Ani Interviews Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter, Jungle, Horns)!!
Hello Grue-Lings,
We have our biggest interview to date today. One of the most recognizable names in Hollywood. He is so popular his character Harry Potter has festivals, cons, and groups named after him. Yes, it’s Daniel Radcliffe.
He got his start as a young David Copperfield in a David Copperfield film. He worked with Jamie Lee Curtis in The Tailor of Panama. In 2001, he took a role that would forever change his life. Daniel became Harry Potter. He would go on to star in a few Harry Potter films that were made. He is no stranger to horror films as he has been in Horns and Victor Frankenstein. He now stars in the latest thriller called Jungle.
Daniel said his favorite book of the Harry Potter series is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He is a huge Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Sex Pistols fans. He actually is a bassist himself. Daniel is a huge fan of indie rock music and horror films.
For charity, Daniel sold his hair and starred in a play called Equus where he was completely naked. Equus raised $203,746 dollars for charity. Daniel is playing the role of Yossi Ghinsberg in Jungle. The film is based on a true story about Yossi. To talk more about this film, please welcome our guest Daniel Radcliffe.
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ANI: Hey Daniel, thanks for taking some time to talk to us!
DANIEL: No problem, man!
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ANI: So let’s jump right on in and talk about your new upcoming film “Jungle”.
DANIEL: Sure! So it’s a true story about a guy named Yossi Ghinsberg who went to South America back packing as a lot of people do, to have a little adventure and find himself and ended up getting lost alone in the Amazon for 3 weeks.
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ANI: Nice! Jungle action/adventure!
DANIEL: Yeah, it’s a survival film. One of the reason’s I wanted to do this was because the story itself is very powerful and I wanted to be part of telling that. Also, it expresses something to me very moving about the idea that it’s so hard to get someone to give up on their life. That this guy’s survival instinct is so strong that even in this unbelievably awful, seemingly hopeless condition his drive to keep going is so hard to diminish.
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ANI: Yeah, I’d be dead in a day. Did filming take place at some of the locations where he was lost?
DANIEL: We did film in the Amazon, though in Columbia not Bolivia where Yossi was lost. We filmed in there for three weeks, then another three weeks in Australia.
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ANI: How was it shooting in an actual Jungle?
DANIEL: It was great! It was definitely a tough shoot though, particularly for the crew. There were parts of the set inaccessible to trucks which meant that all the camera equipment had to be lugged out by the camera crew or on the backs of these donkey’s we had, which is one of the only animals that could travese those sort of roads. But, yeah it was a kind of crazy, tough filming experience but it was really enjoyable and the cast and crew were great and we like, just kinda got in there together and dug in. It was good!
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ANI: Did the you have any special training or preparation to shoot in such an environment?
DANIEL: Not particularly. One of the interesting things about Yossi is that he’s not like the Bear Gryll’s survivalist person, he had no training on how to survive in there really. Which makes it all the more amazing that he did.
My main thing before the shoot was obviously talking to Yossi, sort of picking his brain about his experience and what it was like.
Also, once we got into it (The shoot) I felt like if I was playing this guy who was starving in the jungle and then was going home every night and having a nice juicy steak I felt like I was kind of not doing my job so I just cut down on food in quite a big way for most of the shoot and ran on just a lot of coffee. No one really asked me to do that but, I don’t know, I felt that it would make my job a lot easier if I made myself a little less comfortable and it does. It’s that kind of tiredness that real hunger brings when you like feel it in your legs and you just feel kind of exhausted all the time.
I know there’s that Lawerance of Olivie thing of “Why don’t you try acting.” ::laughs:: but I find it helpful if I put myself in that head space though I am by no means a method actor whatsoever but I did find that particular thing just a little bit useful.
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ANI: I’ve read how you really throw yourself into a role and allow the film makers to basically go hard on you such as in ‘Swiss Army Man’ in which you reportedly endured a lot willingly. Given that level of dedication it surprises me to hear you don’t consider yourself a method actor.
DANIEL: Well, you know, I like to think I’m very committed and when I turn up on the set you can do what the hell you like with me. With that particular film I offered myself up as a sort of very willing ragdoll for our director. ::Laughs::
But yeah, I’m never going to get onto set and be like “You have to call me Manny!” I’m not method in that way. ::Laughs::
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ANI: Yeah, that’s a bit much. One of the things I dig about you is that you really pick a lot of interesting roles. I’m curious, what’s your thought process when choosing which role you take?
DANIEL: I mean I don’t really…there’s not so much of a game plan. I don’t know, when something strikes me as really original or something I haven’t done in the past that I get to show a side of myself that I haven’t gotten to yet, that’s always very exciting. Mainly though, the thing that will get me into a script faster than anything else is originality which I know sounds like a very obvious thing to say but whenever you read a script and are like “Holly shit I’ve not read anything like this before!” like when I read ‘Swiss Army Man’ I was like “This…is…awesome!”
I mean it was so different and it did what it wanted and did its own thing and it was also really clever and smart. Yeah, that kind of writing I think I just respond to really quickly. I’m in a position where I don’t have to do thing’s unless I’m really excited by them. Ninty-nine percent of actors if they get given a job they have to show up on that set and do it, but I only have to do it if it’s something I love and want to be a part of. It’s a very rare position to be in and for the moment at least I’m taking full advantage of it.
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ANI: Hey, till the wheels fall off, that’s what I always say. Let me switch gears for our final question. You have a few notches in your acting belt when it comes to horror, but what is YOUR favorite scary movie?
DANIEL: My favorite scary movie…I think…I think the thing that I remember being really absolutely terrified by as a kid was probably ’The Shining’. I saw that when I was really quite young and like, a lot of the imagery in that film has that great quality of just being fucking terrifying even though you don’t quite know why and the fact that it’s all so hard to understand makes it even more terrifying. In terms of creating a sense of evil being all around you, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a film like that so well done.
But yeah, my natural inclination is for much less good horror than that, like B movie Syfy channel horror movies, that’s my happy place where I can really relax and watch them. I’m probably into a lot less good horror than you are. ::Laughs::
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ANI: Yeah, that’s more Hellters thing. Well I know you’re a busy guy so I’ll let ya go. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, really awesome of you! Best of luck with ‘Jungle’ and all future projects!
DANIEL: Yeah, no worries man! Thank you!
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DANIEL’S IMDB
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