Katie Leung Opens Up About Facing Racist Abuse After Being Cast In Harry Potter As Cho Chang
Actress Katie Leung recently appeared on the Chinese Chippy Girl podcast and opened up about the backlash she faced online after being cast as Cho Chang in 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Actress
Katie
Leung
recently
appeared
on
the
Chinese
Chippy
Girl
podcast
and
opened
up
about
the
backlash
she
faced
online,
after
being
cast
as
Hogwarts
witch
Cho
Chang
in
2005's
Harry
Potter
and
the
Goblet
of
Fire.
Katie
who
was
16
at
the
time
said,
"I
was,
like,
googling
myself
at
one
point,
and
I
was
on
this
website,
which
was
kind
of
dedicated
to
the
kind
of
Harry
Potter
fandom.
"I
remember
reading
all
the
comments.
And,
yeah,
it
was
a
lot
of
racist
sh*t,"
Katie
added.
The
backlash
reportedly
began
after
photos
of
her
shooting
at
the
sets
had
leaked
in
the
papers.
"It
had
got
to
the
papers
and
then
someone
secretly
took
a
photo
of
me," she
remembered.
"I
just
broke
down.
I
just
started
crying."
"And
then
somebody
had
actually
created
a
website,
a
hate
site
Â-
it
was
like,
if
you
disagree
with
this
casting,
then
click
on
this
button
and
then
it
would
just
be
like
a
count
of
how
many
people
disagreed
with
the
casting
and
you
would
just
see
a
number.
I
know,
it's
awful.
It's
so
awful," Leung
added.
She
revealed
that
she
had
reached
out
to
a
publicist
to
talk
about
it,
but
she
was
told
to
keep
it
away
from
the
press.
"I
remember
them
saying
to
me,
'Oh,
look
Katie,
we
haven't
seen
these,
these
websites
that
people
are
talking
about'."
Katie
who
is
now
33
years
old,
revealed
that
she
was
in
denial
and
added,
"And
you
know,
if
you
get
asked
that
just
say
it's
not
true,
say
it's
not
happening.'"
"Looking
back...I
put
it
to
the
back
of
my
mind.
I
don't
know
if
that
is
the
best
way
to
deal
with
it,
but
that
is
naturally
what
I
did
in
order
to
move
on
and
be
a
good
actor,"
she
added.