Daniel Radcliffe: "My alcoholism related to Harry Potter"

Daniel Radcliffe has revealed his difficulties in managing an early fame and therefore had problems with alcoholism: "I wondered if I would remain the wizard of Hogwarts forever". On Italy 1 are giving twice a week throughout the month, a Harry Potter marathon to counter the CoronaVirus pandemic that is rampant.

Unfortunately, the magic of Harry Potter has not protected Daniel Radcliffe, the protagonist of the film adaptation of the Harry Potter series! While J.K. Rowling's books brought millions of kids closer to reading, the latest film in the series coincided for the actor with the discovery of the anesthetizing powers of alcohol.

"Panic" is one of the causes! So the actor told the Bbc.

"He was finishing the adventure and I wasn't sure what I was going to do next." An understandable fear, given the end of the Potterian saga that kept the actor and co-stars from Emma Watson to Rupert Grint engaged for much of their teenage years, from the age of 11 to the age of 21.

How do you grow up in the spotlight? "I wasn't comfortable with myself, or with the sober version of me. So I drank." But even the excesses were seen through the prism of fame: "If I went out and got drunk people looked at me with interest and curiosity, because I wasn't just a bit of a bright person, I was still the Harry Potter guy. I didn't like being watched like that, so I drank more, I got drunk again. For a few years I went on like this."

Daniel Radcliffe's fight against alcoholism came out

His parents, Radcliffe said, don't drink, but alcoholism has marked several generations of his family. It was only the determination to quit that led him to succeed in his decision. "In the end, it's only you who can decide to say enough." It took 'time and more than an attempt', as well as a lot of luck. "I met wonderful people who helped me, other actors who gave me very important advice." Now he doesn't touch alcohol: "I don't miss drinking. When I think of the chaos that was my life then, I am happy to be better."

He was drafted at the age of 10. He tamed the alcohol, but the trauma?

Daniel Radcliffe became famous in no time, he is in fact one of the best known and paid actors in the world but this has led to alcoholism. The last film is now ten years old and yet Radcliffe will always be Harry Potter. How do I change? How do you go on? "I am very fond of the role and the years I have spent with my friends and colleagues." But there's something that can never go away: "If it weren't for Harry Potter, would I have been able to become an actor? And today, the parts that are offered to me come to me because I was Harry Potter or because I'm good?"

It's the curse of success

Success creates problems, you know, it's like a curse! Despite the work and applause of the critics, of course, he does not miss it. Radcliffe stars in Francis Annan's "Escape from Pretoria" about three anti-Apartheid activists in South Africa, while at the Old Vic in London he was opposite Alan Cummings and Jane Horrocks in Samuel Beckett's Endgame until the Covid-19 led to the cancellation of all performances. First he played "Equus", a play by Peter Shaffer, the lawyer Arthur Kipps in "The woman in black", Allan Ginsberg in "Kill your darlings".

The theatre, and London, were key

"There is little tolerance for those who give airs. For a time I was in L.A. and I thought I was going crazy. I can't imagine what it means to grow up there, especially because when you're young, or very young, you don't know exactly who you are and you believe in the image that others have of you. You don't always have the strength to stay true to who you are. In the end, you have to ask yourself existential questions: what do you want from life? I realized that my passion is to be an actor, that I would do it even without fame and without money. So I go on."

Daniel Radcliffe, New