Social media has bridged a former gap between celebrities and fans, often connecting them straight to their own phones and in droves. The choice is often up to the talent, with major actors including Scarlett Johansson, George Clooney, Emma Stone, Kristen Stewart and Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe having continued to go without it. And considering the nature of internet comments, who can blame them?
In the case of Daniel Radcliffe, the 31-year-old actor is pretty much universally loved and unproblematic, and that’s seriously impressive considering the questionable reputation quite common among child actors. If he gave social media a try, he’d probably be welcomed with some fun Harry Potter memes along with becoming part of the fandom’s discourse. Here’s why the actor decided not to hit download on platforms like Twitter and Instagram:
I would love to say there's some incredibly thought out intellectual reason for this, because I considered getting a Twitter at one point and I 100 percent know that if I did you would all be waking up to stories of 'Dan Radcliffe gets into a fight with random person on Twitter’.
Well that’s fair. It’s a daily struggle for many to not partake in internet battles, and if you’ve ever hit the tweet button in a fit of rage or watched someone you're following take the swing, you probably know it’s just about never worth it. Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t think he’d have the strength to restrain himself on the public platform, and therefore is keeping his distance. It’s a hilarious response to the “why don’t you have social media?’ question, but honestly a valid one. Radcliffe talked about it on an episode of Hot Ones, and expanded on his thoughts with this point:
When I was younger, not anymore thank God, I used to look up comments about myself on the internet and would read shit like that. That is an insane and bad thing to do and to me Twitter and everything just sort of feels like an extension of that. Unless I was going to go on and read nice things about myself, which also feels like another kind of unhealthy thing to do. Other than that, I don’t honestly feel like I’m mentally strong enough but right now, I’m kind of alright with that.
This is interesting. Apparently in Daniel Radcliffe’s younger years, he would look himself up all the time to see what the consensus was about him. I'm pretty sure if I was famous that young, I would have developed the same rotten habit. It’s much easier to let the internet soak you up as a kid, but since then, Radcliffe is happy to say he no longer looks himself up and doesn't use social media at all. It sounds like he has a good perspective on what he needs to keep his mental health in check and prevent his ego from blowing up like a balloon either.
Thankfully, Daniel Radcliffe keeps himself busy enough for us to see him more often than not. While eating hot wings with Sean Evans, the actor had a crazy story about the monkeys on set of Harry Potter and talked about all the wands he apparently broke on set. The actor’s most recent film is Escape from Pretoria, the true story of a prison break that also stars Daniel Webber. We’ll keep you updated on CinemaBlend regarding what’s next for the Harry Potter icon, especially considering his social media won't.
