While Daniel Radcliffe will soon be playing Weird Al in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and will be back on the small screen for Season 4 of Miracle Workers, Miracle Workers: End Times, on January 16th, the actor is best known for his time playing Harry Potter in the beloved Harry Potter film franchise. Having spent much of his career and early life working within the Harry Potter franchise, it turns out that among the many people he worked with while making the Harry Potter films, there is one who stands out as having had the greatest influence on Radcliffe and his career — director Chris Columbus. Speaking with GQ, Radcliffe revealed that it was filmmaker, who made Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‘s Stone as well as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, that had such an impact it still resonated 20 years later.
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“I’m incredibly lucky to have worked with all of them, but honestly the person that I think had the greatest influence on me out of all of those is Chris Columbus,” Radcliffe said. “When Chris came back for the 20th anniversary reunion last year, he came to the studio and there were people on set who were running across set to see this director that they had not seen in 20 years, and they remembered him, and he remembered them. And there are so few people in the industry that can inspire that in people like that, genuinely the crews of the first few films would have followed Chris Columbus into hell. We just loved him so much. I think a huge amount of his enthusiasm for being on set is sort of where I take mine from and the reason, I think I love the job so much is in no small part due to him.”
Radcliffe also opened up to GQ as part of their “Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters” interview, one of the things from the Harry Potter franchise that had a different sort of influence — specifically meaning something that he will never do again. The actor revealed that the stunt work for the underwater portion of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is something he never wants to revisit.
“There is so much on Potter that was so intense and so crazy you don’t even think about it at the time ’cause you’re just like, ‘yeah, they’re building a tank where D stage used to be, they’re just like building a tank and they’re gonna be filming underwater for six weeks. I had like a log book of all the hours that I’d done underwater. It was really cool I’ve heard that we averaged like seven seconds of footage a day of usable footage. But again, those are one of those things that you go like, I will never do that again and if I do, I’ll be one of the only people who’s done it before. It was one of those moments that you look back and you go, God that’s special.”
When Is Weird: The Al Yankovic Story Coming To Roku?
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story begins streaming on The Roku Channel on November 4th. Radcliffe has previously it was one of the best times he’s ever had on a movie set.
“It was honestly one of the most fun jobs I’ve ever done,” Radcliffe previously told GMA about playing Yankovic. “If you can’t have fun making the Weird Al movie, what are you doing with your life? I’m really excited for people to see it. He’s the best. I know everyone says this about him, but it’s so lovely to meet somebody that you look up to and you know as a hero to so many people, and to have them just be kind and fun and sweet. I can now go to my grave saying that I’ve had accordion lessons with Weird Al.”
Where can you watch all of the Harry Potter movies?
All eight Harry Potter movies are currently streaming on Peacock.
