Daniel Radcliffe isn’t Harry Potter anymore, said Sally Williams in the London Telegraph. The actor, 22, spent most of last year starring in a Broadway production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The role required Radcliffe to dance and do handstands, knee slides, and even a “kick up”—springing upright from a lying position. He couldn’t dance a step when he joined the cast. Moreover, Radcliffe is so lacking in coordination that he struggles to tie his shoelaces. “These,” he says, pinging his laces, “are elastic.” So how did he master the routines? “Once you put the hours in, it’s just about learning and learning and repetition and repetition until you pick it up.” Radcliffe is no stranger to hard work. Cast as Harry Potter at age 11, he spent much of the next 10 years on a film lot in southern England. A car would collect him from his home in London at 7:30 a.m., and drop him back again at 8:30 p.m. Radcliffe admits that he wasn’t much of an actor in the beginning, and that he spent the first two films “just reading the lines.” But while making the third, he became determined to learn how to act. “When you get as lucky as I got, you have to work as hard as possible to earn that luck.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Should lying in politics be a criminal offence?Today's Big Question Welsh government considers new crime of deliberate deception by an elected official
-
Store closings could accelerate throughout 2025Under the Radar Major brands like Macy's and Walgreens are continuing to shutter stores
-
Crossword: February 20, 2025The Week's daily crossword
