Collider was on the set of Miracle Workers in Atlanta for an interview with Daniel. Filming took place in a disused wing of a massive fiber optics factory and they caught up with him before he filmed his character Craig’s scenes
in the company’s Department of Answered Prayers.
There's also a new promotional photo via TBS (picture source: Dan Winters).
We had so much fun finding all the random stuff from decades and decades of computer and communications technology on set…
Daniel Radcliffe: I do think that, there’s something lovely about
this show. From the moment I sort of started working on it, you could
just tell that Simon’s world and the world that he’s built up has kind
of inspired everybody, in all the different departments. It’s so rare to
get a job where you have to production design Heaven, or find a new
take on Heaven, or something like that. And I just think that, that’s
the kind of project that … just gives everyone permission to kind of go
kind of crazy and just their imagination.
And also just the level of detail. I don’t know if you’ve had the
chance to see the books and stuff, in the department of prayers, and all
the prayers that are on the wall are all very specific, real prayers
with pictures of crew members. It’s a lovely, when you step on to the
sets and see that level of detail, I always think that’s a really cool,
exciting thing.
So what specifically was it about this project that brought you on board?
Radcliffe: I mean, I think its really like, it was a chance to work
with Simon and work with him over hopefully a number of years. And I
just think he just has the most unbelievably creative mind and I’m such a
fan of all his sort of short stories and his work. I think one of the
intimidating things for me about doing TV is that you are often signing
on to something having just read a pilot. And that’s crazy to me. And
not knowing where that goes is something that would worry me. But
there’s something about Simon that I have absolutely no doubt that he
would be able to come up with amazing ideas for how [and] where to go
with this show. Obviously [the] next series will not be in Heaven, it
will be in somewhere totally different.
Hearing how excited Simon was at the prospect of being able to write a
show that … there are things that I never considered about writing for
TV, but you know, you can’t write an ending, you have to write
continuously-open ended stuff. How frustrating that must be, as a
writer, so I think, when I hear the excitement in his voice, at the
amount of freedom TBS was giving him to just create a world, tell the
whole story… So essentially it’s like a long movie, and then you chuck
it out and go on to something completely different for the next season.
And, for me as well, that freed me of any of the worry of, “Oh, I’m
going to be playing the same character again for a long time, because
I’m gonna get to play a different character every year.”
So what was this character? What was intriguing for you?
Radcliffe: Well you know, this first series is obviously based off of
Simon’s book, so the character of Craig is pretty much how he is in the
book. I think he’s probably become slightly more neurotic and nervous,
as the writer started writing for my voice.
In some ways, there are definitely parallels between myself and this
character that I see, but I also think the character of Craig kind of
functions as an avatar for Simon, himself, in the story. Obviously it’s
his creation and his character, but I think there’s definitely a lot of
both of us in it.
And also this world. I know Simon has written for Pixar, and The Simpsons,
and lots of animated stuff, but I definitely picture this world somehow
as–even though I’ve been filming for four weeks–as still being an
animated Pixar movie, it just has that, in the same way that Inside Out
did. As well as it being a great story, with great characters, there’s
an intricacy and a playfulness to the world, where you just want to
spend time in it, and see how more of it works. And, to me, that’s a
very exciting thing, as an audience member, where you just want to get
back to being in that space with all these characters.
This version of Heaven has a corporate name. Can you talk a
little bit about the hierarchy and how your character fits into that
hierarchy?
Radcliffe: Yes. Very, very lowly. So I think, contrary to what we, as
human beings on Earth, would hope for, the answering of our prayers is
very low priority in this version of Heaven. Craig, my character, takes
an incredible amount of joy and pride in his job, but he’s like a
one-man army, he’s literally a one-man band receiving millions of
prayers a day; answering like three or four, that’s like a good day.
And so he is somebody who is sort of quite isolated. Because nobody
else is really in his department, and he’s developed a certain way of
doing things, he’s also very cautious. He’s somebody who, for fear of
failing, will not try. He would rather take the path of, “Well, I won’t
even try that, because that’s gonna go terribly, badly wrong. So I’ll
just stick to my safe prayers that I know that I can get done.”
Then when Eliza comes into the story, in the beginning, she kind of
comes in with an attitude of, “Wait, what the hell are you doing? You
have an opportunity to make a massive difference to people’s lives, and
you’re just sort of doing these tiny trivial prayers.” But then she
finds out, in her zeal to try and make a massive difference in the
world, that actually it’s very hard to do that without there being some
sort of horrible butterfly effect that launches something terrible else
halfway around the world.
That’s one of the things in this story that I find, not funniest,
because its not funny, but it also is. These guys are working in Heaven.
And so, when something goes wrong, it is truly catastrophic on Earth.
But they have also been there for 10,000 years, and they’ve seen every
variant of an earthquake or every variant of a volcano, or something
going wrong. So there’s a certain de-sensitivity, or the i[detachment]
of doctors, with the sort of gallows humor of, “Well, okay then, there
goes another one. Moving on.”
Simon’s humor, hopefully, combines some very, very light fun stuff
with some very, very dark. We are trying to save the world, so at a
certain point, the ends justify the means, to a certain extent, for our
characters in this series. We do some bad things to people who are
getting in our way in order to try and save the world.
You’ve only got seven episodes, so I’m curious about the
scope. Do we get to see Craig sort of like, super enthusiastic and then
kind of waning over time, or is the story kind of just focused on one
particular point in time?
Radcliffe: Yeah, no, it’s focused on one particular, sort of, I guess
just over two week time period. But you certainly see everyone kind of
run the gamut in that thing.
Simon had a great analogy for the series actually. What he said was
it’s kind of like a sports movie in that a lot of the drama from it
comes from, not how’s it going to end, but actually how are they going
to assemble the team. So it starts off with just me, and I’m useless on
my own, and Eliza, and she’s kind of too enthusiastic for her own good
on her own. And then we meet and sort of balance each other out. And
then it’s about us learning that we’re not enough, so we maybe have to
go with some characters who we don’t won’t to, or we find intimidating,
and try and bring them into the team. It’s sort of about the ups and
downs of the relationships along the way.
And also my favorite description that Simon has is half the movie is
like this crazy high-stakes almost action movie … it’s not an action
movie, but it’s that sort of feel of incredibly fast tempo and high
stakes craziness, all the time. And then the other half is just like
this romcom movie about these two kids trying to go on a date. And
hopefully the flipping back and forth between these two, and seeing
these people on Earth completely unaware of the weight that their story
is carrying, and the fact that there are literally angels watching them,
depending on their every move … hopefully, a lot of comedy will come
from that as well.
How did Craig get this gig?
Radcliffe: That’s a great question.
Is that addressed or not really important?
Radcliffe: I don’t think it’s addressed. Everyone is randomly
assigned roles when they get in to Heaven, and it’s random weather you
get into Heaven, in our story, as well. There’s one moment when Eliza is
trying to rally the troops, and she’s like, “Come on guys, you know,
we’re all in Heaven, that means we’re the best humanity has to offer.”
And somebody else is like, “No, no, no, that’s not how it works. It’s
random.” I think that’s definitely one of the things that Simon has
enjoyed, is just like messing with what expectations of Heaven would be,
and generally, I think, being pretty disillusioning to people.
But, in terms of how Craig got his job, I assume he was randomly
assigned and has just sort of taken to it and loved it, and made it his
own.
These angels don’t have wings?
Radcliffe: No, no. No wings, no halos.
You mentioned that this was the earliest that you’d ever been
involved in a project. So how did you inform the character of Craig?Radcliffe: I don’t know. I suppose in a way that I’m not trying to
give you no answer, but I think that’s probably more of a question for
Simon. Simon and I definitely had conversation about how I saw Craig,
particularly in moments at the end of the series. It’s normally like I’d
say, “I think maybe Craig needs to have something there to sort of tie
that together.” And then Simon goes off and writes an amazing scene. So
it’s generally that’s the input I had, was just going, “Maybe something
that…” And then Simon did something amazing, and it was exactly what it
needed.
I got to be involved in the casting process as well, which was super
weird, to be on the other side of that. It was cool, and it made me have
so much respect for actors in a way that I maybe didn’t before,
frankly. But I don’t know, like I do obviously have respect for actors
but, watching loads and loads and loads of tapes of people that had sent
tapes in, for various roles. And so you were seeing the same scene
again and again and again. And then suddenly you’ll see somebody and
like, “Oh, wow, you just said the exact same thing as everyone one else,
and suddenly that was completely different and amazing.”
So it was cool being involved in that part of the process. And yeah, I
think, as I said, I think Simon and I are quite similar people. I’m
like a dumb version of Simon. But I do think, talking about the
character, that we were often finding a lot of common ground,
particularly around stuff … the most I ever ever feel like myself and
comfortable is on set working, and I think that’s something that Craig
has as well. When he meets Eliza, in the beginning, he’s thrilled to be
meeting her at work, because that’s kind of the place where he knows,
and he can show off and be his version of cool.
And then outside, anywhere removed from that, in a slightly social
situation or in a situation anywhere else around the sort of cavern, or
the campus of Heaven Inc, he’s pretty useless. I think Simon and I have
experienced versions of that same sort of feeling. So you know,
conversations like that.
What do you think that people will respond to specifically with Miracle Workers?
Radcliffe: Oh, I don’t know. You just hope that it finds an audience
and that people like it. The thing that I find lovely about it is that,
first of all, the world that it is in I genuinely think is so
imaginative and creative and wonderful and fun. And I think that is
really powerful, in terms of people wanting to watch the show.
I’m not saying this is like Harry Potter, but I think it’s the reason that Harry Potter
was very successful as well, was that world, and you wanted to spend
time in there. So, no matter what iteration of it it is, you sort of
just want to go back and see more of it. I think this has that same
feeling.
I think it’s really, as I said earlier, there’s some darker humor in
it, but generally speaking, I think it’s incredibly kind and
heart-warming and happy comedy. And I think it’s very hard to do comedy
that is just not in any way mean or cynical. There’s a huge amount of
warmth for just humanity, and the awkwardness of being human. And I
think there’s a huge amount of love in the series. And I know that
sounds like just a cheesy, corny thing to say, but sometimes you watch
some comedies, and you’re like, “Ah, man. I feel like this is really
funny.” But often you’re like, “I feel like writers kind of hate the
characters.” Whereas, I feel like, with this, there’s an incredible
amount of … even our depiction of God is kind of crazy. And Steve
[Buscemi] is sort of a child in it. But even in that character and even
in that depiction of him, there’s still a huge amount of love for that
character, and hopefully that sort of comes across. Ultimately, what I’m
saying is I think it’ll be a very happy show to watch. And so I think
people want that I think.
How did this marry with your own upbringing of what Heaven
was, and your concept? Because we’re either affected by what our parents
feel or what religion institutions teach us, or cinematically, there
are versions of Heaven.
Radcliffe: Yeah, I mean, that’s the thing. I feel like most of my
versions of Heaven were from like, cartoons and Terry Pratchett books.
My mum and dad were, I think they definitely both believe in God, I
think.
But it’s not something that we, as a family, it was never something
that was passed on to me, in terms of, “This is what Heaven is and this
is where you’re going to go and not go.” I’ve never been particularly
religious, but I’ve always been fascinated by religion and also found it
amazing. There’s reason religion has such an important place in all of
our lives, and is reflective of where we, as a species, have been at
every point in our existence. And so there’s something to it, and
there’s something, I particularly think, from a storytelling point of
view.
I did a movie called Horns, which is a similarly weird.
Like, I’m not religious, but it’s a weirdly very religious movie. And
it’s quite straight-on on its take on demons and angels and redemption
and that kind of stuff. And so I think, I don’t know, maybe it’s just
pure exploitation, but I feel like Heaven and religious symbolism, and
stuff like that, is incredibly fertile ground for storytelling. Because
it is why things like Good Omens, the Terry Pratchett and Neil
Gaiman book that I was thinking of earlier, one of the reasons that’s so
good is that it just plays with things we sort of already know about
Heaven and reinvents them in ways that are pleasing and fun. And I
actually think this world is less religious than the Heaven in Simon’s
book. The Heaven in Simon’s book is kind of a straight-up Christian
Heaven. I think Jesus is mentioned directly.
This is much more sort of secular. Like it is like a corporation,
it’s definitely a non-denominational kind of just omnipresent
organization, I don’t know. The closest we ever get to some direct
religious parody, or something like that, there’s one episode where God
gets a prophet, and that’s great. That’s one of my favorite things, but I
don’t want to say too much about it.
Do we know how Craig gets to Heaven? Do we know what happened to him on Earth?
Radcliffe: You do find out about his past life, yeah. Well Craig’s
life on Earth took place at a time where he was actually probably
towards the top end of human life expectancy when he died. It’s one of
my favorite jokes in the series actually is you see all of our past
lives, all the three main angels, what we did on Earth. But I’m not
gonna say anything more about that, because it’s such a great joke.
Those particular jokes remind me of the jokes in movies like Airplane,
where you just are like, “Whoa, how much time was put into that
four-second joke?” Because they’re all very, very short, but we all had
sets made specifically for that. It’s one of my favorite moments, but I
won’t say any more about that.
source: collider.com
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- Updated: Film Review Online soundbite
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Collider's interview with Daniel Radcliffe
Marion
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04 February 2019
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