Forget everything you’ve heard about judgmental, self-righteous vegans. For Evanna Lynch, it all comes down to one thing- compassion. Lynch visited the Hist on Friday to deliver an impassioned, but not preachy, speech about the importance of going vegan. I caught up with the actress, best known for her role as Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter, to find out a little bit more.
“When I really found out about the meat industry and what was happening, I felt angry.” Lynch confides. “I’d been eating meat for eleven years, eating dairy for even longer…. It’s not something I support [now] at all”. She wants people to know the truth about the process, even if that doesn’t necessarily mean they go vegan. “I have so much more respect for somebody who says yes I eat animals, I know what that involves, than I do for somebody who says “oh I don’t want to know, it’s horrible, don’t tell me that”. I mean, that’s just living in ignorance….I believe in investigating things”.
“I have so much more respect for somebody who says yes I eat animals, I know what that involves, than I do for somebody who says “oh I don’t want to know, it’s horrible, don’t tell me that.”
Which is not to say she condemns non-vegans. Her parents are meat-eaters- and “very kind, generous, compassionate” animal-lovers. Lynch stresses the fact that non-vegans aren’t, by any stretch, terrible people. “I think there is a level that we can all agree on that is compassionate,” she explains. “Even if you’re okay with eating animals, no one wants to see them suffer unnecessarily, and they don’t have to. There’s easy ways to changing factory farming.” For Lynch, this is a journey. Putting humane farming practices in place is the first step- “and then we can talk about the rest”.
Her vision is a completely vegan world, but she knows that it’s going to be a long process. “I don’t really think it will happen in my lifetime, but I think it will happen. I think it will happen because it has to.” Lynch says firmly, going on to cite the adverse effects posed by the consumption of animal products, including the threat of fishless oceans by 2048. However, she is clear that judging people is not the way to effect change. Although she admires uncompromising vegans, she doesn’t think meeting people with the kind of caustic rhetoric espoused by, say, Morrisey, will have the desired effect. “People don’t want to feel judged,” she observes. “They’re not going to be met with that kind of anger. You have to do it in ways that are viable to others”.
Her compassion extends to her desire that we treat ourselves with kindness and love, but she is quick to admit that this isn’t always easy. “It’s an on-going journey,” the actress confesses. “I still have days when I feel really low in myself and I feel like all that work I did in my teens and early twenties is gone”. She encourages patience and self-forgiveness and realising “that you can be loved even though you’re not perfect. You don’t have to be perfect to be wonderful”. The important thing is to start living. “Always feeling bad is getting in the way of loving life and living- even things like falling in love, you can’t fall into it if you’re constantly asking why you’re worthy or why anybody would fall in love with you”. She criticises the obsession with women’s looks, something which she admits bothers her. She cites a “really powerful piece” written by J. K. Rowling which rejects the idea that being “thin and beautiful” is the pinnacle of female success and achievement. It is far more important to aspire to be “brave, loyal, kind, creative and smart”. Lynch is tired of the pressure to attain an unrealistic standard of bodily “perfection” and sums it up very nicely by explaining that “people have more important shit to do!”
Her work fears, by the way, prove to be unfounded. Her latest film, My Name is Emily, was shown as part of the Audi Dublin International Film Festival in February, after making its debut at Galway over the summer. It’s Lynch’s first Irish film and proved to be an eye-opening experience for her. “Up to that point, it always felt like the film industry was elsewhere. It felt like you had to go to London or to some other exotic place”. My Name Is Emily changed her mind. “I kind of feel a sense of loss or regret that I didn’t have this experience earlier on,” she reveals. “I don’t think I would have moved so soon. In this film I really discovered that the fact that the [Irish] industry is so small really just makes it more passionate. The films have to overcome more obstacles and more adversity- people have to believe in it harder”. And this was a film to believe in- she describes it as a “beautiful experience” which allowed her to meet “some of the most amazing artists”. “It really inspired me,” she tells me.
“You can pour all your time and heart into it…[and yet] it might suck! But the only way to figure out is to just keep going. That’s something I’ve really learned from L.A. They have a really good work-ethic because they have so much self-belief.”
Another source of inspiration comes from her fabulously fluffy cat Lil Puff, who makes up the vast majority of her Instagram pictures. “Sometimes people will be like, stop posting pictures of your cat! And I’m just like “I’m sorry she looks like that!” Lynch recalls, laughing. She got her two years ago and cites her as something which made her “kind of grow up”. “I have to be responsible,” she explains. That means caring for Puff- and funding her shoes and bag habit! Even here, Lynch is admirably ethical. She wiggles her foot, encased in a striking pair of patterned Oxford flats. They’re made by the Brazilian company Insecta and are eco-friendly, vegan shoes made from vintage clothing and recycled plastic bottles. Lynch is a keen supporter of burgeoning vegan companies.
I also broach the question of writing, and Lynch replies with a pleasant frankness. “The very quick answer is yes. I’m trying to write a book,” the avid reader confirms. She has been plagued by that curse which seems to befall nearly every writer- “I’m awesome at procrastinating…everything gets in the way”- but seems excited at the new challenge. “I have an idea, I have plans,” she says, smiling. She admits that it can be terrifying, especially when no new ideas are coming. “You can pour all your time and heart into it…[and yet] it might suck! But the only way to figure out is to just keep going. That’s something I’ve really learned from L.A. They have a really good work-ethic because they have so much self-belief”. It’s an attitude which stands at odds with Ireland’s perpetually self-deprecating culture. She admits that it can be hard, but emphasises that she wants to keep going; “because something will happen. I think the important thing is just to do it”. With the remarkable success she’s achieved already, I’d wager that this is pretty good advice.
My Name is Emily is expected to be in cinemas this April
Evanna works with Compassion in World Farming. You can find out more about them here.
