by Daniel Radcliffe said right after filming the latest Harry Potter that he “wanted to do other things”, but has since become “more and more aware” of what “special and interesting thing it was”.
The British actor made a name for himself playing the eponymous boy wizard from 2001 to 2011, but has since branched out into other roles, including the upcoming biopic about US musical comedian Weird Al Yankovic.
Appearing on the BBC Radio 1 6 Degrees podcast, co-host Spencer Matthews revealed that he had “several calls” to play Harry Potter’s on-screen enemy, Draco Malfoy, in the JK Rowling franchise.
Radcliffe, 33, said: “It’s been 10 years of my life, it was a job I loved doing and we had a lot of fun, so I’m really, really happy to talk about it and actually probably more now than right after Potter.
“Right after Potter, I was like, ‘no, I’m doing other things’, but now I’ve become more and more aware of how special and interesting he was.”
Radcliffe’s next film, due out on November 4, will follow the life and career of musical parody phenomenon Yankovic, who became famous with comic versions of classic songs.
Over the course of his career, 63-year-old Yankovic has won five Grammy Awards for his comedy recordings.
Speaking of playing a character in real life, Radcliffe said: “This was a nice hybrid situation in this movie, because he’s a real person and this person was on set and was supportive, but it’s also such a crazy representation of that. real person I don’t walk off the set like oh, I did it right that little bit in your life, it was fine.
“While I’ve been on set before, while they’re on set and you feel a little ridiculous. In ‘Escape from Pretoria’ the real Tim Jenkins was there on the set, we’re in a real prison and we’re recreating moments from his life.
“Sometimes it goes back and forth, it’s great and what a special thing to be able to do it with this man here and sometimes you say how ridiculous this is, we’re practically playing and in costume and this was this man’s life.”
Radcliffe also described how he got into the character and his acting style.
He added: “I’m pretty much the furthest away from the acting method you get. I’ll stick with the accent, but I don’t need people to call me Weird Al all day or anything like that.
“When there are things to get into as a character, skills to learn, a certain physicality, then I love to get into it.
“I think it’s just that I don’t really have a process that goes beyond reading the script and trying to understand the character in the best possible way. Makeup, hair and costumes do an amazing job and somehow transform for you.
