‘Harry Potter’s Dudley Dursley Is Totally Unrecognizable In ‘Ballad of Buster Scruggs’

In The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the new Coen Brothers anthology western that’s currently streaming on Netflix, one particular performance stands out despite the actor staying perfectly in place. In the film’s third segment, titled “Meal Ticket,” Liam Neeson plays an aging sideshow proprietor, who travels through the mountain towns, showing off his prized performer: an armless, legless man billed as Harrison, “The Wingless Thrush,” a celebrated orator, so the posters go, whose act is to read passages from the great speeches and works of literature. He reads “Ozymandias” by Shelley and the Gettysburg Address by Lincoln, all with the passion and conviction of the finest stage performer. As time goes by, the crowds grow thinner and other options for small-town entertainment end up spelling the end for this particular one-man show, and what that means for Neeson and his limbless star is something you should see unfold for yourselves.

The actor playing the armless, legless, golden-voiced Harrison is Harry Melling, and he gives a performance that is deceptively layered. He not only must deliver those monologues with all of the conviction and magnetism of his character, who routinely brings his audiences to rapt attention, gasps, and even tears by his readings, but he also must play Harrison the character, whose delivery grows more haggard and desperate and wild as the crowd get smaller and the box-office take with it. His final rendition of Shakespeare’s “Our revels now are ended” from The Tempest feels almost panicked. It’s great stuff.

If you’re impressed, you’re not alone. But this is very likely not the first time you’ve seen Harry Melling do his thing on screen. Certainly not if you’re a fan of the Harry Potter movies. Besides a small part in last year’s The Lost City of Z, Harry Mellings previous film performances have been as Dudley Dursley, Harry Potter’s mean, spoiled cousin. Dudley appeared in the first three Potter movies — The Sorcerer’s Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, and The Prisoner of Azkaban — before returning for The Order of the Phoenix and The Deathly Hallows, Part 1.

Melling looks almost unrecognizable now from the pudgy, frankly mumbly Dudley who so tormented Harry during his younger years at home. To see him delivering such stirring monologues for the Coens feels like seeing him in a different universe altogether. Which we pretty much are. And just in case the entire Harry Potter cast wasn’t already feeling prestigious enough for you, you can add another top-shelf actor to their ranks.

Stream The Ballad of Buster Scruggs on Netflix