Game of Thrones Star You Didn't Realize Was in Harry Potter
Michelle Fairley was a star as the matriarchal Catelyn Stark in Game of Thrones – even though she was not originally cast in the role. Indeed, Fairley only got the part after Jennifer Ehle had to turn down the role due to family reasons.
While Catelyn probably had a little too much confidence in her own political nous (she failed to put her foot down when Robert proposed Sansa marry Joffrey – and set the ball in motion for the end of the Starks when she released Jaime Lannister), she was nonetheless a formidable woman.
And the actor played a similarly daunting yet flawed character in the hit UK show Gangs of London in which she played Marian Wallace.
But did you know Fairley also made a brief appearance in the Harry Potter movie series?
In 2010, a year before she first appeared as Catelyn Stark in GoT, she featured in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 as Mrs Granger – the mother of Hermione.
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In an emotional scene in the film, before leaving home Hermione uses the Obliviate spell on her parents to protect them from Lord Voldemort.
She has just two lines in the film "Hermione! Tea's ready, darling" and "Mm. It's wonderful isn't it," and her face got all four seconds on screen. Indeed, the back of her head had just about as much screen time as the front of it. But she's just one more major star that got in the Hogwarts action.
And she wasn't the only actor to make the leap from the wizarding world to Westeros. London-born Natalie Tena starred as Nymphadora Tonks and featured in four Harry Potter Movies; Order of the Phoenix, the Half-Blood Prince, and parts 1 and 2 of the Deathly Hallows, before going on to play Osha in Game of Thrones.
Tena was also cast as Lana Pierce in YouTube Premium sci-fi drama origin – where she starred alongside fellow Harry Potter alumnus Tom Felton ( Draco Malfoy).
While Michelle Fairley earned her role in Harry Potter after an acting career that had already spanned four decades, Natalie Tena made her on-screen debut in the 2002 movie About a Boy and landed her part in Game of Thrones just five years later.
Both have also starred on stage in several productions. And both have gone onto some pretty major roles since leaving Game of Thrones.