Tom Felton On Suiting Up In Altered: “It’s Pretty F’ing Cool.”

Tom Felton discusses his new film Altered, feeling like a superhero, and how this movie also tells a human story we can all relate to.

The 2025 sci-fi thriller, Altered, plunges viewers into a near-future dystopia that feels disturbingly close to our own reality. At the heart of the action is Leon (played by Tom Felton), a brilliant bioengineer who has been confined to a wheelchair his entire life. To level the playing field against a world designed to disadvantage people like him, Leon takes matters into his own hands, developing a sophisticated bio-exoskeleton suit to manipulate the very genetics of the system.

Felton brings a compelling mix of vulnerability and determined genius to the role, anchoring the high-stakes, action-packed narrative with a deeply human story of love, loss, and heroism.

Mama’s Geeky recently had the chance to sit down with Tom Felton to discuss what initially drew him to the script, the dual challenges of filming in both a wheelchair and a massive carbon-fiber suit, and the joy of smashing up a movie set kitchen.

Tom Felton Says Altered Is A Dystopian But Human Story

Tessa Smith: Is the near-future, dystopian aspect what initially drew you to the script?

Tom Felton: If you take out the dystopian future part, it’s still very much a human story of family, friends and loss, love, and heroism. So that’s the bit for us, as an actor. And then when Timo [Vuorensola] started painting this world for me about what it looks like, I asked him at one of our early meetings, Timo is our director who also wrote it. I said, “So what do these things look like exactly?” And he had drawings for days. He had loads and loads of things. This world was already fully formed in his head. So that made things a lot more convincing and easier to say yes to.

Tom Felton On Acting In Two Extremes – The Chair & The Suit

Tessa Smith: You spend much of this movie in a chair and the rest in a suit that I imagine is not comfortable. What was the filming process like for you?

Tom Felton: It was two extremes, definitely. One’s in the wheelchair, which is certainly a workout on the arms. And our wheelchair was somewhat modified for the film, which didn’t necessarily make it easier to use. There was a lot of time practicing down the corridors of my hotel that we were staying in, trying to get used to it. The actual suit was the one I was more worried about because it looks so cool in the pictures and on the cameras. But how do you put it on? And while you’re making sure you can move, actually, otherwise you’re just going to feel like a robot. So the team made such an amazing, 18-piece carbon fiber suit, I think it was. It did take quite a while for them to put it on me and off, and did get rather warm at times. But we managed to not break it. That was our big concern. He gets thrown around quite a lot in the film.

Tessa Smith: What was your reaction when you first saw yourself in the mirror wearing the suit? It’s like being a superhero.

Tom Felton: I won’t lie. I’ve had many, many times looking in the dressing room mirror thinking, oh, this is pretty cool. But you just took the words right out of my mouth. The first time you see yourself dressed as a superhero, really one with a bio exoskeleton, it’s pretty, pretty effing cool.

Tom Felton On Filming The Action Sequences

Tessa Smith: Was there a scene you were most excited to shoot when you were reading the script?

Tom Felton: The big action sequences, all the fight sequences are really those are the things you’re in. A nine-year-old boy comes out and goes, “Yeah, this is really cool.” But actually, so much of that takes a long time. It’s very methodical in keeping us all safe while also making it look cool. Timo would have these huge ideas and actually putting them into practice was sometimes a little harder than expected. But there’s a great first scrimmage, if you will, when Leon first tries out the suit in the kitchen. And in the kitchen, in case you don’t know, children, there are lots of dangerous things to hurt oneself with. So throwing around plates and China and basically smashing the entire kitchen. There were lots of times I had to stop myself from smiling, because if you told my nine-year-old self I’d be doing that one day, he would have been very happy.

Who Is Leon?

Tessa Smith: How would you describe Leon to someone who hasn’t seen the movie yet?

Tom Felton: Well, to sum him up, he’s a bit of a genius, a bit of a savant genius when it comes to practically finding his way around because he’s been in a wheelchair his whole life. He’s always had to find ways of getting around, excuse the pun, but. And in this, he is always a bioengineer, essentially, that’s taken things into his own hands and managed to manipulate various parts of what we know helps the G, the genetics, that’s what we call them in the film, and managed to give hope and chance to people that don’t have the advantages of others. That’s at the core of who he is. I think he’s also an orphan or at least estranged from his father and has no real support other than his chippy best friend, the lovely [Elizaveta Bugulova], who was so much fun to work with. Leon might seem quite surly, but actually he’s got a good sense of humor as long as she’s around to keep poking him.

Working With Elizaveta Bugulova Brought Tom Felton Back To His Early Acting Days

Tessa Smith: You and Elizaveta Bugulova are so fun together. What was that collaboration like?

Tom Felton: It’s one of the most fun bits about it. I think she was only 12 when we did it. It reminded a little bit my blast from the past, working at such a young age. But she was annoyingly good at everything. She knew the script, but back to front, she corrected me on a few times, lines that I got wrong. And also, I forgot what it was like when you’re 12 years old on set. You have long, long shooting days. And then obviously, in between the filming, you have to go back to tutoring, which was not one of the things that I liked doing when I was a youngster. And yet she always seemed very full of energy and chipper and happy, happy enough to do both at the same time.

Tessa Smith: Yeah, I would be like, I don’t want to go back to school. I was just doing cool stuff.

Tom Felton: Literally, that was my life on Potter.

Altered is playing in select theaters and is available on VOD from Well Go USA now.

About Altered

In an alternate present where genetic enhancements have become the norm, those who cannot take advantage are pushed into the underground. It’s up to a few brave souls to level the playing field for everyone, but every revolution has its cost. From Timo Vuorensola, visionary director of Iron Sky, and Tom Felton (Harry Potter Franchise) comes an exciting new tale of a dystopian Earth in need of a hero in Altered.

Next: Watch Tom Felton Uncover a Shocking Attack in This Intense Altered Clip [Exclusive]