Child stars are notorious for turning into weird adults, which actually isn’t terribly surprising when you consider that their formative years are spent with the world watching their every move. So, it’s a bit of a miracle that the three child stars of the Harry Potter franchise – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint – have all turned out to be pretty normal (well, as far as we know anyway).
Of the three, though, it’s Radcliffe who’s been keeping the busiest in the industry, always eager to prove that he’s not just a pair of glasses, a wand and a rather fetching scar. His roles since leaving Hogwarts have included, among other things, a critically acclaimed turn in The Woman in Black, portraying Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings, playing someone cursed with devil horns in Horns and, uh, a fart-propelled corpse in Swiss Army Man. We kid you not.
Now, in a recent interview, the beloved actor has opened up a bit about his post-Potter career choices and why he’s been shying away from blockbuster movies, explaining:
It’s not a deliberate decision (to stay away from blockbuster films). I go where the scripts are. It’s hard to get anyone to spend money on (scripts that are) too big of a risk. A lot of the big studios, I find the scripts are not as challenging or weird or interesting as the stuff they make in the indie world or even in the TV world. So the things that I gravitate to, so far they just happen to be in the indie world.
That’s not to say that Radcliffe won’t ever make another blockbuster, though. As he says further in the interview, if the right script presented itself, he’d jump at the chance.
But if there’s something happening in the studios and I love the script, I would love to be a part of some crazy big movie. It’s just about waiting for the right script.
Radcliffe makes some fair points here and it’s not like doing indie films has hurt his career, as he’s been putting forth one critically acclaimed performance after another. We also don’t imagine he’ll ever be strapped for cash, given how much he made during his time at Hogwarts, and he’ll probably have the freedom to pick whichever projects interest him the most for the rest of his life.
As for Harry Potter, while Radcliffe seems happy to have moved on from the character, he recently told TV Guide that he believes the property will be rebooted at some point in his lifetime, with someone new bringing the Boy Wizard to life. For now, that idea remains unconfirmed, but in the meantime, the Wizarding World will continue on with the release of Fantastic Beasts 3, which apparently is running into some trouble thanks to the involvement of Johnny Depp.
