Daniel Radcliffe Says Best Way Fans Can “Look After” HBO ‘Harry Potter’ Series’ Young Cast Is To “Not Ask About Me, Emma, Robert, All The Time”
With ‘Protect the child stars of HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter reboot from the toxicity of show business!’ being a common refrain ever since the series’ announcement, actor Daniel Radcliffe says that if fans are actually serious about this goal, the number one thing they can do is to avoid constantly asking the fledgling actors to compare themselves to his, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson’s original film performances.
The OG live-action Harry Potter star spoke to his concern for Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout, and Arabella Stanton, the three of whom are set to play the TV versions of Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermoine Granger, while participating in ScreenRant’s Debunked by AI webshow, each episode of which sees a given celebrity presented with AI generated responses to various questions about their careers.
During his time on the show, the unidentified AI engine used by ScreenRant was asked as to “What would Daniel want to say to the new Harry Potter cast?’, to which the LLM replied, its answer read aloud by Radcliffe himself, “He’d likely say something like, ‘Focus on the work, not the hype – treat every scene like any other acting job’ – Yeah, cuz the kids will know what that means – ‘and trust that the rest of will take care of itself.'”
Continuing, Radcliffe further relayed, “‘Stay close to each other. Lean on the crew I did say that. Keep your life outside the spotlight intact’ – Sure, as much as you can – ‘Enjoy it. Protect your mental health.’ – I’m definitely going to say that to a 10-year-old – ‘and don’t be afraid to make these characters your own rather than trying to copy what came before.”
[Time Stamp: 09:57]
His read of the AI reply at an end, the actor turned to give his evaluation of the machine’s impersonation attempt, which he began by declaring “Yes, absolutely.”
“When these kids got cast, there was a whole thing around the internet, around the world, with people being like ‘We got to look after these kids! We gotta look after them!’, and I was like, ‘If you mean that, if everyone really means that, all the people that are saying that, one of the things you can do for me is not ask about us. Me, Emma, Robert, all the time.”
Expanding on his thoughts, Radcliffe explained, “I would like not to be, like, weird spectral phantoms in these children’s lives and just to let them like get on with cuz it.”
“It’s going to be a new thing and it’s going to be a different thing and they’re going to be – I mean, I’m sure Dominic is going be better than me and better than I was, I learned as I went. I look back on what I did now with a lot more kindness, and I find it less embarrassing now that I’m older. But like, I was very much learning how to do it for a long time on Potter. And yeah, and I would just say, I hope you have the best time.”
But far from finished with his advice, Radcliffe was then struck with one more piece of guidance for the incoming Hogwarts leads: “And the the one thing that gets absolutely right, lean on the crew.”
“I think everyone has an image of the way we were all raised on the set by the best British actors and that’s why we all turned out fine. I was like, ‘Guys, the best British actors were around us for like two weeks of ten month shoots.’
“They were amazing, of course they were, but like Maggie Smith wasn’t coming in to give me like advice on how to grow up. And nor should they have been, that’s not their job either. And I got close with some of the adults, a little bit, but the people we were really close to were the crew.”
His mind turned to his time working on the Warner Bros. film series, Radcliffe at this point opted to take a slight tour and talk to “My own little, you know, pet peeve that I’m getting on now.”
“We’ve had some older [film series] cast members who passed away in the last few years. Many obviously, like one of them being John Hurt. I filmed with him, and people came to me for a comment when when he passed away – and like, I filmed with John Hurt for two days across ten years. You should ask his friends, ask people that knew him really well.
“Whereas when tragically have lost a couple of young assistant directors from Potter who have who passed away. Jamie Christopher is the person I’m thinking of now. Jamie was a much more influential person in my life than a lot of the other actors. No one comes to ask me about him.”
Finally returning to the question at hand, Radcliffe ultimately declared, “So the thing I would say is the crew were the people that I became my best friends. The crew are some of the people I’m still really really close to. And so yes, leaning on the crew, that part AI – I don’t know which AI this is, if it’s ChatGPT – you got that right, ChatGPT.”
At present HBO’s Harry Potter series is set to premiere sometime in early 2027.
