Daniel Radcliffe

Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Take away the round glasses, the lightning bolt scar, and the magic wand, and Daniel Radcliffe is just a normal young actor trying to establish a diverse career. As part of the most successful franchise of all time, breaking out of the Harry Potter mold seems like it might be a tough task. But in December Boys, Radcliffe's first major film aside from the Potter series, he is trying to do just that. Being able to play a different character was important to Radcliffe and he wouldn't accept just any old role. The script had to be right. Radcliffe was particularly drawn to the character of Maps in December Boys, one of four orphan boys growing up in a Catholic convent in Australia.

'It's about being different in something that's worthwhile being different in,' he says of choosing the role. 'But yeah, I obviously want to establish myself as an actor rather than just a character so this film really helped that. It's a long process; I'm going to have to do a lot more work to establish myself as just an actor rather than just Harry but hopefully this is the first stepping stone in that process.'

Another role that's helping Radcliffe break away from the Harry Potter image is his starring perfomance in the London stage play Equus, a risqu' production that allowed Radcliffe to bare it all (literally!). The play will make its way to Broadway next year with Radcliffe reprising his controversial role.

'I'm pretty nervous about going to Broadway simply because I think the New York audience'some of these guys see 50 shows a year so they really know their stuff,' he says. 'I think the theater thing in New York'the audiences are possibly even more discerning and demanding than the ones in the West End, so I'm told. But it's not the taking the clothes off thing that's terrifying. That's just part of the play.'

Radcliffe adds, 'Having done it in London and having it be a success, you just want it to be as big a success if not more because I think when you get a second chance in something you want to do even better in it. I think the thing we have on our side is that it is a good show. We did a really good show in London and we should be able to transfer that hopefully fairly easily to New York.'

While working on December Boys, Radcliffe bonded with his younger co-stars on set, taking on a sort of 'big brother' role. 'I'm an only child so it was nice to have that feeling of camaraderie'I did feel very protective over them simply because when I was 12, 13 years old on a film set my experience of it was really, really positive and exciting and fun,' he says. 'I wanted to try to make sure they had a similar experience.'

Radcliffe's on set experiences have also included working with some of the biggest names in the business. One might think he's immune to getting anxious around big stars, but he hasn't become a jaded young actor just quite yet. 'I do get intimidated,' he admits. 'When I met Gary Oldman for the first time I was totally starstruck but luckily Gary's great and so we get on very well now. But that was probably the most starstruck I've ever been.'

So how does it feel when fans get intimidated by him' 'It's very peculiar,' Radcliffe says. 'Of course I don't understand because I'm me so it's really hard for me to figure out what it is. I appreciate it obviously because the Potter empire is so huge so I can see why that might intimidate people but I'm not very intimidating I don't think. All 5 foot 5 of me!'

The sixth installment of the Potter series will begin shooting soon and the seventh one is not far behind. What are the advantages and disadvantages of working on a popular franchise this extensive' 'The advantages are that definitely you have even longer to work at a character and you get to refine that character and bring new things to it with every film you do,' Radcliffe says. 'The other advantage is that unlike some franchises where the characters are more or less the same age in each of them, Harry grows and so that's been a great opportunity for me to play him developing as he's growing older. In terms of disadvantages, it's mainly the time factor of having to fit in these other things around Potter and things like that. But so far that hasn't been a major problem. I've managed to do December Boys, I did Equus, I did [the TV show] Extras in like two days, and I've just finished a TV movie called My Boy Jack which hopefully will air in America at some point next year.'

So with his next few projects already lined up, where does Radcliffe see his future headed after that' He's leaving all possibilities open. 'It's a hard question to answer because you don't know what kind of scripts are going to be sent to you,' he says. 'Very simply put, it's just stuff that challenges me and is different than anything I've done before. And I don't know, obviously, what that'll be.'