She is well known the world round for her acclaimed acting roles in the Harry Potter franchise, G.B.F. and My Name is Emily (among many others), but actress Evanna Lynch is also an incredible advocate for veganism. We catch up with Irish-born Evanna to ask her about what fuels her vegan fight, the power of social media and her numerous plant-based projects.
Hi there, Evanna! Tell us about your vegan journey.
I went vegetarian at a young age, somewhere around 11 or 12 because I simply didn’t want my food choices to involve violence. I grew up in the countryside surrounded by animals and our companion animals were a big part of my childhood, so as soon as I heard about vegetarianism — that there was this thriving community of people rejecting food made of animals — I knew I wanted to be part of that, and I couldn’t justify abusing animals for human gain.
I hadn’t heard about veganism at that age and when I did hear talk about it in my teens, it was always from people who were very dismissive or disparaging of it, warning me away from it as extreme and cultish, and so I regarded it as a negative, restrictive lifestyle and didn’t explore it further.
However, the more I got involved in animal rights causes, the more ‘veganism’ kept entering my remit, nudging at my subconscious. Then I came across the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. That book was so shocking and upsetting and I found I agreed with the vegan ideology completely. I closed the book, but I couldn’t put away the images because I knew those horror stories were playing out over and over again for animals every day. After I read that I knew I had to be vegan. I did it gradually and it took a while to do it in a healthy way, but it’s now my norm and I am so glad to be part of this community.