Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe talks to Darryl Smith about his spellbinding role — and life beyond the boy wizard.

DANIEL Radcliffe would like us to believe that he’s grown up to be a normal 16-year-old. So like any other boy his age, he spent the summer fretting over his exam results, strumming on his guitar — and fighting Lord Voldemort.

On the eve of the release of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, the fourth film in the series of JK Rowling’s phenomenally popular books, the chosen boy is set for another round of red carpets, glitzy premieres and meetings with the world’s press.

Through it all he steadfastly refuses to have his head turned. He may be the world’s most famous wizard but he won’t let fame change him. 

“As far as I am concerned I am a normal person,” he asserts. “I go back to school when I am not filming, I go out with my friends, I go to the cinema — all the normal things that teenagers do.

“There is an assumption that I cannot leave my house without being hounded but that is not the case. I am able to do many more things than people think I can.

“Some aspects do take some getting used to, however. People who’ve known me five years have started to call me Harry. People I meet on the street actually call me Dan. That is confusing — people who don’t really know me seem to know me better than people who do!

“I have actually started to talk about Harry as if he is another person that I know, like one of my friends, which is actually quite worrying.”

Especially as he’s previously gone on record as saying he doesn’t much care for Harry Potter or his books, failing to even finish the first one he read as an eight-year-old.

He maintains, “There are parts of Harry’s character that are not particularly nice,” but age — and maybe the Warner Bros publicity machine — has changed his mind about the quality of the books. 

“I think in some aspects he is extremely arrogant and we learn in the fifth book that his dad was very arrogant too. In a way, his negative points are what make him loved because he is not the perfect hero. He’s incredibly flawed and that’s what makes him such a real character, and you can associate so much with him.

“I read The Order Of The Phoenix (the fifth book) inside five days. I’m normally a very slow reader but I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I remember telling someone which character dies and that was only because someone told me and I was bitter and wanted to spoil it for someone else!”

One book on, and with one still to go, Daniel isn’t going to spoil the surprise ending for anyone else — because he doesn’t know it himself.

Notoriously clandestine in protecting her creation, JK Rowling won’t even tell the boy who brought her literary character to life what is going to happen to him.

“It’s outrageous, isn’t it?” he says, looking for support in his cause to be let in on the secret. “I genuinely don’t know. My feeling is that Harry and Voldemort will go together, that would be an appropriate ending. They share the same core in their wands, and I think that’s a link. If one has to die, then the other one dies.

“That’s where I see it going, so, if I turn out to be right, people will think I’m lying now about not knowing!”

Whatever Harry’s dark destiny, Daniel is busy planning a bright future for himself.

Born on July 23, 1989 to literary agent Alan Radcliffe and Marcia Gresham, Daniel began performing in small school productions as a young boy. 

Despite his mum working as a casting agent, Daniel’s parents weren’t very receptive to his desire to act in bigger things until a role came up in the television movie David Copperfield, which their friend Kate Harwood was producing. 

He played the young David Copperfield but the role didn’t lead to instant success. It was a couple of years before he landed his next role as Mark Pendel in The Tailor Of Panama, the son of Harry and Louisa Pendel, played by Geoffrey Rush and Jamie Lee Curtis. 

It was Curtis who pointed out to Daniel’s mother that he could play Harry Potter and, soon afterwards, Daniel was cast by director Chris Columbus in Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone. 

He has appeared in the three sequels and has already signed to do the fifth film but is also planning for a life beyond the wizard’s wand.

In between The Goblet Of Fire and The Order Of The Phoenix, which is due for release in 2007, Daniel will be seen in December Boys. It’s a film based on Michael Noonan’s novel about four orphans, all born in December, who leave their orphanage for a holiday by the sea. A rumour about two of the seaside residents possibly adopting one of the orphans causes tension to rise among the small group of friends.

Not only does it mark a change in direction for Daniel’s career but also in a decision about his career.

Despite his early ambitions, he has stated recently that he was unsure about whether or not he would make acting his life. Now he seems more focused. 

“I want to be an actor. I enjoy doing it, and I have a certain confidence about it that I probably didn’t have even a year ago. The actual work is fantastic. In a way I don’t really think about it as a career because it is too much fun, and everyone says jobs aren’t supposed to be fun. Some people call this a job. 

“I’ve worked with some unbelievable people and made such great friends doing Harry Potter. Emma (Watson), Rupert (Grint), Tom (Felton) and Matthew (Lewis) — our relationship gets stronger with each film and I hope they will be my friends for life.

“We do have arguments, err, heated discussions I mean — we never argue! But we’re really good friends. I’m known as the scrounger in the group, I can get you anything.”

Joining the regular cast of youngsters for the latest film is Glasgow teenager Katie Leung, who plays the object of Harry’s affections, Cho Chang.

After impressing at the prestigious Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry tries to work his charms on Cho — but without much initial success.

Daniel admits that there are similarities between Harry and him on this subject.

“I don’t understand girls, but I’m learning slowly,” he says optimistically. “I’m much more confident (than Harry) but I’m just as rubbish.

“It’s weird. I like to think that I’m not, but I may be wrong. Ask the girls. I don’t have a girlfriend, but I try. 

“I think of the perfect lines afterwards. I find that lines — no one should use lines with girls — don’t work. ‘Hey, do you come here often?’ What is that? ‘Hey, is this seat empty?’ ‘Yes, and this one will be, too, if you don’t leave me alone.’” 

Apart from a vain hope at understanding the opposite sex — there’s no magic wand for that, Daniel — the level-headed lad from Fulham, West London, says he and Harry are growing up to be very different boys.

Such is the way we have come to recognise him on the big screen that it’s something of a surprise when you are sitting opposite him to find out that he doesn’t wear glasses (the ones he wears in the film are made of clear glass).

Apart from that physical feature there are other differences that run a lot deeper. He says that he doesn’t share too many of Harry’s hopes — but he has been known to share one of his dreams. 

“During the making of the first film I dreamed I was playing Quidditch and falling to a horrible death. Those dreams have kind of stopped now.

“I can’t say I’m like Harry, I don’t feel isolated from people. Equally, it never annoys me that people associate him with me.

“I’ve been playing Harry for over four years now, so for me it would be completely pointless to be angry being associated with him. Such a huge amount of my life has gone into it.”

And the biggest difference of all — while Harry’s life was decided for him by a mark on his forehead, Daniel’s future is still to be mapped out.

By Phil Penfold/Planet Syndication.