Daniel Radcliffe has the odd experience of having a good portion of his childhood being shot for the big screen over the eight Harry Potter movies. The actor was 11 years old when Sorcerer’s Stone came out, and he continued to portray J.K. Rowling’s young wizard over the span of a decade with Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and the rest of the British cast. But… seriously, can you imagine this? Aside from looking at old photos, having hugely popular movies to reminisce on? Even the middle school years!! Yikes. So you can imagine there are certain feelings that emerge when looking back on those times, some even "embarrassing" for Radcliffe.
Now a 31-year-old, Daniel Radcliffe is obviously still acting and doing some great stuff, between indie darlings like Swiss Army Man or his satire Miracle Workers. The Harry Potter actor shared his feelings about venturing down memory lane with the massive Warner Bros franchise nowadays:
I'm intensely embarrassed by some of my acting, obviously. But yeah, it's like asking, 'How do you feel about your teenage years?' There's so much in there that it's almost impossible to single out one feeling. It's hard to separate my relationship with Harry from my relationship with the films as a whole.
Daniel Radcliffe literally lived Harry Potter. He and the cast were all home-schooled together during the filming of the movies and, although he was acting when the cameras were rolling, he really did get to spend his time amongst those mesmerizing sets. It makes perfect sense that he’d feel embarrassed to watch himself act as a kid, especially since it occurred during those typically awkward growing-up years.
Radcliffe spoke about his time playing Harry Potter with Lord of the Rings’ Frodo, Elijah Wood, who is 40. The actors obviously have a ton in common, coming from major fantasy franchises. While interviewing each other for Empire Magazine, the pair swapped stories about being recognized for one another in public. All in all, Radcliffe told Wood how valuable the experience was to him:
I'm incredibly grateful for the experience. It showed me what I want to do with the rest of my life. To find out early on what you love is really lucky.
Not many of us are able to really get out there at a young age and start doing the thing we love on a large scale and stick with it, but Daniel Radcliffe did. It’s sweet to hear the actor really did find his calling early on with the Harry Potter movies, but he does keep a low-profile in the public space. It’s not easy for an actor to transcend a role like Potter, but Radcliffe has been able to act outside of it in a unique way.
Previously, he admitted to turning to alcohol to drown his fear of not knowing where he’d go following the ending of Harry Potter. He’s figured it out just fine, alongside his former Ron Weasley co-star Rupert Grint, who welcomed his first child last year. And as Radcliffe continues to move forward, HBO Max is reportedly eyeing a streaming TV show set in the Wizarding World aside from the upcoming Fantastic Beasts movies.
