Interview: HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD National Tour's Emmet Smith

Emmet Smith stars as Albus Potter, Harry Potter’s middle son and the play’s protagonist, in the national tour of HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD. A recent Northwestern University graduate, Emmet shared his background with the iconic HARRY POTTER universe, his experience as a theater student at Northwestern and his ties to the Chicago theater community, and some of his favorites from the series. 

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What can audiences expect from the tour?

They can expect the magic of HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD as it exists. The funny thing about it is that it’s a tour, but we sit down in these cities for so long that we feel like we’re part of the theater fabric of the cities. 95% of the illusions [from the original West End and Broadway productions] are intact, and the other 5% we’ve found new or more exciting ways to do things. Our director John Tiffany took time away from the play since directing the original West End and Broadway productions...the original production team came back and reworked and retooled this play [for the tour]. There’s been an opportunity to get some things right. Not that they have been wrong, but theater is an ongoing, iterative process. The fact that the creative team has been able to return and figure some things out has been really cool for us.

It’s so rare to have a company with both veterans who have done the play before and newbies like me who have a fresh perspective and the original creative team. That convergence of experiences has allowed us to dig so deep into the heart of the play and the way that it works. When we were just doing table work and starting working on the magic, that part was already there and baked in. 

What’s your history with the HARRY POTTER series?

I was not the biggest Potterhead, but it’s part of the cultural zeitgeist. It’s like STAR WARS and HARRY POTTER. It is not just our American context, but our international, generational context. It’s been really cool to dig deeper and revisit the books and movies. I reread and rewatched everything. Reading it in my twenties there’s a lot of deeply adult, heavy stuff in there. And it has not all been processed.  We get to process some of that trauma and that unworked story and that’s a new adventure in this play. It’s cool that the biggest Potterheads geek out over all the references, but people who are not Potterheads are able to access it as a new story and be introduced to the characters with us. The way that we’ve taken to the Wizarding World transcends and lives in us all. 

I know you went to Northwestern. What are you most looking forward to doing while you’re back here in Chicago? 

I get to go up to campus in a couple weeks and talk to some theater students there which is really, really cool for me. That’s exactly what happened with Alex Weisman, [Interviewer’s Note: A Chicago actor and Emmet’s fellow Northwestern University graduate who performed in HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD on Broadway as an ensemble member and understudy for Scorpius Malfoy] when I was at school. I had seen the play. I found out it was coming to the U.S. when I was in high school. I asked for tickets for Christmas and got to see the original cast. The original Ablus is this guy named Sam Clemmett, and he looks a lot like me. And everyone was telling me “You look a lot like this guy...” and I was like, “That's so funny because that’s my dream job.”

My sophomore year at Northwestern, Alex Weisman came to Melissa Foster’s voice class that I was in. He talked about the experience [of being in CURSED CHILD on Broadway] and lifted the lid on what was possible for a Wildcat to do after school. I know alumni at your school can go do amazing things, but it’s another thing to have someone coming in and tell you it’s possible.

Right after I graduated I decided to audition for the play, and I asked Alex to coach me. And I ended up booking it two years later. And now I’m here in Chicago where it all started. To go back to school and pay that forward is really exciting to me. 

And not just for theater artists who want to go and be an actor, but to give so many young people who love this play that love and attention has been so fulfilling so far. The show brings so many people out. Not just theater kids but also Potterheads and first time theatergoers. I keep hearing at the stage door from people that it’s their first play. It’s this constantly refilling well because of the audience. It’s the best job I’ve ever had by a ridiculous landslide. 

The Northwestern tie is so meaningful. It’s a degree in Theater but more than acting...David Caitlin [Interviewer’s Note: a founding ensemble member at Lookingglass Theatre and Northwestern University professor] was my acting teacher. But it was more of a theater creation class than an acting class. The training I got there is not just like Meisner and acting but in theatrical inventiveness and play is entirely the reason that I’m here. HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD comes out of a shared tradition of theatrical inventiveness and play and imagination. It’s stuff we would do in Caitlin’s acting class. Taking a suitcase and making it float or become a train or a gravestone. This very Chicago notion that anything is possible when you lean in and harness the audience’s imagination. 

The original concept of the magic in the show was something that kids could recreate at home. That same idea of creating trains out of suitcases and mimicking the Polyjuice Potion using mom’s oversized coat. And while we’ve moved away from that, I think why people come to the theater instead of watching a film with CGI and special effects is because it requires the imagination of the audience and the actors to lean into those possibilities and make anything possible. It’s also a self-contained story, which is beautiful and makes it accessible to so many more people. 

Favorite HARRY POTTER book?
GOBLET OF FIRE 

Favorite character?

Neville or Luna 

What’s your Hogwarts House?

Ravenclaw

What do you think your best subject would be?

Wand lore, even though Albus is not so good at the wand stuff. Or Divination. I love that stuff. I’m getting more in touch with my inner eye. I’m learning my creative inner self. 

What are you ordering off the trolley on the Hogwarts Express? 

I don’t eat sugar, much like Ginny Potter doesn’t let the kids eat sweets. I love an Every-Flavored Bean. I love the novelty and surprise of it. I kinda like the grass one. 

If you had the power to make one spell from HARRY POTTER real, what would you pick? 

I would say Scourgify because I don’t really like cleaning.

If you could play any other role in the show, what would it be?

Trolley Witch

Describe HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD in three words. 

Choices, friendship, and trains 

See Emmet Smith perform as Albus Potter in the Broadway In Chicago engagement of the HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD national tour through February 1, 2025. Visit broadwayinchicago.com for tickets.

Production Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy

Headshot courtesy of Broadway In Chicago 

Interview edited for length and clarity

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