From cbswatchmagazine.com Daniel Radcliffe on life after Potter, why he quit drinking and how The Woman in Black might be his scariest role yet
WHEN YOU’VE ALREADY headlined a film franchise that cast a spell over Muggles worldwide, what do you do for an encore? Faced with that daunting prospect, Daniel Radcliffe, star of the beloved multibillion-dollar Harry Potterseries, is graduating from Hogwarts to a haunted house and facing off against another otherworldly foe in The Woman in Black.
“For the first time, I’m feeling nervous about a film coming out,” admits the actor of the supernatural thriller distributed by CBS Films, scheduled to open Feb. 3. “With Potter, you knew it was going to do well. There was a preexisting fan base. But with this, there’s that fear in the back of my mind that no one will really care.”
If the buzz surrounding the Gothic period drama is any indication, the actor can rest easy. Based on Susan Hill’s classic novel, The Woman in Blackfinds Radcliffe, in his first onscreen adult role, playing lawyer Arthur Kipps, a grieving widower who must leave his young son behind in London to settle the estate of a recently deceased client in a remote English village where a vengeful ghost is horrifically offing little kids. “I read the script just about two hours after we finished filming the last Potter film,” says Radcliffe, “and I thought it was the most compelling story. At the beginning of the film, [Arthur] is a deeply unhappy character in a state of emotional paralysis. But when it really gets going, he’s forced to come out of that and be an active participant in his own life.”
It also didn’t hurt that the script scared the daylights out of him. “From the first page when he’s in the house with the woman in black, I was going, ‘Get out! Run! Don’t ever go back!’ ” he says with a laugh.
To prepare for the part, Radcliffe met with a psychologist to better understand his character’s crippling grief. The 22-year-old actor dealt with the film’s other chief challenge—believably playing a father—by drawing on the natural chemistry he shares with real-life godson Misha Handley, who was cast as Arthur’s child. While valuable on camera, that led to some anxiety for Radcliffe offscreen. “We were doing night shoots a lot, and I was just so scared Misha was having a horrible time,” he says. “It gets to 10:30 and he’s starting to get tired, and no matter how much candy you offer him, or how many iPad games you promise he can play later, all he wants to do is go to bed. I was like, ‘He’s going to hate me!’ ”
That sensitivity to the feelings of his young co-star—the son of Thea Sharrock, who directed Radcliffe in Equus, the Potter star’s 2007 stage debut in which he performed in the buff every night—is understandable, given Radcliffe’s own early start in the business. The London-born actor was just 11 when he landed the star-making role of J.K. Rowling’s heroic boy wizard. He calls the Potter gig, which spanned eight films over 10 years, “the most amazing job in the world” and admits letting go hasn’t been easy. “Just the other day,” he says wistfully, “I was lying in bed before going to sleep and suddenly, I thought, ‘I miss everybody.’ ”
Still, growing up in the glare of the white-hot spotlight took its toll. In an interview with GQ last year, Radcliffe admitted to battling an alcohol problem. “There were times when things were getting a little out of control and I was starting to worry as to whether I would be able to cope in the public arena,” says Radcliffe, who stopped drinking in August 2010 after shooting wrapped on the final Potter film. “Thankfully, that blew over.
“At the end of the day, the lack of privacy is kind of the rent you pay,” he continues. “I have a lovely life and I’m in a very enviable, financially secure position. So if I have to cope with people writing crap about me in the papers, that’s OK.”
Indeed, the thoughtful and articulate actor now seems laser-focused on building a long-lasting and admirably diverse career. Having just wrapped a critically acclaimed run in Broadway’s Tony-nominated revival of the musicalHow to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, he’s reportedly signed on to play a young Allen Ginsberg in the feature Kill Your Darlings.
“I’m very ambitious,” says Radcliffe, who harbors dreams of directing one day. “In the back of my mind, there are always voices telling me what I have to achieve. That drives me on, along with other people thinking that I won’t be able to achieve those things.” He lets loose a hearty laugh. “I find other people’s doubts incredibly motivational.”
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