July 2011 ~ Daniel J Radcliffe Holland

Thanks to Maripy from Glowing Radcliffe for sending over the translation from the interview from the Clarin Journal (10th July 2011, Argentina) which you can read below and has some great facts. View the scans here.

Now that your job is done. What does Harry Potter mean to you?
Harry Potter made me. I owe him everything. It doesn’t matter what I’ll do in the future, each job will relate to Harry Potter. It is weird because many actors didn’t have the luck to play an action hero like I did, and I had so much fun. I’ll miss Harry because I know after him there will be lots of things I won’t be doing again. What kind of things? For example, what I did in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, jump out of the water in the cave surrounded by a huge ring of fire. But I think what I’ll miss the most are those 10 years on set with these amazing people. I love them, they are my best friends and I am already missing them a lot. I spent my teenage years there and made friends that will last forever. I grew up in the set. I grew up with Harry.

Who will you miss the most?
Michael Gambon, Gary Oldman, Emma Watson, Tom Felton… I won’t stop seeing them but it won’t be that easy because, for example, Gary Oldman lives in the US. I dined with him when I went to Los Angeles, but it was really brief and I miss him. David Thelwis, who’s brilliant, I’ll miss him too. All of them are great actors, they do as much as they can to cheer up the set. They are good people, they talk to everybody..

Did you learn from them as an actor?
Yes, but I also learned how you have to behave on set and how you have to talk to all the people working there.

How will you manage your professional life after Harry Potter?
I feel this is the time to show people I can do other stuff. I also want to do to other things. If I stop working after Harry Potter it will be easy for them to say I didn’t take it serious. And I want to show them that actually I am serious about acting.

But you have done other films before Harry Potter…
Yes, absolutely. But now Potter is over and we’re all really conscious about it, people will want to know what I’m going to do and it is important for them to see me moving on and working.

It is said you didn’t like your performance in Half Blood Prince. Why did you think so?
When I saw the sixth movie I felt like I was acting with just one side and could have had many others. It bugged me, a lot... But that was good because I realized that and improved in the seventh film. I’m really critic of what I do and how I do it. I had a long conversation with Alan Rickman about it and he told me when you think you do everything good that’s when you should stop acting. Auto criticism is necessary because without her you can’t improve.

What made you chose this acting career when you were 10 years old?
Nothing at all. I wasn’t really good in academics and Sue Latimer, who was already working with actors as an agent and then became my agent, talked to my parents. My dad and her have been friend for like 30 years, I think they went together to Drama school. My parents told Sue about my issues with school and she told them “why don’t you send him to the David Copperfield casting for IV?” No one expected I could make it because I had never acted before, I didn’t even show any kind of interest on acting. I went to the audition and I got it, and that’s how it all started. At the age of 14 I thought “yes, this is what I want to do.”

What do you like the most about working on films?
The fact you’re part of something that touches people. That’s exciting. I don’t work for parties and glamour, I prefer the work and sweat on the set. The premiers come after, and they are always hard but they give me the chance to interact with fans. And the fans keep surprising me.

You started working really young, did that make you more mature than other people of your age?
I don’t know if right now I’m more grown up than other guys in their 20s. But I was more mature when I was 15. I think time worked on it and made us even. I was surrounded by adults all the time and you grow up really fast in that situation.

How do you manage your fame and fortune being so young?
I ignore my fortune, I don’t think about that. I have a lovely flat and I’m really happy with it. Money can give you some space to maneuver, but it doesn’t have to be your goal in life. I grew up with that idea. About fame, you just have to be surrounded by sane and good people. I have my mom, dad and Sue Latimer and if I get cocky they will stop me. If you’re surrounded by people who love you and not the ones that tell you what you want to hear, it’s okay.

You’re really famous and you may lose some privacy. How do you live with that inability of living without the press following you?
There are times I think “it’d be awesome if the paparazzi didn’t go to my parents’ house,” but to be honest lots of celebrities are photographed by papz in that situation because they go to the wrong places, I mean, when the paparazzi are or just because they let them know they are going. I used to say, and I keep saying it sometimes, I feel famous once a month, and that’s when a Harry Potter movie was released, when I am interviewed and I see myself doing that. Then I continue with my life. Besides I have my friends who don’t see me as “Dan the famous,” more like “Dan the ass.”

Do you still write poetry?
Not so often, but what I write now is way better than before. The first year I wrote I made around 60 poems and 20 were terrible. Now I write two pages and say “it’s rubbish” and start again. I read a lot too, that helps me to improve my writing. I love reading and I have a huge imagination –my English teacher told me that- and I really want to use it. The thing is I need to find the time and something that inspires me, I suppose. I’m still waiting for that idea, and who knows, maybe I’ll have to wait 40 years, but I’ll write.

Would you like to direct films too?
Absolutely. That’s my ambition, it’s always attracted me but I didn’t know I had what it takes until a few months ago in the last Harry Potter movie. I think every director has to see himself as the captainship and treat everyone with respect. If people are respected they work better. But to be able to direct films I need to learn about cameras and lenses and filter… I have to learn about all that but I’d love to be a movie maker