Rupert Grint fantasises about disappearing: 'I would change my name, change my look' (exclusive)

Rupert Grint says he thinks it would be ‘fun’ to create a new life for himself in Spain. Perhaps forever known as Harry Potter’s Ron Weasley, Grint says he’s thought about giving it all up and forging a new identity for himself.

“There’s something quite alluring about that. I could definitely do it, it would be quite fun. I would change my name, change my look. Yeah, yeah it would be quite fun,” Grint told us.

Grint is here to talk about the second series of his show Snatch, for which he both stars in and serves as executive producer. Series two of the Guy Ritchie inspired series is set entirely in Spain, and Grint says this would be the perfect place to ‘disappear.’

“That’s where I’d go, Spain. There’s been a few times where we were filming in some quite rural villages and I thought you really could quite easily disappear.

“I might always stand out because of my pale complexion but yeah I think it would quite be fun,” he said.

But escaping avid Harry Potter fans seems an almost impossible feat, admitted Grint. Spanish fans were ‘very passionate’ and he encountered more than a few Potter themed tattoos.

“Saw a lot of tattoos, Harry Potter tattoos. Most people go for the same things. I don’t want to make it sound unoriginal but it’s almost always the Deathly Hallows triangle, the Dark Mark, the Snake thing but yeah it’s cool,” he said.

Starring alongside Luke Pasqualino, Phoebe Dynevor, Lucien Laviscount and Dougray Scott, it could be easy to presume filming on the coast of Malaga would be like being on a permanent lads holiday.

Not the case says Grint – or at least not for him.

“I’m probably the least lad. I’ve never really fitted in with the whole lad thing. But it did feel like a holiday definitely. It was just the most idyllic, beautiful location,” he said.

The second series sees the Snatch gang lose their series one fortunes and stranded in Spain – forced to go undercover and rebuild their wealth up from scratch once again.

“We get completely hijacked, lose everything kind of wash up on this beach and we have to completely start again.

“This was something important for Alex [creator Alex De Rakoff] to kind of get rid of the money as soon as he could and then for there to be a struggle. Then it all kind of kicks off and we’re soon meeting some shady characters,” Grint explained.

Snatch is loosely based on the 2000 Guy Ritchie movie of the same name, and Grint says the show has a fan from the original cast – Vinnie Jones.

“Vinnie Jones met Dougray [Dougray Scott] and told him he’d watched it and he really liked it. It’s always nice to hear that someone involved in the original film likes what you’re doing,” he said.

An undeniably gritty and darkly funny series, Grint told us why it’s a world away from Harry Potter.

“It is always interesting when you are able to work in a more adult world. And to come out of that fantasy realm as well. There’s no massive green screen or anything or dragons!

“So that is really quite refreshing. It’s always fun to have a new character. It feels very current and exciting and particularly with Snatch a very, very different world from Harry Potter,” he said.

His costar and former star of Our Girl, Luke Pasqualino said Snatch was a welcomed transition for him too.

“Our Girl was a fun show as well but it was just so different. With Our Girl the themes are much more hard-hitting, with Snatch there is a bit more of a lightness to the whole thing.

“I can play it a bit more with the comedy and it’s always nice to do something different from a job you’ve just finished. It allowed me to expand my range it was a nice transition and it came at the right time as well for me,” Pasqualino said.

As for playing gangsters, both Grint and Pasqualino said it’s something they’d always wanted to try.

“Goodfellas is my favourite film. And Sopranos is one of my favourite TV shows, both gangster themed. It’s something I’ve always been very interested in,” Pasqualino said.

“It’s quite fun to play a gangster. It’s not something I’d ever dream of doing in reality, but it’s really quite fun to put yourself in that situation. I’ve always fancied it,” Grint added.

Series two of Snatch beginsat 9pm Tuesday 9 October on AMC.

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