February, 2012: I had 15 minutes on the phone to chat with Daniel Radcliffe.
Even then it seemed clear that the former Boy Who Lived was going to chart his own path as an adult actor, and wasn’t going to let his history in that wildly successful franchise define him. It’s entirely impressive what he’s done since then, from the most fearless choices of film projects — this one, this one, and this one stand out — to winning a Tony for Merrily We Roll Along.
He and I spoke about his first post-Potter feature, The Woman In Black for The Coast.
The most famous teenager in the world has graduated. Daniel Radcliffe, now 22, played Harry Potter in the most successful film franchise in history, with profits in the billions of dollars, an adaptation of the biggest-selling book series in history, some 450 million copies sold.
Now comes the rest of Radcliffe’s life and career, starting with The Woman in Black, a spectral horror movie produced by Hammer Film Productions, the British studio famed for its gothic horror pictures from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. In terms of follow-ups, starring in a medium-budget horror seems like a clever first step away from Harry.
“It’s a lot less strategic than people think,” says Radcliffe’s friendly and recognizable voice on the phone from Toronto. “Normally the part is very, very important…but it was mainly that the story was very compelling, and I wanted to be part of it.”
The story—an adaptation of the novel by Susan Hill, which was also turned into a play—is set in England in the early 1900s. Arthur (Radcliffe), a young lawyer, father and widower, finalizing an estate in a small, seaside town, discovers the shambling home he’s working in is haunted by a vindictive ghost, somehow connected to a spate of child deaths in the local village.
It feels like a movie from another time, hardly like the torture porn horror that has recently defined the genre. Its atypical qualities appealed to Radcliffe.
“Word is certainly getting out that I’m kind of weird,” Radcliffe says. “Cause a lot of the scripts I’m getting are kind of weird. I like the fact that people are sending me different and interesting stuff, not just rom-coms and action movies. That’s really cool.”
What’s particularly surprising about The Woman in Black is it’s more than just an old-fashioned horror, offering the scares and skin-crawling fear you expect from it, but it’s also thoughtful, a commentary on grief and what happens to us if we fail to move on from personal tragedy.
“If there is a theme to this film, that’s it,” says Radcliffe. “It’s a chance to do something that’s not just a genre movie but has real heart as well.”
Speaking of heart, there’s no doubt Radcliffe loves what he does; it seems unlikely he’d need to work if he didn’t want to, coming off a decade of highly popular fantasy films. He’s added to his acting experience by treading the boards in London and on Broadway, in plays such as Equus and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
His next feature will be an American independent film Kill Your Darlings, where he’ll play a young Allen Ginsberg. Having mastered an American accent on stage, he says he’s working on Ginsberg’s particular New Jersey twang. The part is another left turn that Radcliffe denies is part of a calculated career trajectory.
