Daniel Radcliffe Has Perfect Response for Starring in Harry Potter Movies for a Decade

Daniel Radcliffe got his big break playing Harry Potter across the Harry Potter franchise of films, starting in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001 when he was just 12 years old and concluding his time as the beloved wizard ten years later in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 at the age of 22. While a decade is a long time to play any role, Radcliffe quite literally grew up playing Harry, spending much of his childhood on set for the film. Now, in reflecting on that time in his career, the actor has what might be the perfect response to being asked why he stayed with the role for so long.

During an appearance on the A24 Podcast (via Screen Rant), Radcliffe said that the reason he stayed on as Harry Potter for so long was that he hated school.

“My mom and dad asked me between every film, basically, ‘Are you still enjoying it, and do you want to go back?’ I was always like, ‘Yes. I hate school,’” Radcliffe said.

Radcliffe and the other child actors in Harry Potter ended up having their schooling taken care of on set so he didn’t exactly get out of school per se, it just seems like this was preferred to Radcliffe over more traditional educational settings.

In the years since his time as Harry Potter has come to a close, Radcliffe has moved on to a variety of other projects. The actor most recently was seen starring in The Lost City with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum and will play the titular role in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. He’s also appeared on the comedy series Miracle Workers, and a handful of other film projects as well. Earlier this year, Radcliffe spoke with ComicBook.com about his career now.

“I think now at this point, I’ve got a reputation for being kind of weird in the things I want to do, which is lovely and weird, but gets weird, which is great,” Radcliffe shared in an exclusive interview. “But generally speaking, I think the way I saw it after Potter was that for every person that did only see me as one thing, there was somebody out there who was excited by the chance to show me as something else. So, you know, there’s some directors would be like, ‘Oh, he’s only Harry Potter,’ and some directors to be like, ‘Oh, I’d love to reinvent him in a way for the world.’ So, you know, it goes both ways.”

While chatting with ComicBook.com, the actor also addressed getting fan-cast as Wolverine. 

“So many times, people come to me like, ‘Hey man, heard the Wolverine news, that’s pretty cool.’ No, I don’t know anything about it. Like, I appreciate that somebody is clearly going like ‘Wolverine’s actually short in the comic books, you should get like a short guy to do it!’” Radcliffe said. “But I don’t see myself, I don’t see them going from Hugh Jackman to me. But who knows? Prove me wrong, Marvel.”