Photos: Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.

The trailer for Extras featuring Daniel. Will air 28th September on BBC Two.

New photos from the promotional photoshoot for Extras. The episode with Dan will air this Thursday on BBC Two (9.00-9.30).


Photos: BBC

Daniel won the Golden Penguin Award from Xpress magazine (Australia) Emma Watson also won an award. They both received their Penguin on the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix set.

Daniel Radcliffe also joins us. Although he has a tight timetable today he wants to accept the Penguin personally. "How did I win that?", he laughs. "It's really cool and of course it will get a special place right next to last year's. Thank you very much!"

Six-pack. We ask Dan about his bathing scene in HP4 and want to know how long he trains for his Adonis-body. "Uhm, thanks for noticing it." Dan grins and blushes at the same time. "Not so long, half an hour twice a week with David Holmes, my stunt double. But we train hard."

From Empire magazine:

“You can’t really think of yourself as the most famous child in the world. I try not to think about it, I just sort of get on with things. I don’t sit down every night and talk to myself to stop myself becoming arrogant. I would never want to be that, because I deplore those values in anyone. It’s just something you have to take in your stride. I’ll never get used to it.

With the films, I am much more aware now of what I’m doing. I think i’t partly a teenage thing, that your’e more aware of how people are seeing you, so you just want to give the best performance possible. In that respect it’s got a bit harder as the years have gone on, but it does balance out slightly, because I am now more comfortable on-set and more comfortable playing harry.

Premieres are strange. If I went to loads of the I may get used to it, but It’s always a Harry Potter premiere and they’re massive. I honestly never want to get used to that feeling of stepping out and having that reception from the crowd, because it’s an amazing thing. I imagine it’s what bands feel when they walk on stage at huge festivals and everyone applauds them before they’ve even done anything. Nobody there has seen the film, but they coome out to clap; it’s really gratifying. Your’e shut away making the film for at least 10 months, probably 11, maybe even 12. I’ts great that people come out and clap and cheer because it makes it feel even more worth while it really does. It’s unbelievable to feel that support.

There are very mild downsides, things that have become difficult to do as Harry Potter’s become more populair. During the summer I wanted to go to the reading festival, but a friend of mine mentioned that people might find out whose tent it was, and then we would be in trouble. I stayed in this local hotel, where I was told all the bands stayed. The fans have changed with the movies. The average age of the fans goes up as the films get darker. In the past couple of years Harry Potter has developed a certain cool. I don’t know quite how it’s happened, but it’s obviously great that it has. It’s an amazing thing to be part of.”

Daniel Radcliffe has signed a poetry book to benefit the Luke Neuhedel Foundation, a 501c3 charity that helps children fighting cancer, Children's Cancer Auction. It's one of many items signed for their online auction. You can bid till 24th September. The book, called Loving Luke, is a book of essays and poems about Luke Neuhedel and his inspirational battle with cancer.


source/photo: lukefund.org

Jenna from danradcliffe.com interviewed Daniel this Summer about Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, December Boys and more. Below a selection of questions.

What was it like – first romantic sequence?

It was very strange... luckily Teresa Palmer, who’s playing opposite me in that, she has actually done kissing scenes before and stuff, and she was sort of quite cool with that and would say “oh, no, no, it’s nothing to worry about”. I was quite nervous. It is very strange, but you don’t really think about it. It actually becomes like any other scene really. You sort of just… go in and you kiss… but it’s a weird kind of kiss. It just feels different from when you actually kiss someone because it’s just… because everyone’s watching and it’s quite clinical. You’ll stand with your faces like a centimeter apart and then the camera crew will tell you, “Can you move your head a little to the left”. They position you, so it is quite clinically done. It’s not in the least bit exciting or romantic like it is in real life at all as you might expect it to be. So you just sort of get in there and do it… and it was fun in the end. Me and Teresa ended up getting quite hysterical. We just sort of started laughing.

OOTP

Have you gotten to your heated, temper scenes yet?

No..no there is one scene where I do...I get to break a lot of things. It's very...with any luck it should be very, very powerful. I will actually film the scene in Dumbledore's office where he talks about Sirius and how Dumbledore's responsible for Sirius' death indirectly. We do that next Monday. I am really looking forward to that. I think it is one of the strongest scenes in the book and so I'm looking forward to doing it. And also, it's plot stuff which you need to explain what happened. It is more practical, not an emotionally-driven scene.

Most interesting scenes filmed so far...

I think anything with Umbridge. They are great because Imelda Staunton is just brilliant. She is absolutely perfect. Not only is she a brilliant actress, she is a nice and charming person to be around because she is so funny and kind and generous-spirited. She is really helpful with stuff when you're acting with her. She is very good with advice and general encouragement. Her and Gary Oldman are my two favorite people I have ever worked with.

How do you feel Harry copes with all of the tragedies he must endure in this installment?

Generally I think he copes very badly, but I think what I admire about the way he copes is he tries to cope with it on his own. He doesn't make his problems other people's problems. He just sits there and actually tries to work it out on his own. The only person he sort of really, really reaches out to is Sirius. He usually reaches out to Dumbledore, but Dumbledore is being aloof this year, which is another thing to add to his frustration.

I think he didn't deal with it very well, but I think I still have a little admiration for the way he tries to deal with it on his own...and that's a really fun and interesting part of the film...Harry trying to work his problems out, and actually having no one there to really reach out to and actually understand what he's been through.

Extras
How it all started.

"They saw me on the Jonathan Ross show and said, 'Hey, he’d be great.' And so they contacted my agent and it all sort of went from there. I agreed to do it because I was such a fan of Ricky Gervais and the series of Extras. I agreed before I had seen a script or anything. I knew the vague outline for it, but I hadn’t actually seen the dialogue and stuff. I remember I was in Australia and my dad and I had to talk to him about it because he wanted to just chat with me about it. I called him and we chatted for half an hour about the episode. It was a really great moment for me to talk to him. A couple of months later we were sent the script. It was great - and it was very, very funny. I filmed it a couple of weeks ago."

Ok, so what is this episode about, and what is the deal with the scout's uniform?

"I play a very, very warped version of myself in a scouts uniform," Daniel laughs, "because obviously they couldn’t do references to Harry Potter for legal reasons, so they had to put me in a scouts uniform. They couldn’t have me in a school outfit or anything. The scouts uniform looks absolutely ridiculous and very, very funny. I play this very obnoxious teenage boy who endlessly flirts with everybody he sees. It should be very, very funny, but there is this whole other story in the episode, which I think is also very funny."

Dan really enjoyed portraying this character. The episode took a total of two days to film.

"Oh it was great fun because it is something that is so removed from myself. It was such a departure, and a major departure from Harry. It was just really, really good fun. We wrapped at about 4 o’clock each day. We worked unbelievably fast and it was just really, really good fun. We had a good laugh and it was all really light-hearted. Joking around is what we basically did for two days. It was fantastic." I don't know about you guys, but I think he had a really, really great time filming this! *wink*

This show is not for everyone however. According to Daniel's father, it is not suitable for anyone younger than sixteen. So - parents beware. What about those who do watch it? What will Harry Potter fans think? Well - I asked Daniel this question and he said,

"If they like Ricky Gervais’ humor then they’ll like the episode, if they don’t then they won’t. Hopefully if they don’t like the episode then the next Harry Potter film will make up for it." Nothing wrong with a little humor, I always say - It's what keeps the mundane and tragic a little less in-your-face.