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Daniel Radcliffe reveals his favourite role to date

Radcliffe was asked to name his favourite role from an eclectic list

Peony Hirwani
Wednesday 02 November 2022 10:24 GMT
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Daniel Radcliffe talks Imperium and Swiss Army Man

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Daniel Radcliffe came up with surprising answer when asked about his favourite role to date.

The British actor is best known for his performance as Harry Potter in the hit wizarding franchise based on JK Rowling’s series of books.

He also received critical praise for his performance as Allen Ginsburg in Kill Your Darlings, and in the horror film The Woman in Black.

Despite these memorable roles, Radcliffe revealed that his favourite to date was starring alongside Paul Dano in Swiss Army Man.

In the 2016 film, Radcliffe played the role of a flatulent corpse named Manny who is befriended by Dano’s shipwrecked Hank.

“As an actor, you read so many scripts, and so many of them are the same script,” he explained toThe Hollywood Reporter.

Suddenly, you see a logline which says, ‘A suicidal man befriends a corpse, who then convinces him that life is worth living,’ and you know that you’re being offered the corpse, that is something incredibly exciting.”

After the film’s release in 2016, Radcliffe told Entertainment Weekly that playing alongside Dano “was an incredibly fun thing to take”.

Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe in ‘Swiss Army Man’
Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe in ‘Swiss Army Man’ (AP)

“It’s a testament to the Daniels (directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) that they can take an idea like that and they have so much imagination, and humor, and kindness,” he continued.

“That’s the thing. It’s a deeply compassionate film full of love for humanity and human weirdness. It’s so their vision and so unapologetically their vision.”

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In a review for The Independent, Clarrise Loughrey wrote that “Swiss Army Man is a testament to the powers of cinema, and how it can render you so emotionally invested in literally the dumbest thing possible. That’s the underappreciated beauty of cinema.

She added: “Radcliffe’s corpse Manny grows from punchline to a canvas for Hank’s internal projections; his hope and his despair, especially when it comes to his strained interactions with women.

“The farts, if anything, slowly morph into a punctuation to the drama. These are some of the most well-timed farts in cinematic history; interlacing the film’s sincerity like the inter-act drawing of a curtain, carefully balancing tone and pacing.”

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