Harry Potter Star Matthew Lewis Believes Young Cast Escaped ‘Pitfalls of Being a Child Actor’ Because They Had Each Other

From Matthew Lewis’ perspective, there is one thing the young Harry Potter cast can credit for keeping them all on the straight and narrow.

The actor, 35, opened up about his time working on the beloved film series during a solo panel at Rhode Island Comic Con on Sunday, Nov. 3. Amid the panel’s Q+A portion, Lewis shared his belief on why the franchise’s young cast — which also includes Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — avoided the struggles many former child stars experience in the public eye.

“We’re very good at hiding all of those stories,” he initially joked, before noting that “it was tricky” as they navigated the transition from child actor to being an adult in the industry. The All Creatures Great and Small star also said there “was absolutely a lot of trepidation” about whether he “was going to be able to hack it in that larger pool.”

“Although, that said, I was very excited about the prospect. I have quite a short attention span, so that’s probably why I’ve never chosen a real career,” he continued. “[After] 10 years in Harry Potter, I was ready to do something else and also was not keen to do anything that was going to lead to multiple series.”

Still, Lewis said he “had no idea what was next” following his time working on Harry Potter and “wasn’t prepared at all.” However, he specifically credited the “friendships” he developed with his young Harry Potter castmates as something that helped keep the group grounded.

“One of the questions that was asked earlier about the pitfalls of being a child actor that we seem to have avoided, I would posit that a large degree of that was because we were all there together,” he explained. “Frequently, you hear many stories of how they were the sole actor in that movie and having to carry that movie on their own and all of the pressures and anxieties that come with that. Whereas, we were all kind together.”

Lewis added that “a lot of the fears that we had were all shared and the thing not really of anymore for anyone else in the world will never be able to understand really what we went through and how it affected our personal lives except each other.” He also noted that it was “wonderful” and “lots of fun” working with them over the years.

“It’s one of the things that I’ve carried with me is those friendships,” he shared. “I don’t go back and read the books. One of the only things that I still kind of hold onto is those relationships that we forged throughout those films.”

Lewis starred as Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter film series, which had eight films debut between 2001 and 2011. Recently, he spoke to PEOPLE about whether he would reprise the character

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

It was announced in April 2023 that Harry Potter, which is based on author J.K. Rowling’s popular book series, is being rebooted as a television series at Max. In the wake of that news, Lewis recently told PEOPLE he’s “not in any rush to go back to the world.”

 “It’s not something I’m looking at or want to do but would not turn my nose up at,” he says. “I’d be very interested to see if it was Neville as an adult — a whole different vibe. That could be interesting. I would certainly look at that and consider it.”