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Harry Potter grows up – Metro US

Harry Potter grows up

“Normally,” says Daniel Radcliffe, “I hate watching my movies and hate watching myself.”

Why, then, did he sit through his new film, The Woman in Black, during its Canadian premier last week in Toronto?

“The last time I will watch it was last night,” the former Harry Potter told me the next day.

“I’ve picked this apart enough now. I don’t need to watch it any more.

“The line between self-critical and self-hating is blurred.

“Normally when I watch my stuff, I say, ‘I don’t like that but I don’t know what to do about it,’ but last night I was watching and thinking, ‘Oh, this is how that could be improved.’”

Despite being one of the most beloved actors on the planet and the star of some of the highest grossing films of all time, Radcliffe isn’t content to rest on his laurels.

“I know I have a long way to go as an actor,” he says.

“I’m 22 and at the stage when most actors would be coming out of drama school but because I’ve got 10 years of experience on a film set I think people expect me to be more complete, perhaps, than I am.

“I think that there are some things I do really well and some things I see and go, ‘OK, I know how to fix that now.’”

One thing he can’t change is the way his fans respond to him.

“It’s kind of part of my life,” he says of the fandamonium that follows wherever he goes.

“The thing you have to remind yourself is that it is not about me.

“It’s about the fact that I played this character, which became beloved and anyone who took on that character would be getting this reaction.

“The fact that I’m now getting it on my own away from the series is very gratifying, although it is still kind of residual from Potter, unless they are fans of that and of me.

“You just have to laugh at it and have a sense of humour about it.

“As I said to you, when I’m at home, smoking a cigarette and it’s cold and I’m in my Canada Goose jacket eating half a pizza, those are the moments you have to take a picture of yourself and play it to yourself when you are on the red carpet and go, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re not all that, really.’”