Daniel Radcliffe, actor

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. This is an extended version of the original Radio 4 broadcast and for right reasons the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening. Music Radio Music My cast away this week is Daniel Radcliffe. If anybody earned their chance to kick back and relax on a desert island early, it's him. At 12 he was catapulted into the limelight by his big screen portrayal of Harry Potter. Ten years playing the role earned him worldwide fame, fortune, a place in cinema history. The Harry Potter films are second only to Star Wars as the most successful franchise of all time and made him a beloved part of family life all around the world. All of which could have been an excuse to take things easy, not for him. At 30 he's keener than ever to explore the creative possibilities of life after the boy who lived, appearing on stage in New York and in London and taking on a dizzyingly numerous variety of roles. One minute he's an angel, the next and explore a stranded in the Bolivian jungle, then going undercover as a neo-nazi. He says, "I don't want anyone to ever say that I don't belong where I am." That's a very easy thing for people to say when you fall into something very young, something so huge and you are wildly lucky to have ever got it in the first place. I want to earn my right to be doing these jobs. Daniel Radcliffe, welcome to desert island discs. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. So that idea of earning the luck that you've been given is important to you. Why? Yeah, because I have been insanely lucky and I think probably out of a vague sense of guilt about having something so amazing happened to you so young and I think I will always have a part of my brain that is going when I first walk into a rehearsal room. It's particularly a neurosis of mine in theatre, not so much now, but I remember when I was first doing Equers or was certainly when I was doing the musical. I went in and was thinking, "Oh, I got everyone here just thinks you're here because of Harry Potter." And in large part they are right. So you have to make sure that you're bringing something else to the table and I think a little part of that will always be there in some respect, but if that's the thing that makes me work hard, then fine. Lots of very successful people are quite keen to downplay the role of luck in their stories, though, and it interests me that you aren't. Yeah, I think that's insane because you can be the most hardworking and the most talented and all those things and you still need a huge amount of luck because there is a wonderfully talented, incredibly hardworking person out there who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We've seen you taking on some very challenging roles in art house films. I think Weird is a word that you've used more than once to describe your tastes. What are you looking for in a script? I do think it's important to say I don't think of them as weird. Weird is something I've been told so many times that my choices are weird. I guess I have to. It's attributed to. Yes, I have to start saying it to myself at some point. And I don't mind that other people think that at all, but I just don't want people to get the impression that I'm going out there being like, "What's the weirdest thing I could do next?" But yeah, I'm excited by working, particularly with young filmmakers who are getting their first film made or very sort of young and hungry and ambitious. And I'm attracted to original material. I know that sounds like a really obvious thing to say, but it's very hard to find a script that you read and go like, "Oh, I've not read any of the things I like, even of what I've done. There's only sort of, I suppose, Swiss Armyman, horns and guns a Kimbo. Those are the three that's like, they are just. The minute I read them, I was like, "There is a vision behind this. A whole world is in this direct as head." You know, I love that. And also, whenever a film. Like, Swiss Armyman does a wonderful thing. You pay a corpse, we should say. Yes, I pay a corpse that is gradually coming back to life that is befriended by Paul Dano and they go on a weird magical journey together. I feel like I should mention, because there is a lot of bodily functions involved. If I don't say that, people will just watch that movie and be like, "Wait, you didn't tell me about that." But there is something about that film that says something that I think I feel about the world, but I would never be able to express it as creatively and sweetly and insanely as those directors and writers have. And whenever you get the chance to be a part of something that does that, I feel like that's something you grab. It's almost a decade since the last Harry Potter film. There are very few actors, of course, who get to play such a huge part in millions of children's lives. How do you feel looking back at that ten years on? It's amazing. It really is. I sound very corny and earnest when I talk about it, but it does inspire those genuine feelings in me. I don't know what I thought would happen at the end of POSSA. I guess in some way, I expected it to die down, which it has not, if anything, it sort of feels as big or as not bigger, just because we're now at the stage when I am 30. If you were my age when you watch films, you might have young children by now of yourself. They are being introduced to it, so it's like you are watching that cycle perpetuate in an amazing way. And I have things from when I was a kid that I really cared about and loved and still mean a lot to me. And if I met those people, I would be a bit sort of shell shocked. So to think that I occupy that place for other people, it's genuinely, is really lovely. You share in your discs with us today and we know you're a music not. Let's start with your first, why have you chosen it? So I just think this is one of the most joyous songs ever recorded. I don't know if you need to know more common wise to appreciate them, but this is a show in the UK. So presumably everyone here will have some sort of knowledge with them walking away. And if you don't, I envy you because you just have a huge treat in store. They were a part of what I love about comedy. I think looking back like a huge amount of my sense of humor is derived from them. They still make me laugh. I can just watch them and it's a very, very happy place for me to be in mentally and bring me sunshine is the most iconic song. They sang by any other songs actually as well, which are all great, but they did this at the end of every show and it was wonderful. Mocha Menwai's and bring me sunshine. What a start, Daniel Rightler. Thank you for that. Oh, good. Thank you. So let's go back a bit then. You were born in London in 1989 to Alan and Marcia and they had been actors when they met touring in a play. So it was quite creative household. What fired your imagination when you were little? I mean, my mum and dad did take me to see a lot of plays and a lot of musicals. The house was full of books, but then honestly my first relationship with something that really fired my imagination was The Simpsons. Actually, like the reason I know so many things, like I will often like be doing a random quiz and I will know a piece of information and instantly be able to trace it back to Asimson's episode being where I learned that. This sneak a lot of clever stuff into The Simpsons. Yes, that was been one of the whole month. The second law of thermodynamics and perpetual motion machines. They're crazy. But yeah, so that and then I didn't really read why I am one of the kids that Potter got into reading. I'd read the first two and semi-got into them, but it was still reading and I was very much anti-reading until I was 12 or 13. And then suddenly a switch flipped and I went back and read the first four, which was all that was out of the time and then started very justly going off to lots of other stuff as well. You're an only child. Lots of only children are quite at ease around adults. Was that the case for you? Yes, and I actually think that was maybe one of the things that meant I segwayed into life on a film set very well because no brothers or sisters, so it was very good at either entertaining myself and being on my own or when my mom and dad would have friends over or whatever, I would kind of be a part of that. So I think I was okay with adults. And suddenly being on a film set, you have to as a kid, you're having a relationship with adults where they're not your teachers or your parents or your parents' friends, whether they're actually your co-workers. And I found that a really exciting feeling because yeah, you're being treated like you know what you're doing by a bunch of adults, which is very much the opposite of most of childhood I suppose. So yeah, that was great. Only children are also slightly more portable obviously than large breeds. And your parents took you to work sometimes. How did that go? Yes, my mom had me in like a caricot under a desk for the first six months of my life and she worked at that point for the man who 17 years later would become the producer of ECOS. So there's the one of the many weird things in my life. And then she was a casting agent. She was a casting agent then, yes, she's not anymore. My dad had been an actor and then became a literary agent for writing directors. So I was always kind of around it, but never particularly had like a desire to be an actor necessarily. It was more like, I saw a pantow at five, said that looks fun, turned around to my mom, I was like, I want to be an actor. She was like, "No, you don't." 'Cause my mom and dad had both had. Fairly crappy experiences as actors. - It's an interesting point to come to the industry at, isn't it? You're almost seeing it from the inside out. - Yes. - And I actually think there's one of the many ways in which I was blessed with my parents was that they knew enough about the industry to be really helpful and guide me through it. And also like knowing what's expected of you on set, but also not jaded by it so that they would be like, "Yeah, we've seen it all done at all. "There was none of that ever." What was the best piece of advice they gave you, do you think? - They gave me so many pieces of advice. - The most useful. - The thing that I always remember, my dad saying, and I now I'm rolling back in my head 'cause I may not have done it this morning, but I remember at the time I was going to meet the cabinet secretary or something that had come to visit the studio where we filmed. And my dad gave me this piece of advice in that context and I remember being like really annoyed with him for trying to give me this advice. I mean, like, "No, don't shut up, I'm fine." But he just said, whenever you meet somebody, always get your hand out first to shake their hand. And that really is like ingrained in me now. And I know it sounds really simple, but the thing that I hate is people assume that because you started, young and you got famous young, that you're going to be a horrible human being. So I feel like I have a need to establish at all times that I'm not perfect, but I'm not terrible. Like, and sometimes introduce myself to people and I say my name and someone's like, "Well, I know you are," or they make a joke of me having introduced myself or something. And I'm always just like, "No, but I would hate to be the kind of person that do assumes you know my name." 'Cause you might not, there are, believe it or not, people who have never seen a Harry Potter film or read a book or know that it exists. So I don't want to assume that you know that. - And you did get your hand out first. - Did I? - I did. - I didn't get it. - I'm just saying, it's all right. It's still officially a good person. - That's the test, guys. As long as you're doing that, any other behavior is acceptable. - It's time for your second disc, Dan. What have we got? - This is Tom Lehrer, who is a comedy songwriter from the '50s and '60s that my parents introduced me to. He is an absolute genius. And to have written songs that long ago that are still funny and still feel kind of edgy and subversive now is truly stunning. And this song is called, "We Will All Go Together When We Go." There's a sort of cheerful nihilism, which again, I think very well represents me. Oh, my world, yeah. ♪ And we will all go together when we go ♪ ♪ What a comforting fact that is to know ♪ ♪ Universal bereavement and inspiring achievement ♪ ♪ Yes, we all will go together when we go ♪ ♪ We will all go together when we go ♪ ♪ All suffused with an incandescent glow ♪ ♪ No one will have the endurance to collect on his insurance ♪ ♪ Loids of London will be loaded when they go ♪ ♪ We will all fry together when we go ♪ - We will all go together when we go, "Cheerful, nihilist, unite." So, Tom Lehrer, thank you, General Radcliffe. So, before we come on to life at Hogwarts, let's talk about your own school days, shall we? - Oh, yeah. - You weren't particularly happy at school. Why not? - I mean, I don't like to talk badly of the whole institution where people go, but it's fine. I wasn't very good at school. I was nice, I wasn't totally disruptive, but I was not good academically. Just the act of writing, not thinking of what to write, but the act took me an unbelievably long time. That was all a struggle. So, I think they thought, maybe a bit thick or something, and it wasn't dressed as that at one point, yes. - That was communicated to me by one particular person. Stupid was the word. And then I wasn't good athletically either. The highlight of my sporting career at school was a hat trick against St Thomas' B team. I remember doing cartwheels, celebrating and falling in mud. It was great, but it was all downhill after that. So, if you're not academic and you're not sporty, very few ways of feeling good at anything in a school environment, which was why when acting came along, it was like, oh, this feels fun. And people like me doing it. This is a new sensation. But I got on with all the students ahead of good time in that aspect, but yeah, the teacher's just didn't know what to do with me, I think. - You've been called stupid. Was that something that stuck with you? How did you feel? - Yes, I mean, I think it's made me, again, just work really hard to not be stupid or to feel, 'cause I know, and I also am very stupid, sometimes I've stupided lots of things in life. But, well, like, thinking about things too much, I do think generally speaking my reaction to hearing something negative is to work very hard against it, even if I fear it's true, that doesn't mean I don't agree with it, often it's because I agree with it that I then feel like I have to work hard at. - Acting was something that you could excel at then. Your first TV appearance was in the BBC adaptation of David Copperfield. You were 10 at the time. Were you dreaming of a life of onstage and screen at that point? - Definitely not, not at all. It was absolutely just, this is great. This gets me out of school. You're extremely kind to say Excel. Because I think there are things I excel at as a child actor, very few of them are on screen. I think I actually dealt with being on set better than most kids would do, and better than I've seen a lot of kids do now. - Do you think that's what got you some of the parts then maybe those interactions? - I don't know if it's what got me parts. I do have a great story about how I got to David Copperfield. I have a slightly lazy eye, and when I'm tired, it'll blink on its own, like Homer Simpson when he's drunk. See, just a reference for everything as a sentence. But I walked into this room and looked at the director and gave him like a one-eye blink, and he thought, "Who's this confident kid? "Who's just winked at me?" And apparently that was like a large reason that I got a call back. So that was fun. But yeah, on David Copperfield, it was very much just like, this gets me out of school. I love it. It's an experience that gives me something that feels like is mine that I can then go to school and be like, "Hey, I did this cool thing." - Did you get to act in plays at school? Was that something that was part of your school life as well as life outside? - No, not at all. I was in one school production. I was one of many children playing some sort of monkey in a production of Nelly the Elephant. And I seem to remember we had black nylon stockings on our arms and on our legs as well. - It's a bold costume choice. - Yes. And yeah, I never did a school play after that. They did a few, but I was never in them. - So you've already told us that Harry Potter got you into reading. - Yeah. - Tell me a little bit about taking on the part. What were your preconceptions when you were set to go for the audition? - I was probably the kid with the least preconceived ideas about Harry Potter when I was auditioning for it. I knew that they were a thick, but it was still like, early days of the books. I think people were definitely talking about it, but I was terrible at ever going, people have talked about books before, it's fine. I'm not going to read them. And then became gradually more and more aware of how big they were. And then when I got the part and we did the first press conference, I remember some journalists, I think tried to like, trip me up, which is looking back at real weird things to do to a kid. They asked me a question that I could only know the answer to if I'd read all four of the books. We were in view of the world's press and cameras. And I didn't know the answer. And I remember Emmer and Rupert both. They were just like writing it down, trying to slide it over to me, the house. They'll never notice this. They'll never see us. It's fine. I'm pretty sure I got away with it. Good job. I didn't know. Yeah, absolutely. So I didn't have any notions of what it was going to be like going in, which was probably quite nice. And then when I went through the auditions, I met Chris Columbus, who's the director of the first two films and Chris is a famously nice man and also very, very good with young actors and just made it all feel fun. And that is not a skill everyone has. Time to take a break for some music. What are we going to hear next? So this is a song by Pixies called "Where is My Mind?" Pixies are one of my favorite bands. And I was able to see them live at Reading a while ago, which is good because I barely go to live music ever anymore. This is not necessarily my favorite song. There is songs like "Something Against You" and "Broken Face" from "Surf Arosa." Songs I really adore as well. But I wouldn't want to listen to them on a desert island. And this one I would. So that's my picked hit. (upbeat music) I want Sula be a bell per Yeah I have a supervisor, as vantana recommathera Except a little bit But that tool is very tryna talk 师астиmentlo aktual Where is my mind noise where is my mind where is my mind My it's Pixies with where is my mind So Daniel Radcliffe, let's talk a bit more than about life on set Harry Potter was already a literary sensation when the film went into production And on set, of course he was surrounded by so many great actors I mean Gary Holman, Maggie Smith, Jason Isaacs, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman Was that an education? It must have been Absolutely, you know, I didn't go to drama school, I didn't ever train formally I've worked with a lot of coaches and teachers and stuff like that I've been a sense to try and make up for that But essentially my teaching was being on set And being able to look at Gary Holman and David Thurus and Tim D'Spoil and Michael Gammon and Emelle Dastornton And it go, okay, which bits of whose process do I think would work for me and what do I like? And there are- Please tell me some bits that you picked up, I'd love to know I mean, Gary Holman was always really interesting helpful and encouraging. I remember having a conversation with him about very early on when he was talking about, "Don't be a scared to use your own stuff and the stuff that's going on with you because it'll be projected through a character and that is all the audience with C so you don't worry about that." You know, things that are basic in some ways but that as a 14-year-old, I needed saying to me. But then it was more about watching, you know, there were some actors who have to wrap themselves in an intensity in order to work and then there are some actors like Michael Gambon or Imelda Staunton who can be laughing and joking and having a great time and then you say action and they switch and I think I'm somewhere in the middle and if it's called for intensity, I like need a minute to get into that sort of thing but yeah, it was just an education in seeing like, "Oh, there's no one way of doing this and everyone's come to it through different paths so you just have to find the thing that works for you." What about the technical side of your performance CGI is often very physically demanding and you had to do all sorts of kind of things. I mean, you know, you mentioned that you didn't have any acting classes but also you had to shoot underwater when you couldn't swim and things like that. That was amazing. So for that, for the underwater sequence in the fourth film, we filmed that for six weeks, averaging around six to ten seconds of footage per day, I spent a total, I've got a logbook somewhere so I think I spent a total of 41 hours underwater, which is nothing compared to the crew and the rest of the car, but it was underwater filming if you ever get to do it is painful because it is so slow but it is also amazing because it is just a sunken film set. Light everything's underwater and if you took a photo of it and then removed the bubbles, it would just be like everyone's floating on a normal set. It's very, very cool if I never have to do it again, also fine, but very glad I've had the experience. The choreography, you know, fight scenes and things like that. How did that come to you? One of my favourite parts of my job generally is doing stunts and that I can trace back to Davey Holmes, who was my stunt double on the first six films. Unfortunately, very sadly, had an accident on the seventh film which left him paralyzed and he's still one of my best best friends and I spoke to him the other day and adore him. But he basically was told on the first film, apparently I've learned this recently, they saw me do one vaguely physical thing and the stunt coordinate at turn to Davey and was like, we're going to have to work with him because he cannot do it. And so Davey, he was putting charge on me every lunchtime I go to the gymnastics bit of the stunt room with him and just like flip onto mats and do all that stuff. So it was, you know, you're a kid, you're being told to jump off a trampoline, do a flip and run into a wall. It was just, you know, amazing. It's time to hear your next track done. What's it going to be? So this is by a band called Granddaddy and it's song called He's Simple, He's Done, He's the Pilot. They're a band that I've loved for a long time. This is a song that I think when I first listened to it, it just borrowed into my brain and it's long and beautiful and it can kind of match your mood depending on what you're like. If you're really happy, it feels relaxing. If you're sad, it kind of allows you to wallow in that. If you want to do that. So yeah, Granddaddy, He's Simple, He's Done, He's the Pilot. [Music] Granddaddy, with He's Simple, He's Done, He's the Pilot. A song of many moods. So therefore perfect for the desert island. Exactly, it's adaptable. So Dan David Yates, who directed the last four Harry Potter films once said of you, if he was feeling good, bad, indifferent or terrible, he carried the perception that everything was lovely and great, even though the pressures were really intense. Would you say that's accurate? Yes, I think you have a responsibility on a film set, particularly if you're the lead, but if you're any actor, to conduct yourself a certain way and don't let whatever's going on in your life disrupt the day, because literally nobody else from any other department does that, because acting is viewed as like an emotional job or whatever. You're allowed a certain amount more like latitude to be disruptive, basically. And it does still happen like a lot, but I try to not be a part of that. Well, I mean, I hear you, but also being the lead actor, you're carrying the film. That's hard. Whatever the kind of benefits of that, that is a lot of pressure, isn't it? I mean, yes, but it's also not. I don't think it's pressure that I really felt at the time on Potter, because the name of Harry Potter, the franchise of Harry Potter was what was carrying it. Me giving a crappy performance on one day, which I'm sure I did, is not going to be the thing that affects how that film goes. I think as a kid when you feel that you're in that position to genuinely affect everybody's day, I was always really inspired by that, and wanted to make those days good if I could. The films, of course, were increasingly successful. How did the people around you react as the experience grew and the phenomenon got bigger? Generally speaking, all my friends at school were and remained really supportive. If they were jealous, they didn't show it, not to me anyway. It was a few years before I even started getting recognised on the street, because I was still just a fairly anonymous looking kid. We were also taken out of the world for so much of the year. We were just on set. The first film took 11 months, the second film took nine, and one of the great things about those sets for us was that we were treated by the crew as kids first and active second, and I think that helped to keep us grounded. Was there ever a moment, though, when it went too hard a little bit? Did you ever get cocky? I remember, and I don't say this to make myself sound like crazy, but I remember going round to people on the first film and saying, "If I ever get cocky, will you tell me, will you stop me?" Lerting everybody to that, because I was so paranoid about it happening. Yet, I'm sure it did. Probably actually, particularly when I was back at school. I'm sure there were moments, but my dresser was a guy called Will Stegel, who is one of my best friends, an incredibly important person in my life. If I, or Davey Holmes, or I mentioned earlier, if I had ever approached getting real ideas of publicisation, both of them would have, and many other people on set would have come down on me. The really remarkable thing that happened on those sets was that they did manage to feel like a family vibe, even though it was this huge corporate machine. Essentially, everybody really cared about us. I make up designer. Amanda was the same for all of the 10 years. Many other people stayed for many, many years. They've seen us grow up. They were also really invested in us turning out as good people and happy people. Sounds like you were quite insulated, then, from many of the things that people might assume that you experienced or had to deal with. But I guess one thing that you can't really do much about is the scrutiny that inevitably is going to come with. Being part of a successful film franchise. How did you deal with that? I mean, I think badly. At first, I didn't really know in terms of behaviour and behaviour in public. That was one of the first times I felt being famous brushing up against my life if I went out. If I got drunk, I suddenly be aware of being an interest in that because it's not just like a drunk guy. It's, oh Harry Potter's getting drunk in the bar. That carries its own kind of interest for people and also a slightly mocking interest because it is inherently funny for people. I suppose those were the moments when I first started being like, oh, that doesn't feel good. I don't like how I'm being looked at in this particular context. And then the way of dealing with that is just to drink more or get more drunk. So I did a lot of that for a few years. And that's then. There are many questions in my life where you can say, is this thing X the way it is because it is in you to be that way? Or was it because you got famous and were in this slightly crazy situation? That's not just the sense with my drinking and all that's up. It's a few things that you go, I wonder if that's because of Potter or that would have been that way anyway. And I'll never know. So it's pointless to ask. But I definitely think a lot of the drinking that happened towards the end of Potter and sort of for a little bit after it finished. You know, it was it was panic a little bit and not knowing what to do next and not not being comfortable enough in who I was to remain sober, honestly. And so that was a weird thing to realize young that you were probably going to have to stop doing this thing in drinking. But you know, ultimately was something I was very, very happy about. I'm also super happy for anybody who is continuing to drink. It's a very specific thing that it works for me. It may not work for animals. But yeah, I will always be fascinated and frustrated by the question of, is there something that would have happened anyway? Or was this to do with Potter? But I will never know. There's definitely it runs in my family, generations back. Definitely not my mom and dad hasten to add that. I think all of this takes us on to your next track, actually, don't you? Yeah. So this is by a band called The Hold Steady. This is a song that I was listening to on the way back in my friend's car from a truly terrible weekend or weekend that had ended. it terribly and I was you know hung over and coming back to reality and this song played and it just hit me at a very specific moment you know bands, films, writers everyone makes drinking look super cool most of the time the whole steady with the first band I ever heard sort of talking about the aftermath of drinking and not just in this song but in various other songs they have characters that sort of talk about the cost of it as well as talking about doing it a lot but yeah this song is called Killer Parties and it just hit me at the right moment. The whole steady and killer parties so Daniel Radcliffe in early 2007 you took on your next big challenge one of theatres more notorious roles playing a disturbed stableboy in Peter Schaffer's Equus. Now features one of the longest nude scenes in theatre you were very casual about it in interviews at the time. Was that really how you felt? No I'm not really I mean you know it was of course it was terrifying I've got a friend who was in hair and we have a debate about the nudity on stage deliberating argument which we always come to the point of going well yes you think it's liberating because you were doing hair I had to run around doing a scene about sexual failure and horse blinding like so that's why I feel less cool about it I mean I think the nudity aspect was a bit scary but genuinely the more scary thing was just doing a play at the time my attitude to it was well if you're doing this you might as well get naked. So very much in at the deep end. Very much in at the deep end on Equus and I remember there were some headlines crash what's that the sound of a career coming to a grinding halt something like that and I guess some people saw it as a really risky or dangerous thing to do and it just never seemed that way to me it was terrifying but it turned out to be one of the best experiences I've ever had and one of the things that set me up for the best of my career because I've had several directors tell me since then that even if they didn't see the show they heard about it and as a signal of intent of I want to do other things and I'm not gonna necessarily take the easiest route that I can all the time and you want to shut the lack of a better thing that you you know you've got some balls and that you were like that's upon sort of halfway intended. Well done, but yeah you want to show that you're serious and you're not gonna flinch at doing harder material absolutely and also that you're not scared to meet yourself vulnerable. Yes and you know we certainly weren't me and Joe Christie and then Anna Camp who we did it with in America yeah it was super weird doing those scenes in front of her I mean certainly the first few times we did it in London there was definitely some wolf whistles and stuff from the audience and you're like okay and bearing in mind they've just watched two hours of a very depressing play so for somebody to have been sitting there the whole time being I'm gonna wolf whistle I cannot wait to wolf whistle when they get to that moment yeah and how did you deal with the reaction you mentioned the tabloids response to it actually the theatre reviews were very good yeah I mean if they had been bad then the whole thing would have been a disaster but yeah I mean I think I was able to insulate myself from any of the sort of more scandalous reaction to just going I'm here doing apparently an okay job but I didn't make a bingo card of the puns that you were going to get in the headlines. No I just accepted that there would be like one jokes forever and you know they wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't make them. Everyone who meets you comments on your tremendous energy and it comes in very useful for many of your stage roles including your latest in Beckett's end game is that physicality part of the attraction of theatre for you? I think so I think I just really like anything that lets me use my body as part of my acting and sort of throw my body around as I've sort of learned more acting as I've grown up when I'm best at my job is when as much self-consciousness of what I'm doing is removed as possible and a very basic way of doing that with most actors is give them something to do with their hands or their body so I find the more like physically challenging something is the more the acting kind of takes care of itself. People might be surprised to learn though that you're dyspraxic so how do you manage that? Yes I mean it's something that I don't like to put too much weight on because there are people out there who are much more dyspraxic than me and have a lot more to deal with because of it you know I was diagnosed with it when I was eight or nine I suppose and I'm still very dyspraxic in some areas like my handwriting is still that of a very dyspraxic person but like the fortunate thing about all the jobs I've done is that you know if something doesn't come immediately physically I've generally got a lot of time to practice with it and make it so that the one time they film it looks good. It's time to eat your next track done what's it going to be? Disc six it's a Nick K's song it's called Into My Arms and I'm sure there are many people who have many different entries into the what is the best love songable time argument this would be mine it has the effect of me that almost nothing can have which is it makes me wish I was religious because there's a lot of religious imagery and things in it and I love this song but I can only imagine how much more I would connect to it if those things meant something to me too it's just a stunningly beautiful song. I'm going to go down and ask him not to intervene when it came to you well not to touch your hair in your head leave you as you are the felt he had to direct you and direct you into my arms into my arms all along Nick cave and the bad seeds with Into My Arms which Daniel Rye Cliff I think is also for your girlfriend ever. Yes absolutely it has since become for Aaron. Killy Darlings was the film we met on if and when we have kids we'll have a very awkward story to tell them one day about how we met so we might have to tell some lies there because her character and my character sort of was getting it on in a library and that's how we met but yeah here we are eight years later so some things have built on with foundations but it works. You divide your time between the UK and US so that you can spend time together how does that work for you living between two places? It was definitely more fun a few years ago to be going back and forth constantly and I sort of do wish I felt a little more settled but I think that'll come in the next sort of year or so I love New York and I love being able to come and work here as well. It's a very happy problem to have to be going between two places a lot. Can you be a slightly different person in each place? Yes I think I'm probably slightly more social in New York because it is so much easier to get round and also I think that part of New York's ethos is to not care if you're famous in the area that I live in in New York people see me around there all the time so it's not a new thing anymore so it's very easy and I find in New York people actually respond if you're just like which I am just like incredibly earnest and love things very openly that gets a really nice reaction in America as well. You spoken of your need to prove yourself worthy of your success in the past are you over that now are you beyond that now? I don't think I'll ever be beyond that I definitely wish I could relax about it a bit more and I think I have to a certain extent I can now look back on several jobs and go that was good other people liked it and that is evidence enough that I must not be totally terrible. I've now got enough work behind me that I can sort of look back on and go okay no this is all evidence to tell against the way you feel in your mind sometimes. You are your own worst critic though aren't you? I mean I think you're quite tough on yourself having read you know your own critiques of previous performances stretching right back to your childhood I think you're quite hard on yourself. I am probably on the childhood stuff probably that's unfair because you get learning or whatever. I also think there's a part of me that knows I have to be my own worst critic because there comes a point in a lot of actors lives where they stop getting directed and I've seen amazing actors not be directed because the director was scared of them and I don't really want to give a note just go oh they know what they're doing it's fine and I never want that to be the case and you can get to a point in the industry where everyone's just telling you're great all the time so it's a good way of sort of staying vigilant on myself. What are your litmus? Who else can be that kind of touched on for you? Erin definitely I'll work on scenes with her and she can give criticism in a way that is constructive but yeah I know she's not lying and she we had this conversation the other day actually somebody said something really nice and I was like yeah but I don't really believe it though because you know they like me so they're biased and she was like so wait the only people you would accept compliments from are strangers who dislike you and I was like yes actually those are the only people I will believe their opinions about me. I mean as well as fame and work there's fortune which we haven't talked about yet although you don't have to work you're always on set but you must allow yourself some indulgences. I mean you know, the main end of this life lights and stuff, being in a long-distance relationship makes it much easier if you have money, which I'm very, very thankful for. I do have some moments of being like, "Oh my God, I am very bad at being famous." Like there's people who would have done way more cool, crazy wild stuff with their money. - Now, even one fine artwork painting. - I do have some art. But then I watched a film a few years ago about how much fraud there is in the art world, and that really took the sting out of buying anymore. I really am like, "Oh, I'm so hard to trust." So I have a few paintings, but that best money should be a thing. This was something that I was told by Will Steggle, my address on the poster, and he said, "You know, money should give you room to maneuver in your life. At best, that's what it gives you, a bit of freedom to sort of do what you like." And he gives me the freedom to do what I like workwise. You know, I don't have to do things unless I want to, which is that something almost no actor has. - Dan, it's time for your penultimate disc. Tell us about this track. - Okay, so this is by a woman called Joanna Newsom, and she's this artist that I think gets weirder and more wonderful and more imaginative. Every time she comes back, and this is a really beautiful song called Emily. ♪ I pointed out to me for the hundredth time tonight ♪ ♪ The way the ladle leads to a dirt ♪ ♪ A red ball in a light ♪ ♪ Squint skyward and listen ♪ ♪ Loving him, we move within his borders ♪ ♪ Just as the reason in the stars ♪ ♪ Said order, we could stand for a century ♪ ♪ Who's there ♪ - Joanna Newsom with Emily. - Daniel Reikliffe, you will be well aware of the old narrative about child actors who, you know, burn out or fade away, but here you are sitting heel, hearty, unbelievably busy. How have you managed it? - When others didn't. - It's very hard to say, and I think a huge amount of it does, obviously, come down to my parents, comes down to the other people, a lot of the people who have already mentioned on Potter who were able to give me enough perspective on my life and help me at key moments that I've sort of stayed where I want to be. Honestly, I think the main thing I can attribute it to is that I loved being on set. I think a huge problem for people is that, for a lot of people, they get into a situation where they start doing something when they're 10. They are committed for several years. They stop enjoying it. They are, by that point, the breadwinner for their family, so multiple people are now reliant on them continuing to do this job, and they feel pressured into it and forced into it, and then if they don't enjoy it, then they go, "Well, I will enjoy all the other things that this life gives me, even if I hate the work." So, you know, I think that's why you can see people going to drugs, you can also just see people going to drugs and drink, because it's fun and they're available, and it seems like a good idea, and there's nobody around you talking about the consequences or being honest with you about that. So, I think there's all of that, and I think the fact that we did it in London, you know, I spend time in LA now, and I feel like I'm going insane. I don't know what it would be like to grow up in LA from the age of 10 and continue growing up there. Why, just because it's all about this film industry? Yeah, and it's all about a very specific part of the film industry, which is the glamour of the studio system, you know, so it's about people wanting to look at certain way and just the sense of competition, having that sense of that as a kid is hard. I think the other thing that is hard about being famous when you're young is that you haven't figured out who you are yet, and if you are having a perception of your identity, you're sort of reflected back at you by everyone else, where everyone else expects you to be a certain thing, while you are still figuring out what you want to be, that can be really hard for people, but again, very fortunately, I knew that I liked being on set enough, so that if everything else about it went away, the money and the fame, I would still like being on set, and I would still want to do that in some way. You've said you would quite happily die on a film set? Yeah, I would have said I wanted to ruin the day. Just once. And ruin continuity. Yeah, I think they're great places, and the film sets are the most incredible communal effort that I think you get to be a part of. So many people with so many different disciplines all coming together to make this one thing, and I got a taste for that young and never want to stop experiencing this, and so I think that made all the other weird stuff that about life more than worth it. We skipped ahead to death there, that'll be the cheerful nihilism again, just to wind it back a bit. I mean, what's left on your bucket list before you get there? What would you really like to do that you haven't yet? I want to write and to direct. I remember Gary Holman actually saying to me, as a director, you have to make a creative decision every second of the day, and how much he loved that. And I think I would love that. And I also think I'd love working with a film crew in that way. And I do sometimes stand by when directors are doing stuff now. I go, oh, not like that. So you're nearly ready. I feel like I am, so I feel like I have to exercise the annoying critic out of myself by directing something on my own. So yeah, I would love to do that. I would love to write, and I'm as always working on things. But you know, every actor's got a script now. Hey, everyone's doing this. One more disc before we send you off to your desert island. Yeah, so this is called "Atta Boy" by Yo Yo Mask, Stuart Duncan, Ed Gamaya, and Chris Thiele. And it's from an album called "The Goat Road" of the sessions. It's the only piece of instrumental music that I've got on the list. And I think I could listen to it anywhere, and it would make me both nostalgic for the past and excited for the future and full of life. Even on a desert island, I think it would have that effect. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) "Atta Boy" from "The Goat Road" your sessions composed and performed by Yo Yo Mask, Stuart Duncan, Ed Gamaya, and Chris Thiele. You know what a "Goat Road" is, Daniel, right? If I'm getting the definition right, a "Goat Road" is a situation in which, unless everything goes perfectly, everything will go wrong. So there's only one outcome and it's intricate. That's my understanding. - Every day is a school day. - So it's time to send you off to the splendid isolation of your desert island. You have some experience of being stranded, but in the Bolivian jungle. - Yes. - Which we filmed in the Columbia jungle, pretending to be the Bolivian jungle. Only very keen eyed viewers would notice. - Junkal enthusiasm is furious. - Very annoyed. But yeah, I filmed a movie called "Jungle" out there about the true story of a guy called Yossi Ginsburg who was left in the jungle for three weeks. - Did you pick up any tips, any skills that might come in useful? - That's the thing, we're on desert island, and it says for another river. I'll always stick to the river 'cause then you've always got some sort of marker of which direction you're going. - You just keep going around in the circle, mate. - I mean, I don't know. - Yeah. - Anything else? - Check what's upstream of your waters, or before you start drinking. - So you have to, in an extent, haunt your practicals. - Oh, yeah, I'm fully ready. - No, good. - I know what a lot of naked and afraid. So this is going to be fine. - Good. - Well, I'm happy then. and the complete works of Shakespeare to keep you going there as well as a book of your own? What would you like? - So I've chosen the Norton anthology of poetry, because I got given it by someone when I was in my late teens, and it really inspired my love of lots of different poets and poetry generally. And rather than taking one book, you get one book that has a lot of different stories, and it gives many of the poems a stories. And I can spend time trying to understand some of the modern free verse nonsense, that's a nice choice. - We can also offer you a luxury item, of course. What will that be? - I've got a very simple pencil and paper, just enough that I can pass the time writing and presumably doing some version of all work in no play, makes Jack a Del Boy as I go slowly insane on the island, but it's something to do. - Oh yeah, for sure, it's yours. And finally, which of these eight wonderful discs would you rush to save if the rest were stolen by monkeys? - Oh, bring me sunshine. Yeah, just because that's going to make me happiest when I need it, I think. - Daniel Radcliffe, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs. - Thank you so much for having me. - I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Daniel Radcliffe as much as I did. Many of his fellow actors on the Harry Potter films have also been cast away, including Michael Gambon in the film. Elder Staunton, Robbyckel Train, Emma Thompson, Warwick Davis, Miriam Margulies and Julie Walters, and of course, JK Rowling herself. You'll find all of those editions on BBC Sands. In 2018, Kirsty Young cast away Jack Whitehall. He was also a child actor. He played his first part at the age of three, but later he also auditioned for the part of Harry Potter. You'll hear about that in a moment, but first, here he is explaining to Kirsty that as a child he loved dressing up. I was obsessed with dressing up. I would dress up as Robin Hood all the time to like everything, like family function. Where you're one of those kids that turned up and people were just like, yeah, he's in tights. Maybe my mom made me a power ranger outfit and I wore that all the time. Yeah, I mean, they must be worried. Did you do that? Did it want to be other people? Yes, it was a stage when I loved Thunderbirds so much, and I wanted my mom to make me look like Scott Tracy. If she couldn't get my hair to look like Scott Tracy before I went to school, then I would cry. She was like, it's a puppet. I can't make your hair look like a puppet. She'd be spraying it, yelling it and trying to get it to look like Scott Tracy. They wondered they wanted me to go off and act. It was a day off. But your dad didn't want you to dance. What was his problem? That's all part of the same thing, isn't it, of performing? My sister was doing ballet. I was like, oh, I can't do ballet. So I went to ballet and he didn't think that that's what boys should do. So he then maybe do karate. And how did that go? Not great. I probably should have taken the tutor off before I started the lesson. So quite exuberant child. And then, did you have a surfer to the energy? Were you sort of one of those kids who was kind of bouncing off the walls? Yes, but I was a really sweet kid and I looked like a little cherub. And then I went to boarding school, 1314, and I got very awkward. I had glasses, buck teeth, terrible acne. And I suddenly became that awkward adolescent. I do want to ask you about this Harry Potter audition. I don't know how much of it is embellished to make us laugh. But you were 11 and you seriously were going for the big audition. And you went in full costume, did you? I went no. I didn't go in full costume. That's the embellishment. But I looked at Harry Potter and they did an open audition at my school. And my dad was at a complete waste of time. I never gets cast from those kind of things. So I have some contacts. Here's where the nepotism kicks in. I can get you in the door and you'll go to the casting director's house and you'll have a one-on-one with her. So I went there and I did it. But I hadn't read the book. And then there was a lot of questions about the book and the audition. And obviously, having not read it, I slightly let myself down and didn't get the part. Obviously. Obviously that, but you know that. You know. What did your parents say to you afterwards? They were absolutely fine. I think you realised that it was a long show. I say when I talked about it before that they were devastated. But they, you know, they're very supportive when things didn't work. Tell me about your force. What are we going to hear, Jack Whitehall? My fourth tune is from a cassette tape that my mum had called "Mundo Latino" and I always remember she used to play it on the long car journeys back to school. Those car journeys back to school, the two memories that I have are this and the arches because she listens to the arches religiously. Like doing this show does it undiscus. It's the most excited she's been for anything that I've ever done. The text that I got this morning, she was like, "I am so proud of you that you're doing desert island discs." The only thing that could top that was if I had like a walk on part in the arches. But I have this weird thing with the arches where I remember getting really car sick and listening to the arches. Whenever I hear the arches theme tune I feel a little bit sick. You might not be the only person that happens to you. I know. Anyway, the Gypsy Kings, Bambalaya. From the Gypsy Kings with marvelous Jack Whitehall. I have a feeling he won't be invited to make a guest appearance on the arches anytime soon. Next time my guest will be Dame Helena Morrissey. Do join us then. From the one village behind the mountain. Imagine you're living a very different life on the other side of the world. You'll feel I cannot do anything. You live silently in the shadows. And then someone takes your child. Disappears into the night with your little girl. And you can't stay silent any longer. And you'll do whatever it takes. Travel thousands of miles across the globe to find your missing daughter. This is my child. I look after this child. Just go every bit. Join me, Sue Mitchell, for this gripping new BBC Radio 4 podcast series. Subscribe to Girl Taken on BBC Sounds.