – it was not very snowy and they did not get to ski.
- he enjoyed his visit to Tokyo with his family where he visited the traditional japanese area of Kyoto.
- he has attended official Harry Potter premieres in Japan, France, Canada, and New York/Los Angeles in the USA.
- he attended a Harry Potter Movie Marathon in Rome, Italy with James and Oliver Phelps in March 2006.
- he did a long tour promoting his movie “Driving Lessons” in America in 2006.
- he did an entire North American promotional tour on his own for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Cities included New York and Toronto Canada.
- he thinks America would be a good place to live but thinks he would miss his family.
