Harry Potter fans are making diabolical admission after Moaning Myrtle actor reveals truth behind her age during films

Harry Potter fans have revealed that as children they were convinced the people behind the films were taking a very cheeky short cut for the Moaning Myrtle character.

The Harry Potter films are one of the most popular franchises in history and for good reasons, but some fans have recently made a hilarious and shocking confession.

Moaning Myrtle, first seen in the second film, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, wasn’t a mainstay, but many enjoyed her eerie and wild performance. However, the actress behind the character, Shirley Henderson, stood out from her castmates for one simple reason.

While the character is a ghost, who died during her time at Hogwarts, the actress is far from a child; she was actually 37 years old when she auditioned for the role.

Henderson auditioned for the Moaning Myrtle role when she was in her 30s (rune hellestad/Corbis via Getty Images)

Explaining how she got the role to the Independent, Henderson said: “When I was first asked for an audition, I didn’t know who Harry Potter was. But my sister, who was staying with me, had read the books. Still, I wasn’t convinced I could play a 14-year-old girl because I was in my 30s at the time.

“I went to the audition dressed as a schoolgirl — white shirt, black skirt, ponytail — thinking, ‘This is ridiculous.’”

Eventually, she was called back and offered the role, as they were confident due to the ‘mistiness’ and ‘ghosty’ effect they would apply they could ultimately get away with casting her.

However, the fact that Henderson was cast at all has certainly come as a massive surprise to some fan,s who insisted that as children they thought the character was just lead Daniel Radcliffe in a wig.

Writing on Reddit, one user wrote: “They definitely fooled me. I spent years thinking she's just Daniel Radcliffe in a wig.”

Fans were sure Moaning Myrtyle was just Daniel Radcliffe (Warner Bros)

Another agreed and wrote: “I also thought she was Daniel Radcliffe in a wig until right now! I had no idea.”

A third write: “I thought that too!! During his Google auto complete interview he was baffled that him being moaning myrtle was a search result, but it seems to be a common misconception lol.”

Amazingly, another agreed: “Yeah because some of us were pretty young watching the second movie and thought she was Daniel Radcliffe in a wig.”

Yup...must have missed this chat on the playground when the films came out, but apparently this was a widely-held belief of some fans. The more you know, I guess?