Men's Health magazine interview (UK)

Interview with Daniel by Men's Health UK magazine in promotion of Imperium.

Daniel Radcliffe on getting a buzzcut
“I loved it. I would have it all the time if it didn’t limit me in being cast for other stuff. It was easy and I fortunately didn’t have any weird lumps or bumps. We filmed it in one take. It feels like blowing something up – you’ve only got one go at it.”

On keeping on top of his health in a busy schedule
“I became obsessed with running. I try to run six miles a day, as a sort of minimum. I either do a circuit and a four-mile run or just an eight-mile run. I do that six days a week. My time for eight miles is one hour and four minutes. I can do just over eight minute miles.  I started off by doing this film about Seb Coe, and I started training for that, but quickly realised ‘I am so shit at this, I have to get better’, so that’s where it came from. I also had one lesson with a proper running coach and that one lesson gave me so much information on what I was doing wrong, I was able to – hopefully – correct some of it.”

On keeping fit on set with minimal equipment
“I’m not somebody who’s looking to get massive, so most of what I do is bodyweight. That’s press-ups, burpees, sit-ups, handstand press-ups, leg-raises, planking and more.”

On nutrition
“I’m the worst…I eat better than I used to, though. I don’t eat pizza three times a week like I used to. I eat a lot of protein, that is the basis for most of it. I have a cheat day once a week where I go mental. It’s not a terrible diet, but there’s not a lot of fruit and vegetable in it, either.”

On sporting heroes
“I fucking love watching Kevin Mitchell fight. He’s one of those people who is just so smooth. His style of boxing is so good. I don’t know this for sure, but he battled some demons for a while I think, so I always root for people like that very hard. To keep up that level of aerobic movement for three minutes is incredible, let alone getting the shit beaten out of you at the same time."

On battling demons
"Everybody has made it through something. I definitely did towards the end of my teens and early twenties. I don’t regret any of it. I learned a lot from it. I smoke, but I don’t drink anymore, because of my early teens."

On keeping fit and nearing 30
"I really enjoy going to the gym now. God, I would never thought I would’ve said that when I was 18, but I enjoy all of that and I think that's partly because I smoke, so I take extra care to work really hard in the gym to counteract it. I’m starting to be relatively health-conscious. I don’t think I’m ever going to be one of those people who’s trying every healthy thing, because, ultimately, I think it’s all futile. We’re all going to the same place!"

On challenges at work 
"[The rally scene in Imperium] was crazy. We just looked like a rally – we didn’t look like a film set, they couldn’t see the camera. There was a few people driving by who were getting very angry with us. There was one guy who wound down his window, beeped his horn and gave us a white power salute out of his window, which we were all like ‘no!’ to – ‘wrong crowd!' It was quite intense to film that, but luckily we had been filming in the town for about three weeks at that point, so they were aware what this film crew was doing and the topic of the film."

On getting into a hard mindset
"A lot of it comes from the script and finding it in the other actors, so you feed off that. Nate [Radcliffe's character] at the end is going through desperation. He doesn’t want all the work he’s done to fall apart. So that ‘hardness’ is born out of an utter fear that he’s about to fail."

On his best fitness advice
"Find something to do that you enjoy that also keeps you fit. Like playing football, or rock climbing or whatever it is. Just find that and do it so it doesn’t feel like a chore. Definitely do as much of it as you can."

source: menshealth.co.uk