The Scottish actor recently spoke about experiencing racist attacks while she had a starring role in the fantasy franchise.
Katie Leung, who played the role of Cho Chang in the 'Harry Potter' universe, has broken her silence about having to remain silent while she experienced racism online.
The 33-year-old, who was 16 when she first appeared on screen in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix', says that publicists told her to deny any ill will made towards her in the role as Harry's love interest.
Speaking on the 'Chinese Chippy Girl' podcast, she spoke of finding a "hate site" which was full of internet trolls.
She said: "I was Googling myself at one point, and I was on this website, which was kind of dedicated to 'Harry Potter' fandom. I remember reading all the comments. And yeah, it was a lot of racist sh*t."
The response from her publicists at the time was to ignore it. Entertainment Weekly reached out to a Warner Bros. rep to see if it was a publicist provided by the film studios, but they failed to comment.
Katie recalled: "I remember them saying to me, 'Oh, look, Katie, we haven't seen these, these websites that people are talking about. And you know, if you get asked that, just say it's not true, say it's not happening'.
"And I just nodded my head. I was like, 'Okay, okay,' even though I had seen it myself with my own eyes. I was like, 'Okay, yeah, I'll just say everything's great'."
Looking back on it now, Katie Leung says she wishes she spoke out about how she felt during that time. While grateful to have had the starring role, she admits "I keep saying, like, 'Oh I wish I'd maybe said something'."
Since appearing in the final four 'Harry Potter' movies, Katie has had roles in a number of TV and film productions. In 2018, she starred in the Amazon Prime series 'White Dragon'. Her most recent appearance is in the newest Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor move, 'Locked Down'.
