Take two for the Weasley Twins: After ten years as the Hogwarts double act, Harry Potter's chums have ditched their ginger hair dye to head for Hollywood

Call it karma, but when James and Oliver Phelps were cast in the Harry Potter films as the red-headed twin wizard brothers of the equally flame-haired Ron Weasley, James knew that he was in for a spot of payback.
‘I used to walk to school with a boy called Andrew who had bright red hair,’ he says, ‘I used to tease him constantly about it. Then we got cast as the Weasley twins and had to dye our hair red for the next ten years. All the years of joking at Andrew’s expense just came back and slapped me in the face.’
As Fred and George Weasley respectively, James and Oliver had to dye their brown hair ginger every few weeks. ‘We miss a lot of things about doing Harry Potter, but dyeing our hair isn’t one of them,’ says James. ‘I’m a Birmingham City fan and I was at a match with my friends and they were asking me if I wanted to get a drink afterwards.

Double act: James and Oliver Phelps are heading to Hollywood after ten years playing the Weasley twins the in Harry Potter films

‘I said: “I can’t — I’ve got to get my roots done” and everyone in the crowd turned to look at me. There’s a time and a place to talk about your hair and a football match probably isn’t one of them.’
Oliver and James were just 14 years old when they auditioned for the roles of the Weasley twins, ostensibly, says Oliver, ‘to get a day off school’. A couple of months prior to the auditions, their drama teacher had advised them not to bother with acting, ‘because you won’t do anything … you should try something else’.