interview w. Dan and Emma at dvd launch nov 3rd.

Of course Daniel Radcliffe (Dan) is already a big big star. Everyone calls him Dan, he introduces himself as Dan. This is the 2nd time in 5 months I’ve met him and he was much sturdier this time, still wiry as hell but healthier somehow – no discernible dark shadows under his eyes, loud and energetic as ever but not peaking from Red Bull overdose this time.

I always expect the “leads” to be big letdowns. To have less charisma than you would expect simply because their characters are literally larger than life. Dan Radcliffe doesn’t disappoint that way. He absolutely lives up the star moniker. Not in a conceited way, mind you, but with the self-assurance that indicates he’s accepted his fame and has learned to handle it responsibility, understanding that he above all others has a duty to promote his work and the project so closely attached to him, and in turn delivering on his obligation without a sense of resentment or the over-eagerness that would imply an inner famewhore. Rather Dan Radcliffe is impressively professional without being nauseatingly mature…unlike Dakota Fanning who is a 50 year old trapped in a 13 year old’s body.

Dan is a hardcore cricket fan. Told me about a match on Thursday, couldn’t wait to pile into his buddy’s car and drive all night to get there. I had to stop myself from asking if he was allowed. Because here’s the thing – many of you have shared your embarrassing secret, have developed a pervy crush, stemming perhaps from the bare-chested publicity photos of him from Equus, the stage production for which he stripped naked and for which he will do so again reportedly on Broadway next year. You were attracted to the taut, cut physique and the tantalising trail of fuzz beginning at his abs and leading somewhere naughty. You gasped at the prospect of a cute lad becoming a sexy man … and I’m going to stop you right there.

In person, he is very much still a child. He is small, he is my height. I am 5 ft 3 and ¾...on a good day. To me, that’s wee. More than that though, he still has the mannerisms of a boy. He holds himself as a boy, he speaks like a boy – rushed sentences when he’s enthusiastic, every other answer is a lame joke (when I asked him why he hasn’t turned out like Britney Spears, he told me it was because he refused the offer of breast implants - knee slapper!), big round eyes when describing even the most insignificant details …he is your best friend’s son or your BFF’s younger brother. I’m telling you – unless you are under 17, he is absolutely NOT for your quiver.

He is however delightful. He does his job without making you feel he’s doing his job. He has a firm handshake, he replies to every question (even though he’s already been asked a million times) with a response that is just as interested, just as engaging, just as present as it was the first time around. Joaquin Phoenix could stand to learn a lesson from Dan Radcliffe.

Above all, he is well mannered. So polite. Says please and thank you and what I will remember most: at one point, one of his handlers asked him if he needed a break. He said: “Yes, that would be great, if that’s alright with everyone?”

It’s obviously nothing extraordinary and even almost ludicrous that by simply reacting the way he “should” be reacting that he deserves applause. But you’d be amazed how few of them behave this way. Hope he doesn’t change.

I interviewed Dan in a room at 12 Grimmauld Place – the room in the movie where Sirius shows Harry his family tree, where certain sections of the tapestry have been burned out by Sirius’s crazy mother. I found Sirius’s name and Bellatrix’s close to it and then had to restrain from running my fingers across the scrawl. It is exactly as yellow and old and authentic as you want it to be. And just as wide too, which was the surprising part. Film sets are always smaller than they appear. Harry Potter productions however are almost always true to life.


Next it was off to Emma Watson who happened to be stationed in … Dumbledore’s Office! As it was the last time I met her, she was delightful. Rumoured to be rather prickly at times, on both occasions she’s been in fine form – super friendly, super chatty, very girly, and not Emmy Rossum. Nor in any danger of turning into one. Yet.

Last time she wanted to know about my nail polish, this time I went in right after my colleague Danielle McGimsie who was wearing a grey tunic over black tights and black suede boots. I was wearing a black and grey striped tunic, black tights, and grey boots. Emma commented that “Canadians are always so smartly dressed”. I will love her forever.

She herself had just had her hair blown out, in jeans and flats under a black cotton blouse, well accessorised as she was before. She told me she’s been super busy with the new movie and catching up with her “homework”. Hee.

I asked her how she was going to avoid turning in to Britney Spears. She told me she doesn’t hang out on the scene, said England, even with its sometimes pervasive paparazzi presence, can shelter young celebrities better than her American counterparts. I also asked her how it was on set in the 6th movie with all the hook ups and the making out. She laughed, seemed to be relieved that she had little to do with “all the kissing”.

As for Dumbledore’s Office – every bit as imposing and mysterious as you think it should be. And just as large as it looked in the movie, an ante chamber shaped like a globe leading into an inner sanctum, with portraits of the former headmasters hanging on the walls that you could have spent the entire day analysing, a little cluttered in some places, and curious objects dotting the shelves here and there begging you to touch them and consequently getting thrown out on your ass. Three steps led up to the inner chamber but unfortunately the entrance was blocked and I was too chicken shit to ask the lady guarding it to allow me in for a peek. Having said that, everything seemed to be preserved just as it was on film, except I looked and I looked for so long that I was nudged off the set, but still I couldn’t find the Sorting Hat.