It was months between Jessie Cave's first open-call audition and finding out that she had nabbed the part of Lavender Brown, Hermione's smitten roommate-turned-romantic competition in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

''It was quite surreal,'' the 22-year-old Londoner said in an interview. ``Throughout the process I never thought I had the part, the chances were so slim.''

Well, not so slim: Cave appeared in the CBBC drama Summerhill and is currently starring on the West End stage in the critically acclaimed revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

While waiting to see the finished film herself, Cave talked about scaring Rupert Grint, who plays Lavender's sweetheart Ron, with her (perhaps all-too-realistic?) audition, the actors' first kiss, and how Lavender puts up a good fight for Ron's heart.

Q:For your final audition, what scene did you get to act out with Rupert?

A: We actually had to improvise for a good 15 or 20 minutes, which is very scary. It's a really long time. The director, David Yates, was there and he was just like, ''Hi. Right. Here's a plate of biscuits, Jessie. It's a lovely plate of chocolate biscuits, and I want you to do whatever you want with these biscuits.'' Rupert was in the room, sitting on the sofa, and I just thought, ``What the hell am I going to do with this plate of biscuits?''

Q: What did you end up doing?

A: I thought, ''I'm just going to go for it.'' And I think Rupert was a bit scared, really. The biscuits were past the sofa, away from me, so I kind of just tangled myself around Rupert and just made it really obvious that I didn't really care about the biscuits. I just wanted to be near him. I think he was quite scared.

Q:Awww, he was probably acting, too. Right?

A: No, he was actually scared [laughs]. I think he's easily scared though, bless him. He was so lovely, and we really got on and made each other laugh, and that helped.

Q:Was he less scared once you started filming?

A: He was very easygoing and very laid-back. He didn't at all have any kind of ego, he was just a nice guy and very normal. It was easy to become friends with him, which I didn't expect, to be honest. I've watched (the Harry Potter stars) since I was young and, you know, I didn't think they'd be as normal as they are. It's quite weird.

Q:Do you remember what your first day on set was like?

A: It's funny, I was filming for six months, but I remember my third day was the big kissing scene. I remember thinking, ``Why are they doing this so early?''

It helped, actually, because the nerves kind of added to the scene. There were so many extras, like 70 other people in the room, it could have gone so wrong. The first day was kind of building up to the kissing scene, so it was immediately going into the deep end.

Q:If I remember correctly, Lavender's the aggressor in the relationship, right?

A: Ha! Yes, she is incredibly dominating of Ron. She just wants to be around him all the time, and she's the one who initiates everything. She's one of those girls that's very pretty and very obvious, she's just not really aware of how she's being perceived by anyone else.

And I think that's really sweet in a way, because she doesn't perceive barriers very well [laughs]. She treads all over them. It's why she ruffles Hermione's feathers so much.

Q:She does put up a good fight.

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