Daniel Radcliffe: 'Harry Potter' experience is 'quite mad'

By Rick Porter

July 4, 2009 9:29 AM

Daniel Radcliffe has been playing Harry Potter on screen for nearly half his life, and he's noticed that his personality and that of the character have converged a little bit.

"[My mother] read 'Half-Blood Prince' and she did say, 'Harry has started to argue like you argue,'" Radcliffe tells the LA Times' Hero Complex blog. "He is very good in analogies, and I also use a lot of semantics, and it does really irritate people into submission really. Obviously, J.K. Rowling actually had cameras in my house and knows that is how I argue ..."

Radcliffe, who turns 20 on July 23, eight days after the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" in theaters, has been playing the young wizard for long enough now that he can be a little bit reflective on it. "I started this when I was about 10 or 11," he says. "It's quite mad if you think about it."

He also seems remarkably self-possessed for someone who's been world-famous since before he hit puberty. He's particularly grateful for the acting education he's received in working with the likes of Gary Oldman, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson. "Just think -- how many young people get access to that sort of advice and that sort of history?"

Radcliffe is also preparing for life after "Harry Potter" and looking forward to a career in more grown-up roles (he's already explored that territory some, starring in "Equus" on stage, where he famously appeared naked). "I would like to think I haven't been influenced by him too much just by playing him for so long," he says. "I am thrilled to have this in my life, but it is separate from my life, you know? It's nice to be called Dan."

You can read the full interview at Hero Complex.

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in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Movies (Entertainment)

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