 I'm
Off to See the Wizard...
By Jenna Bensoussan
What do you do when you are standing in a room preparing to interview
Daniel Radcliffe? Nothing - there's no time... at least there wasn't
for me, as he rushed in the room and immediately came over to give
me a warm, welcoming hug. And of course you know what happens after
that... it's time for tea. Ok, Ok... I admit it - I had the tea.
He had the Diet Coke.
We did things a little different for this interview to make it
a bit more fun. I printed out the Facts
page from DanRadcliffe.com for him to sort through and mark up as
we chatted about various other things. This proved to have quite
an interesting effect on our overall conversation!
Where to begin... ah yes, well - might as well start with the Facts
page since it has already been aforementioned. While Dan and I were
sorting out all of the entries for this, Dan checked to make sure
that I had taken wrestling and Pokemon off of his list of interests
as he out grew them a while back... (I actually took those down
about 2 years ago...). He is still into the Simpsons though, so
that is a keeper.
What else, ah yes - the bands... There are a few that have since
dropped off his radar: the Thrills, Jet, and Darkness. Jet has dwindled
due to his new reverence for the Rolling Stones (applause), although
the other two bands... who can say really... I took them off my
list a while ago as well.
On to the "favorite hockey team." Yes - we've always
known he picked a random name from a video game, but never the reasoning
behind it. Dan explains, " I had this video game and I literally
picked one that I liked the name of. I've always liked the animal
coyote in all the wildlife programs we used to watch. I always used
to watch the ones about wolves and coyotes and that sort of thing
so I picked them!"
Now, here is where Dan and I devised a plan to confuse all of you...
NO! Only joking!! It wasn't REALLY on purpose... I swear...
Basically though, while we were talking about the Facts
page we also went on with a second conversation and then had something
like three conversations all about different things going on all
at once... (Hence the reason for not posting up the full audio...
you'd be lost). I will try to break this up and make this as painless
as possible for all of you. First - Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire...
Dan talked a little about one of the scenes shot in the maze, describing
Mike Newell's very enthusiastic directorial approach. "There
was one scene where Mike wanted to show me how to do this bit...
it was very physical, but it was something where I'm on the ground
and I'm trying to keep out of the way of spells that are flying
over me and so he, Mike, gets on the ground and flails around a
bit trying to show me what to do. So he did that, and there's this
scene where the Phelps twins have to fight each other and Mike got
down with one of the Phelps twins and sort of wrestled him. He's
a hands-on director, definitely."
Another thing we discussed about GOF was the Prefect's Bath scene.
Dan recalls how things went on set, "I haven't actually seen
the bit... because basically I sort of come in with this dressing
gown on and in theory I'm naked underneath. I actually had a pair
of flesh-colored underwear on which was just like really something
you'd never want to wear! I won't say who made them, but a really
sort of popular fashion label was making these flesh-colored underwear."
Dan was asked if the scene's costume-wear was boxers, and he replied,
"No no, not boxers, they look like these kind of swimming trunks
type thing, underwear, and it's the sort of thing that... I really
can't see anyone wanting to wear them! And I sort of just get in,
and I've not actually seen the bit where you see me with my top
half undressed... but I've seen the bit after that where I'm just
in the bath. It is very funny with Moaning Myrtle. It's a really
good scene, but I'm sort of a bit nervous about seeing that in the
cinema." (Listen
to audio clip).
After putting Dan in the hot seat about the ever-popular Prefect
Bath scene from the Goblet of Fire, I decided to give him
a little break and we made our way back to the Facts page. Books-
a few new ones to add to his favorites: Germinal by Emile
Zola and The War of Don Emmanuels Nether Parts by Louis
De Bernieres.
Dan tells us a bit about Germinal, "It's fantastic, it's about
a mining community in Northern France and it's just about the struggle
between the workers and the owners of the land. What's great about
it is that it's not saying that the workers are right and the management's
wrong or the management's right and the workers are wrong. It's
the nature of the tragedy that it's two rights that are doing battle
and that's what it is because neither of them are wrong. It's just
a situation where no one can do anything to help the situation and
it's a really moving book. It's after the French Revolution and...
and this as well I loved (Dan was writing The War of Don Emmanuels
Nether Parts on the Facts page at that point)..." (Listen
to audio clip).
Dan turned sixteen over the summer, which means he could in fact
work more hours on set, but instead has decided against it, "While
I am doing the Harry Potter films, because I am there pretty much
every day, I think I'm going to keep to the same hours which is
really really good."
Why not work more hours? Well, because Dan started his AS Levels
this year after doing quite well on his GCSE exams. Dan will be
focusing on English Literature, History, and Religion and Philosophy
this term. Why Religion and Philosophy?
 "It's
just because I've always liked subjects that are thinking subjects.
When you do math, it's like "two and two is four", "three
and two is five" and they tell you the answers whereas in philosophy,
the question is not "what is two plus two?" but the question
is "what is two?" It's all about what things actually
are and mean and reality and it's interesting to me because you
can form your own opinions on it." (Listen
to audio clip).
Of course once you listen to the clip you'll see we started going
off on a philosophical tangent since I am taking that this year
in school as well... I went on and he went on... and then we ended
up somewhere around the point of the Philosophical Kings and Dan's
description of what AS Levels are... really...
"Yes! Because of the Philosopher Kings and stuff, I'm learning
about that as well and it's really fascinating, it's great, because
from where we are now, I can sit there and absolutely encourage
you to completely dissect and really be critical of all these philosophers,
which is a great position to be in, to actually have... because
when you do 'AS' Levels, it's more like when you do your GCSEs it's
much more like you're doing these subjects, you need to pass them
and you need to get into the next year's school; whereas in this
level, in 'AS' Level, it's much more... you can just sit around
and really think about it and form your own opinions. It's not the
same, it's a completely sort of different way of working where you've
got a lot more responsibility, the teacher says "Right, we'll
give you this work, go off and do it your own way" and so there's
a lot more responsibility which I'm actually sort of enjoying. I
always thought I'd be really bad at the responsibility thing but
I'm actually... Candy, Mars Bar, yeah that's never gonna change...!"
(Listen
to audio clip).
Yea - at the end there we had sort of shifted back to the facts
page... Mars Bars will now and forever be his favorite chocolate
bar!!! After adding a couple more countries to those he had visited
he went on to tell me about his experience in Turkey when he was
five years old. "It was great, actually, it was really cool...
A kid tried to drown me! I was young, about five. And this other
boy was about five. He held my head under the water and I was going
"No, this isn't fun any more!" and I had to sort of struggle
to get up again. But I was fine afterwards." Ok, just to clarify
- we weren't really laughing at him, we were laughing with him...
(Listen
to audio clip).
Moving right along... Actresses- He added Natalie Portman to his
extensive list of female talent he admires. He said, "What's
great about them is that they are all really beautiful, but they
are all actually really fantastic actresses." (Listen
to audio clip).
While talking about the enormous talents of Kirsten Dunst, Nicole
Kidman and Scarlett Johansson, to name a few, I asked him how much
thought he put into the expectations fans and others placed on him.
He said," I don't really concentrate that much on people's
expectations. I just think you have to sort of... well, I just carry
on doing my own thing whether that matches people's expectations
or not. If it does, that's fantastic and if it doesn't... as long
as I have fulfilled what I wanted to do then I'm really happy and
hopefully that will be ok."
As always we drifted over to the dark side and started talking
about music, which incidentally seems to be a happy excuse for both
of us to get off topic. We got on the subject of music being used
in adverts and as pop culture's symbolic spew. See... about this
time his publicist started rolling her eyes... knowing that once
we both got going, according to her, we'd need 16 hours to say everything
we both needed to say. So... let's start the clock and see how far
we get...
Dan said, "Johnny Borrell out of Razorlight said a great thing
once. He was talking about a band that had given their song to be
on an advert or something and he said that he had been offered that
same deal to put one of his songs on an advert or something and
he said that there's a chance that someone will.. that that song
will be playing when someone falls in love with someone else or
at a pivotal moment in their life and he didn't want to ruin that
for them by having it on ringtones and having it everywhere. I think
it's a shame that people hear music and sort of decide if they like
a band or song from just hearing it on an advert or something like
that. It's not the way music should be heard. Pop music now is completely
different from what it was in the seventies because you had Blondie
and the Beatles that were pop bands and now when I think of pop
I think of sort of manufactured things. Here (in Britain) I think
anyone with big, real star quality and talent wants to sort of make
it on their own really. Which is great. I haven't really thought
deeply enough about this to form an opinion at this point. I think
this is arguably the hardest question I've ever been asked."
Time passed through a ping-pong of clever analysis and thought
about music in society, which then brought us into a lengthy discussion
about pop idol shows like X Factor. To make a long story short,
after much debate, we both agreed that it was so much nicer to hear
someone on these types of shows that actually comes out and performs
when they are really passionate about their craft, rather than someone
who is just there to become "famous." (Listen
to audio clip).
As we were talking, one of the things Dan wanted to share with
the fans is his desire to become a writer alongside acting. More
specifically, he wants to write books. Dan doesn't like to talk
about current writing projects because he says, "I've worked
it out that as soon as I tell anyone anything about it, I go back
and I read it and I hate it and I just stop it." With this
in mind, I asked him to tell us about something he has already written
instead and Dan happily obliged with a very animated description.
"Something I've already written... Well basically I didn't
write outside things, I always wrote them for school. I just loved,
absolutely loved doing stuff for school. I liked doing things that
were just about characters. Did you ever see the Talking Heads?
Which is basically just characters explaining, sort of telling you
about their lives and things in their lives. I used to do stuff
like that a lot. I did one that was about the relationship between
a kid and a parent. So yeah, just stuff about characters, nothing
big, because a lot my friends were always writing big stuff at school
about war and about how (adopts pompous WWII Army officer accent)
"I went into the trenches and I killed EIGHT HUNDRED Germans
with a penknife!" or "I was playing in a football match
and I scored TWENTY goals for my team" and stuff so I never
really liked doing big stuff like that but just small stuff about
characters and families I enjoy doing." (Listen
to audio clip).
I mentioned to him he should write screenplays since he likes to
write about characters so much as I had just taken a class on it.
This sparked his interest and he then started talking to me about
a scriptwriting software... but we are drifting off topic again...
back to the um - conversation... interview... yea.
 We
are always talking about Dan's incredible sense of humor... so I
decided to ask him to tell me a joke. So here goes:
Dan: How does Bob Marley like his doughnuts?
Jenna: *shrugs* Dunno
Dan: Wi' jam in! (Listen
to audio clip).
Dan really loves that joke, he says it's "really bad and it's
just good." Bless him. After the laughter cleared we touched
base on the latest Mike Leigh play he attended, 2000 Years. "It
was very interesting. I sort of wanted to see the greatest epic
piece of theatre that I've ever been to... that's what I was expecting,
but I didn't get that. The main character in it was absolutely amazing
though. I did really like it. It's about a secular Jewish family
and their history, and about politics... it's really interesting,"
Dan explained.
Switching gears yet again, I threw out an odd question, asking
him what was the most ridiculous question or thing he had ever said
to impress a girl. He immediately replied, "Hi, I'm Harry Potter...
NO!!!!! (laughs) I don't know.. what have I said. I am generally
just sort of quite ridiculous and never know what to say. I never
use those awful pickup lines ever because they're just terrible,
I don't see how you... Have you ever had one used on you? I don't
see how any girl would go 'Oh, obviously you're a very clever man
for using that line on me, I must go out with you.' I don't see
how it works so I'd never use that. I've gotten better now but I
used to be really awkward and just not know what to say." (Listen
to audio clip).
Let's not stop with the madness that is this interview yet... just
one more insane piece left to fit into this menagerie of cluttered
thought - yes - it is - the dreaded Word Associations... Only this
time the tables were turned on me as well!!!
Jenna: Magic.
Dan: Spell
Jenna: Music
Dan: Notes
Jenna: Tragic
Dan: Happy
Jenna: 16
Dan: 20
Jenna: Fame.
Dan: Success?
Jenna: Chocolate.
Dan: Fruit
Jenna: Jenna
Dan: Co
Jenna: Huh?
Dan: I don't know. That was the first thing that
came into my head! I have no idea what that means! Fruit, fruit
and chocolate.. (He doesn't eat fruit. Also, somewhere in Dan's
subconscious I must have become incorporated - I am now my own franchise...
woohoo!)
Dan: So can I do that on you now?
Jenna: Huh?
Dan: Can I do that on you now?
Jenna: On ME?? Wait, I have to turn the book around...
Oh God...
Dan: Magic
Jenna: Wand
Dan: Music
Jenna: Notes
Dan: You're copying me!
Jenna: No I'm not!!
Dan: Tragic
Jenna: Death.
Dan: 16
Jenna: 17
Dan: Fame
Jenna: Bad
Dan: Chocolate
Jenna: Candy bar
Dan: Jenna
Jenna: Crazy
(Listen
to audio clip).
Finally the bell had tolled and it was time for Dan to go back
to class... but not before he graciously agreed to shoot a few photos
with me for the fans... Of course you can see we were having a hard
time not giggling during each snap of the camera. Hopefully these
two photos, along with the scans of the facts pages he updated by
hand (there wasn't much to update as we were already pretty well
up-to-date), will appease the masses for now...
View
Photo Gallery from the London Visit with Dan, September 2005.
As always I would like to extend a very warm thank you to Dan,
his family, and Warner Bros for allowing me the privilege of spending
a few moments with Dan during his very busy day. It is always a
delight to talk with him and his father whenever I visit London
as they are two of the most charming, intriguing, and intelligent
individuals I have ever had the pleasure to know.
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