Tom Felton looks back: “I had a nice car, a house in Los Angeles. You're told they make you happy - they don't

Born in Surrey in 1987, actor Tom Felton is best known for his role as peroxide-blonde villain Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. Before scoring his major role in the fantasy franchise at the age of 12, he appeared in The Borrowers and Anna and the King. He then starred in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, released five EPs, and recently appeared on stage in 2:22: A Ghost Story. Her memoir, Beyond the Wand, is now available.

This is me, eight years old and in Malaysia shooting my second film, Anna and the King. As the only English-speaking child on set, I would have been bored, which is why my mother, who was my chaperone, bought me the book The Art of Getting Even. I have three older brothers, so this was a search for my return home. Not that I would have put any of this into practice, but you can tell from the smile on my face that I enjoyed thinking about it.

Jodie Foster was playing my mother. Instead of knowing her handiwork — I had watched Terminator 2 when I was five, but mom drew the line at Silence of the Lambs — I was just a fan of Jodie as a person. Not just for his play, but his patience while working with so many animals and children.

Growing up, I was the runt of the pack - or "maggot", as my brothers affectionately called me. Being around older people made me confident, but I was still quite naïve and extremely cheeky, which is kind of cute for a while but can turn into arrogance as you get older. Still, it came in handy when I went to my first Potter audition.

In the queue, I was bored. It was very different from the auditions I had done before – which had been: in and out. It was a whole nation of kids who were big fans of the book and wanted to give it a try. Hundreds of us were lined up and asked which part of the book we were most looking forward to seeing in the movie. Each of them had an enthusiastic response, like "Quidditch!", though I had no idea what they were talking about, since I hadn't read the book. What was Hogwarts? I decided to steal the line from the kid next to me – pretty badly, apparently, because the director looked at me like, “Uh-huh, do you really want to see Gringotts? A bank?” Still, that arrogance might have helped me land the role of Draco.

Although I originally auditioned for the role of Potter, Draco is the best role I could have had because he's such a slimy asshole and so different from who I am He's an only child with a huge sense of entitlement and shitty parents Though we never got over him , we certainly weren't rich. My mum was very supportive of my latest fad: if I wanted to be a footballer for United, she'd give me the kit, then she'd get me a new one when I changed to Chelsea in the year I wanted to be a yo-yo master, a fiddler, and an ice hockey player; my mom worked a third job so I could do all of that. When I moved on to the next thing - which was to act - she wasn't scolding me, she was just asking me what I needed.

I didn't never felt like I had any underlying talent, but within weeks of finding an agent, my life was changed forever. I did a commercial and the movie The Borrowers came out a few weeks later, and then Potter. As a result, my school experience was quite poor. I used to have a whole class to disrupt, and I hated that I couldn't be the class clown, because it was just me and a tutor doing schoolwork during my breaks on set . When I went back to regular school, I was teased for my bleached blonde hair, but I also got to see my best friends. I got straight Cs in my GCSEs, which I attributed to working too hard on the films. When I found out that Daniel [Radcliffe] and Emma [Watson] had nine A*s, I thought, bastards!

Life after Potter was a wake-up call. First, I was confronted with the fact that I was not very good at acting. Auditioning as a 12-year-old is one thing – more or less making sure you don't stare into the camera or forget the lines – but as an adult it's very different. I...