Daniel Radcliffe Just Revealed The Worst Part About Harry Potter
Daniel Radcliffe says the most grueling part of filming Harry Potter was the underwater scenes.
Daniel Radcliffe recently revealed that the worst part of filming the Harry Potter movies was the time periods they shot underwater, which were apparently absurdly grueling. According to a recent GQ video interview, Daniel Radcliffe says filming underwater scenes was “so intense” and “crazy,” and that he would never do it again. On the other hand, the Lost City actor also described making those scenes as “so special,” so it does not sound like it traumatized him, but also, really not fun.
Daniel Radcliffe is referring to the underwater scene filmed for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in which he and several other junior magicians compete in the Triwizard Tournament and are forced to go diving in Hogwart’s Black Lake, where some merpeople are also hanging out. According to the actor, an on-set water tank was built to shoot this footage, which makes sense, considering the famed difficulty of filming on natural water (just ask Kevin Costner). Daniel Radcliffe says that the production managed to get only about seven seconds of Harry Potter footage from a full day of shooting, which does sound pretty tedious.
While Daniel Radcliffe will undoubtedly always be best known as Harry Potter, that is kind of understandable when you are the titular star of a generation-defining fantasy franchise so popular that residual goodwill can manage to sustain a troubled spin-off series of films.
Earlier this year, Daniel Radcliffe reunited with a number of other actors and principal figures from the films for an HBO Max special titled Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts, though notably controversial author J.K. Rowling did not participate. The reunion also ended up being one of the final appearances from Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane, who portrayed Hagrid in the movies and recently passed away.
But while shooting underwater scenes is difficult for even grown adults (just ask James Cameron), that Daniel Radcliffe was a child while filming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire goes a long way to explaining why it was so grueling. Since the finale of the series in 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, Daniel Radcliffe has chosen an increasingly interesting and idiosyncratic series of roles, rather than attempting to go for traditional leading man status.
Daniel Radcliffe’s first post-Harry Potter lead role was The Woman in Black, a remake of the 1989 classic British horror film, followed by Kill Your Darlings, in which he portrayed famed American beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Since then, Daniel Radcliffe has shown an affinity for odd comedies and horror, appearing in the Joe Hill adaptation Horns (in which he had horns) and the recent Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (in which he was weird). He also appeared in the Sandra Bullock-Channing Tatum romantic adventure comedy The Lost City, in which he played a villainous treasure hunter with some self-esteem problems.
Since 2019, Harry Potter has also starred in the TBS series Miracle Workers with Steve Buscemi and Geraldine Viswanathan. The fourth season of the show (subtitled End Times) will premiere in January of 2023.
