Daniel Radcliffe interview: 'I don’t want people to forget about Harry Potter'

'I get an undeserved amount of credit playing diverse things'

Despite what some publications would have you believe, Daniel Radcliffe’s career has rapidly moved forward since the Harry Potter series wrapped. In 2012, for instance, he played the main character in the screen adaptation of The Woman in Black. The following year, he played Allen Ginsberg in John Krokidas’s Kill Your Darlings to further critical acclaim.

Now, Radcliffe is tackling his two most controversial projects yet; playing an undercover CIA agent pretending to be a white supremacist in Imperium, and a ‘farting corpse’ in Swiss Army Man. As with the aforementioned releases, critics are questioning if the obscure projects are an attempt by the actor to leave behind his past as the Boy-Who-Lived.

Asked by The Independent how he feels about those remarks, the 27-year-old said that was not the case. “I don’t want people to forget about Harry Potter, I’m incredibly proud of those films,” he said.

“I also don’t want to repeat myself in terms of what I did with Harry, but in terms of Woman in Black and now Imperium, I think I get an undeserved amount of credit playing diverse things because people saw me playing one role for a long time. Really, it’s just what most actors want; as varied a career as possible. I’m just lucky enough to be in a position where I can do that.”

Also in the interview, which can be watched above, the actor revealed how - while filming one particular scene in Imperium - members of the public began throwing insults at the cast, adding that he hope white supremacists see the film in order to expand their horizons.

Speaking about Swiss Army Man, Radcliffe said how he was glad the conversation about the film was moving past the initial ‘farting corpse’ headlines. Imperium is currently showing in cinemas while Swiss Army Man is released on Friday.