Press Watch - 2007

Short quotes and comments by and about Daniel Radcliffe from around the media.  If you find any more, please send them to us!

Source: Scotland on Sunday, 13th May 2007

During an interview, actor Orlando Bloom comments on Dan's performance in Equus:

"...it would be great to do a play in the West End and be part of a company. I did see Equus recently and thought Daniel Radcliffe [the Harry Potter star] did a great job. It was really a brave choice. It made me think."

Source: David Copperfield edition of the Classic Drama Collection, 10th May 2007

Actor James Thornton, who played Ham Peggotty in Copperfield, said this about working with a very young Dan:

"He was ever so small, and a really sweet, little guy. We got on really well and had a great laugh. I remember him singing Coldplay songs all the time. It's just odd seeing him now, grown up. Out of all the cast, he's the one that's got really famous. It's just gone mad for him."

Source: Theatre.com, 6th April 2007

During an interview, Joanna Christie spoke in glowing terms about meeting and working with Daniel Radcliffe:

Everyone wants to know: what was it like to meet Radcliffe?

“He's so down to earth and normal,” Christie beams. “He doesn't make you feel nervous. There's nothing starry about him. He's one in a million. He's 17 and he's had such an extraordinary life—he could be a nightmare and so messed up by his bizarre teenage years, living on a massive film set and having enormous global fame. But he's so lovely and such a gentleman and so polite and intelligent. He's an amazing guy."

"I was a bit scared of the jealous fans,” she admits, "but they've all been lovely so far."

What about the prospect of having to appear naked?

"Whatever I'm feeling about it, it's a million times worse for Daniel. The pressure on him was very big, but we're doing it together and we both feel very supported by each other. We got on with each other from the word go and trust each other totally, which we need to do to be able to do the scene."

"It's been great for Daniel—it has given him the respect he deserves as an actor, and he has proved himself more than capable of doing something apart from Harry Potter. But more importantly than that, the response from Daniel's fans and regular theatregoers and anyone else who has just been curious has been absolutely amazing. The audiences are such a mixture of people, and they all really, really love it. There are hundreds of people at the stage door every night, and they're all very complimentary. That means a lot."

Source: The Telegraph, 28th March 2007

According to an article, Daniel Radcliffe is on the "New Nominees for National Treasures" list in the UK.

"Daniel Radcliffe - He could have stayed Harry Potter but his brave leap into theatre has gained him great reviews and his deference to his senior co-stars, shows him to be a well-brought up little treasure."

Source: Evening Standard, 16th March 2007

Will Kemp, who plays Will Kemp, who plays the dual roles of the young horseman and the horse Nugget in Equus, said about Dan:

"He is a remarquable young man. There's very little that can throw him: the mass hysteria, the publicity, the press, the constant hastle that is his life - he handles it brilliantly. He could easily have been this 17-year-old brat, but he's not at all, he's a real gentleman."

Source: Geek Monthly.com, 15th March 2007

OotP director, David Yates, talks about filming with Dan:

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: And, of course, you’re still dealing with those elements of teenage angst.

DAVID YATES: “In a way, they’re [the actors] going through it right now, 14 coming up to 17. They’re teenagers like we were and they have all of the pressures of being teenagers as well as the physical changes. So it’s not difficult to explore those issues. And just Dan as an actor is incredibly intuitive and emotional, and I mean that in a good way. I’d actually rather use the word sensitive instead of emotional, because he’s quite strategic about his empathy for people and things. And they’re all really bright and intuitive, so getting them to deal with some of these story issues wasn’t difficult at all.”

GEEKMONTHLY.COM: When you joined the film, how did you acclimate yourself with the cast?

DAVID YATES: “Right at the beginning, you always have these rehearsals with any actor you work with. With Dan, in particular, who had to go through this quite complex journey. We sat down several months before we start ed shooting. We would meet every week and we would talk about what Harry was dealing with. One of the things we did, and it sounds quite intense for a family film, is we brought in a bereavement counselor to talk to us about how Harry Potter dealt with witnessing the death of Cedric [Diggory]. This woman came in to talk to both of us about how people deal with quite intense emotional and disturbing experiences. She deals with people in the police and the rescue services who every day witnessed trauma and death, and she kind of showed us how people process that and deal with that and what it does to them. At the start of our story, and it kind of hangs over the story like a shadow, Harry is having to come to terms with what he witnessed, the tragedy he’s seen and it’s affected him. Dan was able to glean quite a lot from what she showed us and what she’d seen talking to people. That was kind of useful and helpful in the kind of development of Harry’s journey in our film. And the truth is, you never stop talking. Every day. I love working with actors and I love their interpretations of characters. Even on the day of shooting, you never stop talking. It’s a constant dialogue.”

Source: The Guardian, 14th March 2007

Actor Colin Haigh had to step in for Richard Griffith in a few performances of the play Equus. Asked about Dan's reaction to that situation, he said:

"He was almost gleeful," says Haigh (who normally plays stable manager Harry Dalton in the play). "It was like a challenge, suddenly having to act against someone else. A lot of the lines are questions. I managed without the script for quite a while; when in doubt about the right line, all I had to do was say 'Go on' to Daniel and he would just fill in."

Source: BBC Radio 4, 6th March 2007

Equus director Thea Sharrock was interviewed on BBC Radio4's woman's hour. She had nothing but praise for Daniel and his acting abilities:

"He is an absolute consummate actor in his ownright... This is an enormous leap for any seventeen-year-old to do... He brings with him an extraordinary discipline and level of professionalism, and that was an absolute gift for me."

Source: The Telegraph, 25th February, 2007

Richard Griffiths talks about Dan’s and Joanna Christie’s nude scene in Equus:

“Talking of being self-conscious, Griffiths is about to star opposite Daniel Radcliffe, he of Harry Potter fame, in the first major production of Peter Shaffer's Equus since 1973. Griffiths plays the psychiatrist, Radcliffe his patient, a young man who has a pathological sexual fascination with horses.

There is much nudity in the play.

Griffiths: 'Yes, but thank goodness it's not me being naked,' Griffiths says. 'I wouldn't inflict my naked body on any paying audience.

'I think it was difficult for Daniel at first, especially as this is his stage debut, but they have done it brilliantly. Initially there were just four of us in the room, then eight, then 40 - and they [Radcliffe and Joanna Christie, the two young actors who appear naked] became confident about it. Obviously what you worry about when you take your clothes off is the prurient response.'

And the temperature.

Griffiths: 'That's true. I hadn't thought about that. Knowing David Pugh [the producer] he will probably drop the temperature by three degrees to make everyone's nipples perkier. I don't think it is too bad for these two actors because they have lovely bodies, so they are admirable rather than mockable’.”

Source: This Morning, 25th February 2007

Jenny Agutter talks about Dan:

"He has the maturity and absolute enthusiasm for what he is doing and also has just worked so hard and is producing something wonderful. He is completely unembarrassed - he's unembarrassed in the way he works as an actor and it gives it such power."

Source: Telegraph, 25th February 2007

From an article entitled "Forget Blinding The Horse, That Cigarette Is Utterly Offensive" by Nigel Reynolds, on the controversy surrounding Dan's smoking on stage in Equus:

He appears to blind a horse on stage, he is naked and he has to simulate losing his virginity. But what really ruffled feathers yesterday was that Daniel Radcliffe, the 17-year-old star of the Harry Potter films, will smoke on stage in his West End debut. Photographs show the actor, with stubble and looking more Harry Enfield than Harry Potter, half-way through a cigarette in a scene from Equus, the celebrated Peter Shaffer play in which Radcliffe opens at the Gielgud Theatre on Tuesday. The image brought immediate condemnation.

Amanda Sandford, a spokesman for Ash, the anti-smoking organisation, said: "It is regrettable that he is smoking, whatever the circumstances. He is a role model for young people and if he decided to take up smoking in real life that would be of great concern. Even though it is an act, nicotine is highly addictive and he could find himself hooked."

David Pugh, the producer of the revival, said: "If they are worried about smoking and not about the fact that he's simulating sex with a young girl on stage, it makes me think that they've got their priorities wrong. Daniel smokes in the play. He doesn't smoke in life. It's in the script and it always has been. It is not gratuitous. In fact, it's a very beautiful scene where Alan Strang (played by Radcliffe) is with his psychiatrist. The psychiatrist offers him a cigarette and it's really the first time the man and boy bond as they talk and smoke."

Source: Female First, 22nd February, 2007

Radcliffe's co-star in Equus, Joanna Christie, defends the nude scene:

British actress Joanna Christie has defended Equus co-star Daniel Radcliffe for appearing nude on the London stage, insisting the play is about much more than him stripping off.

The Harry Potter star, 17, defended his decision to appear naked in a revival of Peter Shaffer's 1973 play earlier this month (Feb07), after the promotional pictures for the show caused controversy among parents of young fans of the boy wizard.

But 24-year-old Christie is amazed by the amount of press attention Radcliffe has attracted, and urges critics to look beyond the raunchy scenes to see the meaning of the play itself.

She says: "I can't believe there are people saying he's a bad role model for children. He's an actor playing a part, and in the story he happens to have a relationship with a girl. The play is on school syllabuses. It's an amazingly interesting, complex story. It's not about nudity or sex. It's about a lot of very complex issues. When we do (the nude scene) in the context of the play it's really beautiful and natural. I expected some publicity because of Daniel but not stories and photos everywhere."

Source: Xposé #102, 22nd February 2007

Dan about performing in Equus:

" 'The best way I can think of summarizing it is that it is about the pain that comes with the extremes of passion, and the passion that must be given up if you're to become an acceptable member of society.' Radcliffe tells us enthusiastically.

'When I did it, I knew that [the naked scene] was the bit that everybody would be talking about. It's a very important bit of the play but it's not the whole play. It's very moving and it's very intelligent, not gratuitous'."

Source: BBC Breakfast News, 20th February 2007

Jenny Agutter, who plays the role of the magistrate Heather Saloman in the play Equus, has nice words to say about Daniel during her interview:

"And of course it's the first theatrical production Daniel Radcliffe has done and he is absolutely wonderful and he is a dedicated actor. He loves what he's doing, he's very enthusiastic about it and he works so hard. We've had some very good audiences I must say, we haven't actually opened to the press yet, very appreciative of what he's doing. He's just completely created a wonderful, believable young man, Alan Strang.”

Source: GeekMonthly.com, 16th January 2007

GeekMonthly.com has a posted a short interview with Dan:

Daniel Radcliffe:“I need to get as much work between now and the end of the series and the immediate aftermath of the series as I can to prove to people that I can do it. That’s why I’m constantly on the look out for scripts and things to do. That’s why I’m doing two things between Harry Potter 5 and 6, if and when that happens. I do feel a need to say to people that I am capable of more than Harry Potter.

That being said, I don’t pick roles specifically because they are very different from Harry Potter. You have to judge each role on what it is and who you’ll be working with. It just so happens that the films that have come my way are very different from Harry, and that’s a nice bonus, really.

Having said that, Harry Potter is a very demanding part and really challenging. I don’t mean to make it sound like Harry is an easy ride, because it’s not. But with doing things like Equus and My Boy Jack, which is a World War I story about Rudyard Kipling and his son, and I did December Boys last year - hopefully all of these projects should begin to let people see me in a different light.”

Source: Michael Brit’s Photo Exhibition, 16th January 2007

A picture of Dan was displayed at the Exhibition at Fulham Palace and the caption, written by the photographer himself, Michael Brit, read as follows:

"When I was asked to select new sitters for this show, my first thought was Daniel Radcliffe. To have fabulous talent, as he undoubtedly is, on your doorstep was enticing."

Source: unknown, 03rd January 2007

Thea Sharrock talks about Dan:

"I want to have a very serious focus with Daniel and Richard (Griffiths) before the room gets crowded. It's Daniel's first time on dramatic stage. This isn't a vehicle created for Daniel. He auditioned and the best actor was picked. The fact that he also happens to be the actor who plays Harry Potter is beside the point. He and I have spent a lot of time examining the text because things are very different with a play than a movie."