Even for Daniel Radcliffe, the rumor mill has reached Elevatorgate-levels of hysteria.
They’re saying he’s engaged. That he’ll be reunited with his Harry Potter co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in new wizardry footage that will premiere at the Potter theme park in Universal Studios, Florida. The list goes on.
So we decided to go right to the source, sitting down with the chipper 24-year-old actor to address the various reports. Radcliffe, who’s currently starring on Broadway in the Tony-nominated revival The Cripple of Inishmaan, has been dating his girlfriend, Erin Darke, for a little over two years. He met the actress while filming the fine period film Kill Your Darlings, wherein Radcliffe portrayed celebrated Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. As far as the engagement rumors go: “No! Absolute bollocks. Absolute bollocks,” says Radcliffe, adding, “I don’t think we can even give the Daily Mail credit for that one. It was Star, I believe. It was funny. I got a text from my English teacher saying, ‘Is it true? Congratulations!’ and I had to text her back, ‘I’m afraid not! We’re very happy, but we’re not getting married.’ Marriage is not a thought that is even remotely close to me at the moment.”
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Then there are the reports of the new Potter footage, which will allegedly be shown for the opening of the new Universal Studios ride “Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.” Again, bollocks.
“I know nothing about that,” he says. “They may very well be using existing footage that we’d already filmed for the movies, but I have had no calls or involvement in that. A while ago they asked me to do more stuff for the theme park, and that was my moment to try and draw a line because that theme park is going to keep expanding, and keep going to more countries, and there’s going to come a point where I’m going to be 30 years old, and if I was still doing that then, that would be a huge problem.”
He adds, “I wish them all the luck in the world and I genuinely think that what they did with the theme park in Florida is fantastic, and they really did a great job.”
Radcliffe also says he’s “totally not involved” in J.K. Rowling’s Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which will hit theaters in November 2016, and the trio of Watson, Grint, and himself haven’t hung out together in quite some time.
“The last person I saw from Potter was Rupert, actually, and I saw him a couple of months ago at a theater awards thing in London,” says Radcliffe. “I also saw him in this play in London he did, Mojo, and he was brilliant in it. It’s a dark play about gangsters in the ’50s. But yeah, that’s really the extent of my contact. I haven’t spoken to Emma in a long, long while, but we’re all busy, and it’s been exciting to work with different people.”
With the Tony Awards coming up on June 8, and Radcliffe’s play up for a whopping six, I asked him what he’s seen this season that he’s a fan of. Sadly, between performing in Inishmaan, film projects, and various press, he hasn’t taken in much.
“I’ve seen nothing,” he says. “I was a terrible friend to Michael C. Hall. I was invited to see The Realistic Joneses because Michael is pals with myself and my girlfriend, but I was in rehearsal at the time, and no matter how good it is, I will not enjoy a play if I’m in rehearsal and go see one. I just think, ‘Oh good, they’re all so good! Our play is going to be terrible…I should be at home learning my lines, what am I doing watching this?’ And then Michael came to our third preview and I thought, ‘I’m a terrible person!’”
One play he will be seeing, however, is Hedwig and the Angry Inch. “I’m going to see Hedwig,” says Radcliffe. “I was lucky enough to meet Neil Patrick Harris a couple of times and he’s great. He would have been great [hosting Letterman], because he’s a very charming, relaxed, easy-going guy, and that’s why he’s such a great host at the Tonys. Our director, Michael Grandage, called it, ‘A once in a generation-type performance.’”
You can read the full profile of Daniel Radcliffe here later this summer.
