Random Fandom

When I was younger I stuck pictures of my favourite bands on my school books. I had a crush on then famous tennis player Mark Phillipoussis and Boy Band singer Taylor Hanson. I had posters of Leonardo DiCaprio on my walls and would sometimes wish that I could see him for real but that was the extent of my fandom. Not to say that I don't still have the odd moment where I think "god Ben Mendelsohn is so very very sexy!" but the reality is he could be a real arse in person and I don't pretend to be mates with him (he might with me, but then why wouldn't he?! :P) So i have to admit to my absolute shock and amazement at the fan crazies (sorry I know that is rude but I am struggling with what else to call them!) that surrounded the recent Harry Potter installment. We all expect that the three leads are going to get some degree of full on attention and I think they seem to handle it pretty well, I did not expect the level of fandom surrounding the other actors, nor did I expect the level of passion with which they address this appreciation. It is frightening! Youtube is a myriad of scary slideshows devoted to nearly every character and the actors who play them admitting undying love to the actors who portray these side running characters. I dare you to type "Fred Weasley" into youtube and just trail through the frightening array of devoted love interests that James Phelps (the young guy who plays Fred) can proudly skite of. I had no idea who he was till this little foray into fan world and now I'm just impressed with how normal he seems and even more impressed with the young fans that can tell him and his twin so readily apart. I've become so fascinated that I found myself "following" some of them on twitter, purely to see if the fans were on there too (they are! The Phelps Twins have more followers than Kristin Chenoweth which is just weird!).

So here's my question to the ether or anyone who answers, how do you shake that expectation of a fictional character as an actor? I mean it's one thing for Harry Potter to shake the label, but what about the Neville Longbottoms, Luna Lovegoods and Weasely twins? Do they also live forever in the shadow of a minor character, or will their fans follow them from project to project? And secondly, what do these actors have to maintain in order to stay in favour? I imagine you have to try and be pretty interesting if you know that thousands of fans are reading your twitter comments daily. It all seems rather exhausting really don't you think? Who knows, maybe it's just bizarre because at the ripe old age of 23 I really can't be arsed making slide shows or maybe it's just a genuine hope that we are actually all the same and their normality will shine through...or maybe I'm just so wrapped up in my on world I've no space to dream....gosh thats depressing...certainly hope thats not the reason :)