Daniel Radcliffe has never made it a secret of how he struggled being a child star – and he doesn’t want the same for his kids.
Daniel Radcliffe has never made a secret of how difficult being a child star was for him – and he doesn’t want the same for his kids.
Speaking to Newsweek in a new interview, Radcliffe claimed that he would not want fame for his kids, considering his own experiences growing up in the limelight. “I wouldn’t want fame for my kid.” Radcliffe said.
To be clear, Radcliffe isn’t totally opposed to the idea of his kids eventually making it to the film industry – he’d just prefer it was behind the scenes.
“I want my kids, if and when they exist…I would love them to be around film sets.” said Radcliffe, who spent his formative years fronting the massively popular Harry Potter franchise. “A dream would be for them to come onto a film set and be like ‘God, you know, I’d love to be in the art department. I’d love to be something in the crew.’ Some part of this, but not from that.”
It’s just the fame side of being a child actor – or being an actor at all – that he doesn’t want for his children.
“I think if you can get a situation where you’re on film sets without necessarily [thinking] ‘Oh, this is gonna be a big deal in your life’, that’s great.” The actor stated, adding: “Film sets are wonderful places. I think a lot of the time it can be wonderful for kids. But it’s really the fame side of it that should be avoided at all costs.”
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Radcliffe has been upfront about his struggles with alcohol addiction, which in part was spurred on by the pressures of fame. During the latter part of the franchise, Radcliffe said, he would often show up to set drunk – although he never drank on set, and it never affected how much love he had for the franchise.
As he told Off Camera in 2019: “Even at the lowest point, I still loved my job so much. I loved going to set, and there was never a day where my own [feelings] would affect how I was on set, there was never a point where I was like, ‘Oh, I wish this hadn’t happened to me, I wish I wasn’t Harry Potter.’”
“A lot of drinking that happened towards the end of Potter and for a little bit after it finished, it was panic, a little bit not knowing what to do next — not being comfortable enough in who I was to remain sober.” he said in a 2020 interview.
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