Equus official site
posted by Jas, 10/31/06
Equus official website is now live! more info about the play, the cast and you can now book your tickets online. Read Dan's message at both DR.com or DR.co.uk

Pirates battle Potter at Baftas
posted by Jas, 10/24/06
Goblet of Fire has been nominated for Children's Bafta Awards for Best Feature Film. Results will be announced on November 26.

Revealing the whole Harry Potter
posted by Jas, 10/22/06
In addition to the Newsweek interview, there's also David Heyman's comment on Dan's decision to do Equus

Not that Harry's been bad to him. The films have grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide and made Radcliffe a rich teen. Still, you can't blame a young actor for wanting to reveal another part of himself, so to speak. What's remarkable is that the studio, Warner Bros., didn't freak out about it. "Well, I'm sure there were some people in Burbank who may have taken a breath, but I wasn't worried," says "Potter" producer David Heyman, who discovered Radcliffe seven years ago in the audience of a London theater. "I think it shows a young man who is pushing boundaries," he says. "Besides, what's the worst that can happen? Someone takes a picture of his willy?" Well, yeah. "So what," he says. "We've all got one—or have seen one."

New interview with Daniel
posted by Jas, 10/22/06
Newsweek has a new interview with Dan where they talk about OOTP, acting, fame, friendship, dating, and his decision to do Equus

Oct. 21, 2006 - Daniel Radcliffe, the 17-year-old star of the “Harry Potter” movies sat down on the set of the fifth film, “Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix” with NEWSWEEK for a wide-ranging discussion on acting, fame, friendship, dating, and why he’s decided to make his stage debut - naked, no less - in the Tony-winning play, “Equus.” Radcliffe aced his final exams this summer, and just prior to this interview, had gone with his friends to Britain’s huge live music event, the Reading Festival, which features bands such as Blink 182, Linkin Park and Dirty Sanchez. Excerpts:

When you go to places like the Reading Festival, do you have to worry about being recognized?
It’s not so much being recognized. The only thing you have to worry about is press. But we pretty well got away with it. There was only one photo of me [that was published] with some headline about the hat I was wearing. [Laughs] Yeah, some really important news. Groundbreaking stuff. So, no, people recognizing you is not really an issue. In fact, one of the best moments of the festival for me was on the first day: My friends and I walked out of this tent, and there was this guy passed out on the floor. He woke up, just momentarily, went, [in slurry, drunk voice] “It’s Harry Potter!” and collapsed again. [Laughs]

I’ve seen crowds go crazy over you, though. Girls screaming. What’s that like?
I don’t really experience it on a daily basis because I’m here most days, where everyone knows me. I suppose visitors to the set sometimes will be slightly awestruck, and that’s odd for me because I know myself, and I know there’s really nothing to be awestruck about. So the premieres are very odd because you get out of the car and there are hundreds of people screaming your name. To you, your name doesn’t really mean anything. It’s just a noun, like “table” or something, so when suddenly people are chanting it, it’s the strangest, strangest feeling. But it’s also incredibly gratifying because you work on a film for a year and suddenly all these people come out, basically, to thank you. So it’s great.

Do you date?
I do, yes, but not at the moment.

Do you have to worry that girls want to go out with you just because you’re famous?
It’s always a worry, yeah, but I’ve got pretty good instincts for people. Normally, the people who are not genuine are the ones who say, “You know I’m not just being your friend because you’re Harry Potter, right?” And it’s like, “Uh, fine, but if that’s the case, why do you need to say that?”

You’ve been playing Harry for six years now. Are you still enjoying it?
This film has been the most fun I’ve had, definitely, partly because of Imelda Staunton [who plays Harry’s nemesis, Professor Dolores Umbridge], and partly because of David Yates, our wonderful director, who I have had absolutely the time of my life working with. He pushes me farther and more often than I ever have been before. This is not being detrimental to any of the previous directors because I wouldn’t have been able to do this before, but David has caught me at just the right moment.

Harry’s much angrier in this book. And more bitter.
I think he has what a lot of people after the Holocaust had, which is survivor’s guilt. I think he thinks he should have died rather than Cedric [Diggory, who was killed by Voldemort in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.”] Cedric was nothing to Voldemort, and so Harry feels, “I’m the one who should have been taken.”

I know some fans didn’t like this book because they were bothered by Harry’s anger. They thought it was out of character.
I was fortunate enough to get to spend about an hour with [Potter author] JK Rowling on this film, and she said, “If people say, ‘I don’t like how angry Harry is in this book,’ then they haven’t been reading close enough.” If you look at what Harry’s been through, most people would be far more angry than Harry is, and far more outraged at the state of the world. Harry’s actually fairly well balanced, for everything that’s happened to him. It’s not petulance.

I read you did really well on your final exams.
Yes! Thank you very much! I did. I’m thrilled. I’ve always worked hard, but it’s never paid off to quite this extent before. I’m also thrilled for my teachers because they worked so hard. Lina Wright has tutored me since the first film, and gave me confidence and a love of learning, everything. I owe so much to her, and so to go out on this note for her, it was great.

Did you feel more pressure, knowing that your grades, whatever they were, would be made public?
Um, no. If they were bad I probably just wouldn’t have told anyone, and if it had gotten into the papers, I probably would have said, “Oh, the press. Don’t believe everything you read.” [Laughs]

So are you going to go to college?
I’m going to take the year off and then review the situation. I’m doing a play [“Equus”] next year, so there’s no way I could do eight performances week and do [school]. After that I’ll sit down and think about what will be gained or lost by doing school. For now it’s lovely just to have the feeling of a year off. It’s great! Liberty! It’s wonderful.

Your character in “Equus” is a far cry from Harry. It’s a very adult role. You even have a nude scene. Do you feel you want to shake off Harry a bit?
I don’t want to shake him off, no. Part of me wants to shake up people’s perception of me, just shove me in a blender. If I’d gone into the theater and done something light and fluffy, everyone would have just gone, “Oh, that’s not particularly challenging. It doesn’t prove anything.” But this is a really challenging play, and if I can pull it off - we don’t know if I can yet - I hope people will actually stop and think, “Maybe he can something other than Harry.” Also, it’s just a pretty fabulous play.

Do you think acting is going to be your career?
Yeah. You meet so many interesting people from so many different backgrounds. You get a chance to find out new things about yourself. Acting is just like reading a book, in that you experience something through the eyes of someone else. You’re finding out about this character through playing him, and his beliefs make you stop and question your own. It’s quite revelatory sometimes. So, yeah, I definitely want to be an actor; I love it so much. But I want to write as well. I’d love to direct a short film, just to see what that’s like. But I don’t know anything about the technical side of things. At all. I’ve been here for six years, you’d think I’d have picked up a couple of things. [Laughs]

It’s been interesting to watch you grow up on camera. Do you look back at the earlier films?
No. I will when I’m, like, 30 or 40, and I’ve got kids. I’ll sit them down and say, “See, this is what I’d done by the time I was your age. What have you done?” [Laughs] I always forget: sarcasm doesn’t work in print. Um, I would like to look back at them in ten or twenty years and possibly cringe a little bit. I wasn’t an actor when I was 11, really. I was just a kid having the time of his life. But I don’t really have a sense of myself growing up on film because I’ve done so much growing up off film, as well. Harry’s grown up on film, but not me.

I was really angry as a teenager - just all those hormones in your system - and irritable, impatient, bored. Have you had to find ways to cope with that when you’re working?
Yeah, of course you do. But everyone on set has a backstory. Everyone has something going on behind the scenes, and none of them brings it to work, so you just have to learn to deal with it. I’ve had my moments of getting really angry, irrationally, but to be honest, they are few and far between nowadays. What have I got, really, to be angry about? I’ve got a few things that I would change, but I’ve got a great life.

You and Rupert Grint, who plays Ron, and Emma Watson, who plays Hermione, have worked together a long time. When I met you all on the first film it was sort of like the boys against the girls. But when I talked to you during the making of the third film, “Prisoner of Azkaban” it seemed that you and Emma had become close friends. What’s the dynamic between the three of you now?
We’ve got a mix of both at the moment. I mean Rupert’s got a table-tennis table in his room-well, what hasn’t he got in his room? He’s got a dartboard, a pool table, an Xbox, and now this little infrared shooting range, which I’m very good at it. So I’m constantly in there chatting to him and using his stuff, and Emma and I have a very similar relationship to the one we had on “Azkaban,” which is more conversational. Rupert’s great, because if you’re ever in the mood for a very surreal conversation, you can have it with him. Like, “What would happen if each of us had our own gravitational pull?” [Laughs]

When this all started six or seven years ago, your parents, the producers and the director of the first two films, Chris Columbus, all put a lot of thought into what playing Harry Potter would do to your childhood and to your life. They were all really concerned about it. Now that you’re older, do you think they made the best decision for you?
Yes, and I’m not just saying that because I want to seem positive. I got a better education here than I would have if I had stayed at school. I was never very good at school, and I would have had a really crap time if I’d stayed. There wasn’t anything that I stood out at. I wasn’t very good at sports. I wasn’t good at academics. But now, through this, I’m doing something that I enjoy, that I’m good at, and that I’m improving at. And I’ve developed a love of learning from being here and being tutored one-on-one. I’ve learned so much more than I would have had I stayed in school.

Will you make the last two films?
If the script does justice to the book, it would be foolish not to do the sixth, because I think the book is so incredible and the part is so brilliant. [The seventh book has not been published yet].

I also assume it would be hard to walk away from Harry at this point.
Yes. I’ve come this far. If I’d stopped after the third film, someone could have come in and there would have been time for the fans to get used to him. At this stage it would be a bit harder, certainly.

Dan is charming
posted by Jas, 10/22/06
Miriam Margoles (Professor Sprout) mentions Dan in an interview with Philippine Inquirer

He's absolutely charming. He comes from a very nice, middle-class family, he has perfect manners and possesses a sense of decency and humility. Very refreshing.

Audience get up close and personal for Dan's nude debut
posted by Jas, 10/12/06
Sixty people from the audience will be seated on stage when Dan performs nude in Equus next year

Daniel Radcliffe may find that the audience is a little too close for comfort when he performs a sensational nude scene on stage in the West End next year. Sixty people from the audience will actually be seated on stage when the Harry Potter star, in his role as the troubled groomsman Alan Strang in Peter Shaffer's celebrated play Equus, simulates a sex act while naked and astride a horse. The play, which also stars Richard Griffiths, will be performed in the round for 16 weeks at the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, with previews starting on February 16 and an official opening night planned for February 27.

The rest of the audience will have to be content with watching Daniel, 17, from the stalls and the circle - but I predict that those 60 seats on stage are going to be the most sought-after seats in London. Tickets will not go on sale at the Gielgud for a while. In any case, Equus will open after Frost/Nixon, which is being transferred from the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, completes a limited run.

John Napier, the awardwinning designer of the original production of Equus four decades ago, has been lured from his studio in East Sussex by producer David Pugh to create a set for the new production, which will be directed by Thea Sharrock. The nude scene was a coup de theatre in the original production when Peter Firth (spy chief Harry Pearce in the brilliant Bafta-winning Spooks on BBC television) played the Alan Strang role. Firth also did a screen version with Richard Burton. Radcliffe, who is finishing work on Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, shooting scenes with Ralph Fiennes as the evil Voldemort, has been studying the play for more than a year.

The Daily Mail was the first to reveal that the teenager was considering making his dramatic debut on the London stage - although at the time no one realised just how dramatic his performance would be. In the play, Strang is institutionalised for blinding six horses with a groom's spike. Griffiths will play Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist who begins a psychological and spiritual investigation into what drove the young man to commit the cruel acts. Griffiths, who has shed three stone in weight, recently completed a sellout run on Broadway with the original National Theatre cast of Alan Bennett's The History Boys.

The movie version opens in cinemas today and Griffiths is tipped for possible Orange, Bafta and Academy Award nominations for his performance. He and Daniel know each other well: he plays Harry's horrible Uncle Vernon in the Potter pictures. Director Sharrock and producer Pugh will cast the remaining Equus roles over the next few weeks and begin rehearsals on January 3.

OOTP teaser trailer in theatres Nov 17
posted by Jas, 10/11/06
According to the official Harry Potter newsletter the theatrical teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will debut in theatres on November 17th. The trailer can only be seen in front of the Warner Bros. comedy adventure film, Happy Feet.

Dan featured in Exceptional Youth exhibition
posted by Jas, 10/07/06
The Guardian reports that Dan is one of the faces of Britain's future to be featured in Exceptional Youth: Photographs By Emma Hardy Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London WC2 on October 30

Daniel Radcliffe, 16 [at time of interview]
Chosen at 11 to play Harry Potter, he is now making the fifth film in the series. He has appeared as 'himself' in Extras and next year is to star in the ITV drama My Boy Jack, in the film December Boys and on stage in Equus.

I'm still not really aware of how big Harry Potter is. When you're in the middle of something, it's hard to be objective. Funny things have happened, though, and I do have to avoid confined spaces such as the underground. Recently we went to the science museum in Valencia. I was really excited to be checking it out, but I hadn't factored in the school parties, who got a little overexcited.

I would hate to be accused of having got through life just by luck - I think you do create your own destiny. My mum and dad believe in fate. I see coincidences, but not a predestined path. If it's just about fate, then you become complacent and expect things to come your way. I like being challenged. Even when you're doing really intense, dramatic scenes that take so much out of you, it's still really fun and energising. Acting makes you feel so alive.

Committing to such a big film project has involved sacrifices. I miss out on some of the more spontaneous moments in life. But I have a great bunch of friends and an amazing relationship with my parents, and I feel lucky to have worked with so much talent. It sounds a bit gushy, I know, but to have performed with the likes of Imelda Staunton, Gary Oldman and Michael Gambon is nothing less than magical.

Doby's out Kreacher's in
posted by Jas, 10/06/06
MTV reports that house elf, Doby won't be in the Order of the Phoenix but Kreacher will make his first appearance in the movie. Full story

Official OOTP logo
posted by Jas, 10/06/06
TLC has a picture of the official logo for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

NRJ Cine Awards
posted by Jas, 10/03/06
UHP reports that Goblet of Fire has won the NRJ Cine Award for "Top of the Box Office", Dan accepted the award via a video taped message. Update: UHP has the video up for download here

Harry Potter sweep SyFy Genre Awards
posted by Jas, 10/02/06
Winners for the SyFy Genre Awards have been announced and Dan and Emma have won the Best Actor/Actress Movie awards, Emma also won the Best Young Actor award and Goblet of Fire was named Best Movie.

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