Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Jacob Radcliffe was born in the London district of Fulham on July 23, 1989. There is nothing magical on that date, nor special marks on the forehead of the newcomer to the world, but the fact is that Daniel was destined to embody in the cinema to one of the most popular wizards of fictional fiction of all time, with the permission of Merlin the Enchanter, or Gandalf the Grey.

But before being introduced to Harry Potter, an only child like him, little Daniel began his acting career at a very early age, participating in school functions. Legend has it that at the age of five he already wanted to be an actor. It is clear that at home he could have gotten the itch to play characters other than himself, since his mother is a casting director for the BBC, and his father is his literary agent. And since he loved James Bond movies, he reproduced scenes from 007 for his own enjoyment and his friends. In 1999, without having turned New Years, he achieved the role that gives his name toDavid Copperfield (1999) , a BBC mini-series based on the Charles Dickens classic . A friend of his parents convinced them for the boy to go to the casting for the character, and he passed five tests until he was chosen.

Although the actor drew attention, the fact is that two years later he only had a small role as the son of the marriage made up of Geoffrey Rush and Jamie Lee Curtis inThe tailor of Panama , based on the novel by John Le Carré . Curiously, it was Curtis who encouraged little Radcliffe to appear at the casting in which a very large number of children – there was talk of 40,000 – aspired to become one of the leading boys in the Harry Potter saga of magic books for young adults, written by JK Rowling .. The parents did not grant him permission, but then the producer David Heyman who returned to the charge. Learning that Rowling said of her casting the role “I can’t think they could have found a better Harry” must have been a rush for Radcliffe. Radcliffe did not get to read Rowling’s novels until he was chosen to play Potter. And it is clear that he knew how to impress on the character the seriousness of the burden that falls on his shoulders, when it comes to fighting the one who cannot be named.

Like his co-stars Rupert Grint and Emma Watson , Radcliffe grew up with the series. He wouldn’t make other movies, he would have to combine his studies with the cinema as best as possible, and Potter’s growing maturity would also be his. Although meeting the people on the team again must have been nice, he also had to change directors several times, from Chris Columbus to Alfonso Cuarón , from him to Mike Newell , and finally to David Yates. By Rowling’s requirement, the actors would be British –obviously Radcliffe met the requirement–, but it is already seen that the directors could be of other nationalities. Cuarón seems to have initiated the actor at the beginning of the character’s adolescence, and also in some way in his own, recommending that he listen to the Sex Pistols and watchTruffaut’s four hundred blows , to learn to express the anger of the ‘teenager’ he carried inside.

Throughout the Potter Odyssey, Radcliffe has not been able to make much film, and in factDecember Boys (2007) is a movie that deserves to be forgotten.The woman in black , currently filming, may be the touchstone film if the actor is able to break away from Potter’s long shadow on the screen, or if it will happen to him as Elijah Wood , eternal Frodo for many viewers as soon as he comes out in a movie, even if it’s not part of The Lord of the Rings . In any case, in theater he has been able to explore other fields, although not without controversy, since his naked appearance in the production of “Equus”, the play by Peter Shaffer , horrified many parents who were aware of the waves of admiration that Radcliffe aroused in his children. In any case, performances of him in London and Broadway led to positive reviews of his performance.

Although Radcliffe has declared that he has no intention of going to university, unlike Emma Watson, he has done his high school studies seriously, and seems to be a good lover of literature – he mentions John Keats among his favorite writers – and painting – here he has declared his admiration for Jackson Pollock. He is romantically related to actress Laura O’Toole, and over the past ten years she has amassed a fortune of £30 million. Among other feats, Radcliffe is the youngest person to have a portrait in London’s National Portrait Gallery, as the painting was added to the collection when she was 16 years old.