Daniel Radcliffe is smart. He knows that his sweet gig as Harry Potter isn’t going to last forever. So the young actor is making sure people know that he can do a lot more than wave a wand and mutter a few magic words. Fresh from rehearsals for his leading role in the stage drama Equus, which he began in London and is now reprising on Broadway, Radcliffe’s latest interview with Details magazine reveals a business-savvy, determined young actor who is ready to take on more adult roles once the Harry Potter film series ends.
There’s only one thing the boy wizard wants now that he’s all grown up—to play a drag queen.
“I think part of me would love to play a drag queen. Just because it would be an excuse to wear loads of eye make-up.”
Ah, yes, this would be the virile Dan Radcliffe, he of the bare-torso cover shots and professions of girl-craziness, the young man who appeared at last night’s Tony Awards still trailing tabloid buzz over his harrowing, occasionally naked performance in Equus, which was originally staged in London. Radcliffe plays Alan Strang, a self-flagellating, stable-boy mental case, a role that fans of him as a certain bespectacled boy wizard—whose presence looms over us even now in a sunny New York City park—might find unsettling.
Like any maturing child star, Daniel Radcliffe is carefully plotting his career after he leaves the role that made his name. Two things make his case unusual: (1) He may be the most eerily adult such actor since a post-“Taxi Driver Jodie Foster, and (2) that character happens to be the most popular literary hero since the invention of the printing press.
The seven Harry Potter books have sold more than 400 million copies. They have been translated into 67 languages. They’ve made their author, J.K. Rowling, the highest-earning novelist in history. And they’ve spawned the top-grossing film series of all time, which has earned Harry Potter’s cinematic representative a fortune the London Times this year estimated to be $39.7 million. Having just signed a contract for $50 million to see Harry Potter through to graduation, Radcliffe is tied with the ubiquitous Miley Cyrus on Forbes’ “Hollywood’s Top-Paid Tweens” list. Today he occupies a sphere of fame, wealth, and public imagining that approaches the supernatural. Escaping Harry Potter may be his biggest magic trick of all.
We first meet in the hotel lounge, a book-lined nook with Edwardian aspirations: Beaux Arts shelves, a carved-wood fireplace, tables for chess and backgammon. The vibe is somewhere between Kipling-era smoking room and Oxford-don study—an effect that’s amplified when Hogwarts’ own bursts in and takes a seat at the cribbage table. When Radcliffe marvels at the surfeit of ice in his glass, I counsel him to order booze neat—when he’s old enough.
“Well, I am old enough to drink,” he says with mock indignation. “But not in this country, apparently.” Ever since Equus added a kinky twist to the end of one of the most well-attended puberties of the decade, Radcliffe’s passage into adulthood has been the stuff of feverish speculation. For the record, Master Radcliffe does drink—in moderation and in private. Vodka and Diet Coke is his cocktail of choice, he says, “’cause I’m a pansy-ass civilian.” Also for the record, he celebrated reaching Britain’s age of consent, 16, almost three years ago, in the customary manner, with an older girlfriend. The age difference “wasn’t ridiculous,” he says. “But it would freak some people out.”
Maybe because he’s surrounded by people at least twice his age, Radcliffe tends to date older women. He’s currently single, although he explains that this is primarily due to time constraints. “Most of my friends have been girls, and I see how they are with their boyfriends and I think, I couldn’t do that,” he says. “I just don’t have the time.”
“Whenever I can I want to leave Harry there on the screen,” Radcliffe says. “I don’t want to bring him into my normal life.”
It sounds like Daniel is a lot more prepared to make the leap from child star to adult actor than many other kid celebs. He was smart and well-adjusted enough to realize that appearing nude in a respected stage play will help his career a lot more than leaking racy candid photos on the Internet, like some other certain teen stars we could name. The question remains, though: will he be able to appear in a film without people in the audience thinking, “hey, that’s Harry Potter!” It’s going to take some real talent to pull that off.
Daniel Radcliffe is shown on 8/19/08 in NY. Credit: Joseph Marzullo / WENN
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