Daniel Radcliffe explains why he makes ‘weird’ career choices

‘It’s incredibly liberating to do the biggest thing you’re ever gonna do really f***ing early,’ said Harry Potter star

Daniel Radcliffe has said he is able to take creative risks with the films he stars in, a luxury he believes he owes to his early success in the Harry Potter franchise.

The actor shot to worldwide fame aged 11 after his debut as Harry Potter. He starred in the fantasy series for 10 years, earning an estimated fortune of $95.6m (£68.2m) for his work in the franchise.

Speaking to Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood in this month’s Empire magazine, Radcliffe said: “I’ve actually found it’s an incredibly liberating thing, to do the biggest thing you’re ever gonna do really f***ing early.

“The financial success thing, that’s done. So just do things that make you happy. And I definitely get a sense of that from your career, Elijah. Like, for every director out there that was like, ‘I can only see him as Harry Potter’, there was at least one that said, ‘I wonder if he’ll do this really f***ing weird thing?’ And I did!”

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Radcliffe’s most left-field roles following Harry Potter include his full-frontal performance as a boy who is sexually attracted to a horse in the play Equus and his portrayal of a talking corpse whose erection is used as a compass in Swiss Army Man.

Wood agreed with Radcliffe’s comments. “Yeah,” he said. “I would have said the exact same thing if you hadn’t articulated it. Your career is so rad. You make such fun choices.”