There’s no escaping Hogwarts for Daniel Radcliffe — even more than a decade later! The 34-year-old actor took Vanity Fair’s polygraph test on October 18 with his Merrily We Roll Along co-stars Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez and admitted to reading fanfiction stories about archenemies Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy.
“Have you ever read fanfiction about yourself?“ Jonathan asked Daniel, who replied honestly, “Yes, aloud on TV.” When questioned about the strangest story that he has read about himself, the Harry Potter star confessed, “I’m obviously aware there’s a lot of, like, shipping of Harry and Draco as characters together. So, I’ve read some of that. … And this is the kind of thing I know from being in a franchise film of which people are funny about.”
Apart from indulging in a few odd fan creations over his character, Daniel revealed that he has Googled himself in the past. Not only that, but he has also read a “long list” of false stories about himself, including one that claimed he “had the SAS walk [his] dogs.” Another ridiculous one alleged that Daniel had “special beer brewed for [himself] by monks in a monastery in Belgium.”
A separate baseless rumor Daniel came across claimed that he would have his assistant hold up his scripts in the mirror while he was in the makeup chair, “even though that doesn’t make f**king sense ‘cause I wouldn’t be able to read mirror writing,” he quipped.
The three co-stars also had fun when Daniel mimicked a New York accent, which he cringed over. And since he is a U.K. native and Jonathan is American, Jonathan playfully asked Daniel if he believed that he had a better English accent than Daniel while portraying King George III in Hamilton.
“No,” Daniel responded without hesitation, before adding, “But it must have been good in the show [Hamilton].”
The Broadway and film double threat has had a busy year. Daniel returned to the stage to star alongside Jonathan and Lindsay in the New York Theatre Workshop’s revival of Merrily We Roll Along. He is reprising his role for the Hudson Theatre’s same production. Earlier this year, Daniel revealed that he and his girlfriend, Erin Darke, welcomed their first child together: a son.
“It’s great. It’s crazy and intense, but he’s wonderful and Erin is amazing — it’s a real privilege also to have this time with him,” Daniel told Entertainment Tonight in July. “I was always going to take some time off, which not everyone is able to do, and so I’m able to kind of just be here with him a lot, which is lovely.”