Harry Potter actor Katie Leung, who played Cho Chang, recalls receiving racist attacks from fans after casting

Katie Leung, who is known for playing the role of Cho Chang in the Harry Potter series, has opened up about receiving racist abuse from fans while shooting for the fantasy franchise. Leung, on a recent episode of the Chinese Chippy Girl podcast, claimed that publicists asked her to deny experiencing online abuse.

Recalling her experience, Leung said that she started noticing racist messages from fans online after her casting in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) was announced. Many publications covered the news and then someone secretly took a picture of her. After that picture was published, Leung started receiving hateful messages.

She remembered, "I just broke down. I just started crying".

Leung discovered several abusive messages about her being shared on several fan clubs dedicated to the Harry Potter series.

“I was Googling myself at one point, and I was on this website, which was kind of dedicated to the Harry Potter fandom. I remember reading all the comments. And, yeah, it was a lot of racist shit,” she said.

At that time, Leung approached a publicist as she was a teenager and had no media training. After having a discussion about online abuse, the publicist told her not to talk about it to the media. It's still unclear if the publicist was working for Warner Bros Pictures or for Leung.

The Scottish-born performer of Chinese descent, Leung, who later starred in films including T2 Trainspotting, added that she feels grateful to be a part of the huge franchise but her experience "wasn't great."