Summary
- Daniel Radcliffe discusses how he has worked hard to be kind to fans despite the expectation of being a "total d---" as a child actor.
- Radcliffe shares a personal encounter where a fan was rude to him, prompting him to set boundaries with fans.
- Radcliffe reveals that Rupert Grint has struggled even more with setting boundaries, recounting an incident where Grint ended up at a fan's house.
Daniel Radcliffe has struggled with fame since his rise to stardom as Harry Potter. As a result, he's had to mess with the paparazzi to get some peace. But that doesn't apply with fans asking for pictures with him, even when they get too intrusive.
During an appearance on the Graham Norton Show — which helped cast him as Weird Al in a biopic — the actor opened up about being too nice to fans and eventually setting up boundaries due to a rude encounter, and with the help of his longtime girlfriend, Erin Darke. Radcliffe also spilled some tea on his Harry Potter co-star, Rupert Grint's hilarious can't-say-no-to-a-fan experience.
Did Daniel Radcliffe Wear A Wig In Harry Potter?
Daniel Radcliffe was given strict and specific instructions about his hair throughout his stint on Harry Potter.
Daniel Radcliffe Told Graham Norton He Was Polite Even To A Rude Fan
In 2015, Norton confronted Radcliffe about "toughening up" to fans after a long reputation of being "lovely" and "giving his time very freely" to them. At first, the actor didn't quite get what the host was talking about. "What do you mean?" he asked, before explaining:
"I think when you start acting at a young age, people expect you to be a total d--- all the time. That's the expectation you sort of always find yourself coming up against."
Because of that, "all my life I've really worked hard to not be that and to be as, like as far away as possible," the Horns star confessed. "But that has sort of sometimes meant that someone can be really rude to me. And I'll just be like 'Yeah, fine.' I won't really notice that you've been rude." He then shared an encounter that forced him to set boundaries with his fans.
"99 percent of the time when people come up to ask you for something on the street, they are really very nice," he said. "And then just occasionally, someone [not nice] will come up. Somebody said, 'Can I take a picture with you?' And I was just you know, just words, not meaning anything by it, I just said, 'Yeah, of course if you want to.'"
He continued: "She just went, 'Well, I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to.' Of course, I was like 'Oh, no, of course, you wouldn't have. Silly of me. Got it [poses for the picture].'" Radcliffe said that the woman just left after they took the picture.
Daniel Radcliffe became an alcoholic due to his early fame. He started his recovery at the end of the Harry Potter series after worrying about what's next for him.
Graham Norton Was Left Speechless After Allison Janney Revealed Meryl Streep's Secret Kissing Technique
Allison Janney left the audience completely stunned when she replicated Meryl Streep's kissing technique with Graham Norton.
Daniel Radcliffe's Girlfriend Helped Him Set Boundaries With Fans After A Rude Encounter
Daniel Radcliffe and girlfriend Erin Darke at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - Premiere
Darke was with Radcliffe during the rude encounter, which prompted her to school the actor on setting boundaries."My girlfriend was with me and was like, 'That guy was a d--- to you,'" The December Boys actor told Norton. "So she's giving me like a little bit of sense of like, 'You can judge that.' Not that I'm gonna be like a d--- back now, I just don't have to [always be so polite]."
The couple has been together since 2012. Radcliffe once said that Darke is "absolutely" his best friend. "I think that's the kind of relationship I always aspire to have with someone I'm in a relationship with. You want that person to be your best friend," he told Us Weekly in 2014. "In the case of Erin, we definitely are."
Here's a timeline of their low-key relationship:
| 2012 | The couple met on the set of Kill Your Darlings |
| January 2013 | They were "affectionate" at the Sundance Film Festival |
| October 2013 | Radcliffe admitted he was seeing someone but didn't disclose who it was |
| June 2014 | The couple made their red carpet debut at the Tony Awards |
| March 2022 | They made their first-ever red carpet appearance together since 2014 |
| October 2022 | Radcliffe shared how Darke got him to play Weird Al in the biopic, Weird |
| April 2023 | The couple welcomed their first child, a baby boy |
What Happened To The Young Lily Potter And Snape Actors After Harry Potter?
What have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 stars Ellie Darcey-Alden and Benedict Clarke been doing since they appeared in the franchise?
Daniel Radcliffe Said Rupert Grint Went To A Fan's House As He Couldn't Say No
As it turned out, Grint is much worse than Radcliffe when it comes to setting boundaries with fans. "Rupert ended up at somebody's house one night," the latter dished out on the Graham Norton Show. "Just from continuing to say yes to things." He then said that he felt "bad saying this" as someone might "take advantage" of Grint and "just ask him, to you know... He's gonna be like the new Manchurian Candidate."
The host responded: "Sometimes, people come up to you, and they don't mean to be rude, but they can be quite rude." James McAvoy, who was also a guest on the show, also had his fair share of mean fan encounters. During his then-wife's film premiere, he thought, "If anybody calls out my name, I'll go and sign autographs."
After some signing, "this woman was screaming, screaming, screaming," the Atonement alum remembered. "She's [like] 'James, James, James! I'm a dancer!' And then I came over and she went, 'Oh thank you, I'm a really big fan of some of your work.'" Norton and Radcliffe laughed.
Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy worked together for the first time on Victor Frankenstein (2015), which only has a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
