Rupert Grint Will Make Stage Debut In ‘Mojo’

Former Harry Potter star Rupert Grint is set to make his stage debut at London’s West End later this year. Grint, who played Ronald Weasley in the eight-film series, will join the cast of Mojo.

The role is far from the one Grint played for more than a decade in the children’s films. Instead, he will take the stage as a pill-popping thug.

Jez Butterworth’s Mojo also includes Ben Whishaw, Daniel Mays, and Brendan Coyle from Downtown Abbey, reports The Los Angeles Times.

The original Mojo was directed by Ian Rickson in 1995, and he is expected to direct the remake as well. The drama is set in a seedy nightclub in the 1950s after the owner is murdered.

Rupert Grint’s role will be Sweets, a gangster with an addiction amphetamines. The characters fight to control the popular night club and includes several unsavory underworld characters, notes Yahoo! Movies.

This won’t be the first role Grint has taken that is a change from his Harry Potter character. He also took edgier roles in The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman and CBGB.

Grint also isn’t the first Harry Potter star to take on a much different role after filming for the series ended. Daniel Radcliffe opted to go onstage nude in the 2007 revival of Equus and is currently playing in the West End production of Martin McDonagh’s The Cripple of Inishmaan.

Emma Watson has also found post-Hogwarts success with The Bling Ring and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The BBC adds that Rickson stated of casting Rupert Grint:

“I’d seen the Potter films with my daughter and always thought Rupert was truthful as Ron Weasley. There’s something ordinary and centered about him, and in this world of Mojo you want that grittiness.”

Rupert Grint and Mojo will take the stage at the Harold Pinter Theater in October.

[Image via Featureflash / Shutterstock.com]