Anna Schaffer is a British model and actress who took part in a series of films about Harry Potter as a schoolgirl Romilda Wayne. She also starred in the popular soap opera Holliox for more than three years, where the bitchy girl Ruby Button played.
Biography: early years and early career
Anna Schaffer was born March 15, 1992 in London, although her parents are from South Africa. In the capital of Great Britain she grew up and lives to this day. The girl has a younger brother, Joshua. The future actress was named after the little-known Beatles song "Anna (go to him)".
Up to 16 years old, she studied at Highgate Wood School, in which great attention is paid to the development of creative abilities of students. The school is known for its dramatic productions and concert performances. At the Faculty of Music there is also training in playing various instruments.
Anna early woke up interest in the acting profession, so she was happy to take part in school productions. The future actress played her first role in a play for elementary school graduates. She appeared on stage in the image of singer Elvis Presley.
Parents supported her passion. According to Anna, they never had pressure or other methods of influencing the actions of children. On the contrary, he and his brother were taught how important it is to do what is pleasant and interesting, and not what others expect from you. And the best advice she received from mom and dad is to go through life with a smile on her face.
In high school, Miss Schaffer moved to the Camden Girls School, which specializes in music education. There, the girl honed her flute skills. At the end of her studies, she began to attend a drama club, which collaborated with the famous agency Byron's Management. Anna’s photos were placed in the agency’s acting base, and soon she was invited to a casting for the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Debut role and shooting in "Harry Potter"
Initially, Miss Schaffer auditioned for the role of Lavender Brown - a fellow student of Harry Potter and the love interest of his friend Ron Weasley. She was invited a couple of times to retest, where Anna met with film director David Yates and actor assistant Fiona Weir. But the wait for an answer dragged on for four months. The girl was sure that she had failed. And she was very surprised when they called her with an invitation to the role of another character - Romilda Wayne. It took her a split second to answer in agreement.
Anna began filming for the first time in her life in 2009. She was to play a student of Gryffindor, who persistently sought the attention of Harry Potter and tried to treat him with sweets with a love potion. Then these sweets were accidentally eaten by Ron Weasley, because of which he quarreled with his girlfriend Lavender Brown and his best friend. Harry cured him of Romilda’s love obsession by procuring an antidote from Professor Slughorn.
According to Anna, her character is still a very young, immature girl, she is too passionate about boys and is capable of crazy things to achieve her goal. The actress admitted that such behavior of Romilda is difficult for her to understand. However, Miss Schaffer found similarities with her heroine in an enthusiastic and slightly naive attitude towards life, although she was three years older than her.
Of course, before being appointed to the role of Romilda, the aspiring actress read books about Harry Potter. Her favorite part is The Prisoner of Azkaban. Anna said that she was even a little in love with Sirius Black.
Miss Shaffer has fond memories of filming Harry Potter movies. She liked the atmosphere on the site, the easy communication between the actors, in addition, she learned a lot about the creation of cinema. In total, the actress took part in three episodes of the film adaptation of the adventures of a young wizard:
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009);
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010);
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011).
Actor career
In December 2010, Anna Schaffer was approved for the role of Ruby Button in the British TV series Holliox. As with her first acting experience, she auditioned for another character - Lynn Holiday, but the creators of the series saw her as an intrigue Ruby. Her character first appeared on the screens on January 3, 2011. At the time of filming, Anna moved to Liverpool.
Holliox is a British soap opera that has been shown on Channel 4 for over 20 years (since 1995). The action takes place in a fictional city, which gave the name to the series. Spectators watch the intricacies of events, in which mainly young residents of the city aged 16-35 are involved. For many years of appearing on the screen, the cast has changed many times: the old heroes faded into the background, new characters appeared. The audience watched Ruby Button during the period 2011-2014. This girl was one of the most unloved heroes. She was distinguished by bitchiness, loved to mock others, weave intrigues. She fell in love with trials, learning problems, an attempt to use drugs and even a heart attack. In early 2014, Anna Schaffer left the TV series “Holliox”, her character briefly returned in several episodes in 2017-2018. In total, the actress has 242 episodes of this soap opera.
After the end of long filming, Anna took part in other television projects:
- “Glue” (2014);
- “Class” (2016);
- “Fearless” (2017).
In 2018, the shooting of the fantasy series “The Witcher”, based on the eponymous series of books by Andrzej Sapkowski, began. Anna Schaffer got the role of the sorceress Triss Merigold. The project is expected to be released on Netflix in 2019.
