Grint's a grower

by BAZ BAMIGBOYE, Daily Mail

Last updated at 10:56 14 July 2006


Jeremy Brock took some comfort watching Rupert Grint, best known as Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies, play his first lead role in a film.

To start with, Mr Brock wrote and directed the film, Driving Lessons, and in a sense, he was watching a little bit of himself.

The film stars Mr Grint, Julie Walters and Laura Linney. A lot of it was shot in North London and some in Scotland.

'It's about a rite of passage, a boy who grows up, out of shyness and into self-confidence,' Mr Brock told me.

He confesed 'that boy is me overcoming my shyness'.

Slivers of Driving Lessons' story are autobiographical, but a lot is pure fiction.

Mr Grint's character befriends a veteran actress (Ms Walters). They become friends and her home becomes a refuge for the young man because his mother, played by Ms Linney, is a bit of a horror.

In real life, Mr Brock did live in the basement of Peggy Ashcroft's posh Hampstead home and, as in the film, his father was a vicar.

'Peggy let me dream of being a writer. I don't think I had the confidence to think like that before I met her,' Brock told me.

Well, he grew up to write Judi Dench's Oscar-nominated role Mrs Brown and other movies, so it must have worked.

Driving Lessons will be screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival next month and goes on release in September.

Most watched News videos