Read the story of how Daniel Radcliffe was chosen to play Harry Potter

Harry Potter casting director Janet Hirshenson tells the long, circuitous story of how Daniel Radcliffe came to play Harry Potter.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, starring Daniel Radcliffe in the title role, came out 16 years ago, in 2001. But there was a lot that happened before that, as Warner Bros. casting director Janet Hirshenson revealed to The Huffington Post in a meaty interview about how she and the rest of the team behind the movies chose Radcliffe as their leading man. Let’s take a trip back through time, shall we?

The first challenge to casting a Harry Potter was his young age. In the first movie, Harry is 11, and Warner Bros. had to find an 11-year-old actor who could grow with the character. Getting an older kid, even if he was good, wouldn’t cut it, because soon enough he’d grow out of it. “I know at one point there was a push for the actor who did ‘Billy Elliot,’” Hirshenson remember. “He was a really good actor, but he was 14 years old. It’s like, ‘No, he was 14 years old. It just can’t be.’”

Also difficult: Harry has blue-green eyes, so kids with brown eyes were out. Hirshenson had to pass on talented actors who had the wrong eye color. (Why didn’t they consider contacts? A question for the ages.)

Even more difficult: although there was interest in Radcliffe early on, he wasn’t interested. “He didn’t want to be an actor anymore.”

"One evening, David Heyman the producer went to the theater and he knew Daniel’s father, who was an agent … so the producer ran into Daniel and his dad and said to Daniel, ‘Why don’t you come in and audition? Think about it.’ So he said, ‘OK.’"

Thank god for that.

Then came the screen tests. We’re used to seeing the trio of Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint together—see their initial screen test below—but other actors were tried as well. “We must’ve had about six Harrys, only two or three Hermiones ― there wasn’t a lot ― and there was probably five-ish Rons,” Hirshenson said.

Why were there so few Hermiones? Because Emma Watson pretty much owned the role from the beginning. “For the Hermiones, as soon as Emma came on, there were six of us in the screening room. We just gasped. It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Like, ‘Whoaaa!’ She took up the screen.”

"The character needed to be towards the annoying side at times, but not too annoying, so the other one we said, after a while she’s going to be annoying. But with Emma, after a while you’re going to love her all the more. One of the producers said, ‘Can I have her under contract until she’s 21?’ All of us were just, ‘Oh my God. A star is born.’"

Casting Ron was simpler. “We said, ‘Look at that face on Rupert … That’s Ron. Look at that face.’” And scene.

Harry was the toughest nut to crack. At the end, it came down to two kids: Radcliffe and another boy.

"The other kid was terrific and very vulnerable and very Harry-looking, but besides that, Harry was going to become a very powerful kid, too. And Daniel had both sides. He was very vulnerable, but the other kid ― it was like, he [was] not going to have the balls that Daniel has, to put it that way."

So in the end, Radcliffe just had the balls the job required.

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, 2001

Hirshenson continued the story of how the three principals bonded.

"After we chose, they pulled the three of them up to Chris’s office, not telling them they got the part, but they were standing there, the three of them, looking at each other, probably figuring, ‘I think we may be it.’ So they told them they had it. ‘Yay, yay, yay,’ and then they started chattering amongst themselves because they hadn’t known each other very much. Emma asked Daniel if he liked the books and he said, ‘Yeah, I like WWF better, and she did a harumph or some Hermione thing that was so perfect, just as herself. ‘[Gasp] WWF!’ And we just all were like, ‘Whoa, this is them.’"

Next: Stunning handmade soaps inspired by the four Houses of Hogwarts

And the rest is movie history.