Daniel Radcliffe on Potter, Alcoholism, and Starving Himself

Daniel Radcliffe talks about from getting the role as Harry Potter to getting into the role for his next project, Jungle, in a new interview.

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During an recent interview with The Telegraph to promote his latest projects, Daniel Radcliffe seemed noticeably thinner, leading some to wonder if the actor might be starving himself. This is Radcliffe we’re talking about though, he’s willing to go to any extremes. From playing a flatulent corpse in Swiss Army Man to filming underwater for 41 hours for Goblet of Fire, despite being unable to swim. He even took a risk to prove he was just more than just Harry Potter.

A prime example is the play Equus, where he played a disturbed stable boy, with one of the longest nude scenes in theater. He was only 17 at the time to boot. Not all his extremes were health though. He used binge drink to to cope with the fear of failure and fame, getting black-out drunk in public places.

The film behind Radcliffe’s starving is Jungle. The film is about a young adventurer, Yossi Ghinsberg, who gets lost in the Bolivian jungle, adapted from a true story. He has been living on a daily chicken breast and protein bar, and washes that down with coffee and cigarettes. Radcliffe is definitely put himself out there in the world of Hollywood, and in his prime. By that I mean, he can do any type of film he was, instead of judging scripts by what will be box office hits. He’s young, and taking on these odd yet very unique roles.

NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 27: Daniel Radcliffe attends The Apple Store Presents: Daniel Radcliffe And Paul Dano, ‘Swiss Army Man’ at Apple Store Soho on June 27, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Potter is the very reason why he can take on these roles though. As he puts it, “Let’s face it, I did have a lot to prove.”

"“As anyone who gets famous young will feel at some point, you have to prove that you deserve the luck you got.”"

Radcliffe is always working to prove himself. Apart from Equus, he spent several weeks testing out a prosthetic hump for his role in the film Victor Frankenstein as Igor. He even went to the lengths of studying medicine for his part as a graduate doctor in the TV series A Young Doctor’s Notebook, to the point he feels that “I could probably perform a tracheotomy.” Radcliffe could of easily cashed in on Potter and lived a nice life, or just done more teen type movies. He wanted to point out that it was more than luck and do more adult type films.

A month after wrapping up the final Harry Potter film, Radcliffe called it quits on drinking. “I change when I’m drunk. I’m one of those people who changes.”

"“There is something in any person who drinks in a way that’s clearly not good for them, something that is attracted to that chaos.”"

Besides a relapse while staring in the Broadway play, The Cripple of Inishmaan, he hasn’t had a drop in two or three years.

Like I said, Radcliffe is in his prime right now. he’s just bouncing to movie set to movie set. He’s also taking part of a play in New York, inspired by Edward Snowden’s National Security Agency revelations called Privacy. He even hopes to direct his own material in the future.