Harry Potter’s Bonnie Wright on How Her Son Inspired Her Collaboration with Prince William (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Harry PotterstarBonnie Wrightis calling on young people to share innovative ideas that could help save the planet her son will grow up in.

Partnering withPrince William’sEarthshot Prize, Wright, 33, is working to inspire the next generation to come up with creative solutions to tackle global challenges.

The new competition, launched in collaboration with the iconic British children’s showBlue Peter, aims to empower kids to “believe that the ideas that they have are important,” Wright, who played Ginny Weasley in theHarry Potterfranchise, tells PEOPLE.

“It empowers young people to not feel like they’re being left behind,” she says of the effort aimed at 5-15-year-olds. “We’re leaning into young people’s imaginations and voices and ideas. And also bringing to the forefront something that I think is incredibly important.”

Children are invited to submit their original ideas to tackle one of the five Earthshot challenges: Fix Our Climate, Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, and Build a Waste-Free World.

“I can’t wait to see what ideas you come up with,” Prince William, 42, said as helaunched the initiativeon Sept. 6.

Bonnie Wright speaking at Dragon Con, in Atlanta on August 31, 2024.Paras Griffin/Getty

Paras Griffin/Getty

“Just seeing the way that he’s experiencing the world – all the things he gravitates toward are things in nature,” Wright tells PEOPLE.

“It is interesting to see, though his innocent life, how much he interacts with nature, and again, why it’s so important for us, in more powerful positions as grown adults to make the effort and be aware,” she adds.

Prince William’s Earthshot Prize will reveal the next winners of its $1.3 million awards at a ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa, this November. While Bonnie Wright won’t be attending, she says she’ll be eagerly watching from afar.

Wright has met William before — in 2013, he,Kate Middleton, andPrince Harrytoured the newly opened Harry Potter Studios in north London. “I remember vividly being on ‘Diagon Alley’ when he came to visit," she shares.

Bonnie Wright speaking at a Harry Potter panel at Comic Con in Los Angeles in December 2023.Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty

Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty

She praises the influence and leadership William is having in the environmental space in using his “platform to amplify other people.”

“That’s what’s really cool – it’s passing the microphone to other people and amplifying what their ideas are. And, to me, that’s the greatest position of influence that you can have is uplifting other people.”

Bonnie Wright with her son Elio Ocean.Bonnie Wright/Instagram

Bonnie Wright/Instagram

Having grown up in London, like millions of other young Brits, she fondly recalls watching the BBC’sBlue Peterand says she’s “excited to reconnect with it as I love it.”

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“It was a big part of me and my brother’s childhood. It was the place you got inspired. It was obviously very creative and about things that were happening in that moment,” she adds. “For children today, the climate and our changing climate is a massive part of their lived life.”

Getting into the habit of hunting for new ideas is helpful, she says, in “directing our gaze towards the solutions we have and making people feel empowered.”

“I was nine when I was first cast inHarry Potter, a true child,” she tells PEOPLE. “I’d never been to an audition before. It was a whole new world. Talking about this innocent imaginative wonder we have as children — I very much was still in that place. I’m grateful I started such a massive part of my life where you are not so self-aware of yourself and you’re just being present.

“I hope all the people auditioning for it now can truly enjoy whatever unfolds for them. I saw that casting call and thought, ‘Wow, someone’s life is going to be changed.’ ”

The Blue Peter Earthshot Competition launches Sept. 6and runs through Oct. 28, with winners announced onBlue Peterin 2025.

source: people.com