Daniel Radcliffe answers questions on Reddit!

Last night, Daniel Radcliffe took part in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. He answered a wide range of questions, including LOTS of Harry Potter questions, as well as questions about Elijah Wood, Horns, his favorite foods, and much more!

Here’s a selection of some of the best questions and answers on Potter, Horns, and more:

On the process of making Horns:

Mickster86: What was the makeup process like for Horns? What would you do whilst having it applied?

Daniel: Um, we listened to heavy metal, basically. That was it. Yeah! And because the two guys that were doing the makeup, Mike McCarthy and Mike Fields, they were both big metal heads, and I mean, the actual process – they made it so easy – the horns themselves only took about 20 minutes to put on, and even some of the more extreme makeup that we had near the end only took a couple of hours, so you know, I had it easier than a lot of actors do. And yeah, so Metallica, Megadeth, and what was the other band we listened to loads of… shit… can’t remember; it’ll come back to me.

JacobeWilson: Super excited for Horns! What challenges came with portraying Ig?

Daniel: Well, because […] the nature of the horns mean that people confess their deepest, darkest stuff to him and do crazy things around him all the time, it sort of means that the challenge as an actor is doing justice to the insanity of the situation that you’re in, and reacting appropriately to the craziness, but also keeping it grounded and real and truthful because you can’t just have, you know, 2 hours of people freaking out; that’s not interesting to watch.

So yeah, the challenge was finding the balance between the craziness of the story and the very real tone that we wanted to get for the film.

Daniel answered countless Potter questions, ranging from pranks on the set, to his favorite Potter characters.

MrsKilgoreTrout: What was the best prank you pulled on the HP set?

Daniel: God… I should probably [tell you] about the one that was pulled on ME, rather than any I pulled. Because it came from a very unexpected place.

There’s – in the 3rd film – there’s a shot in the great hall of all the kids sleeping in the great hall, and the camera starts very very wide and comes in so that it’s an inch from my face, a very long developing set, yeah, and Alan Rickman [Severus Snape] decided he would plant one of those fart machines in my, uh, sleeping bag, and they waited until like – the camera had come in for this huge DRAMATIC developing shot, and then unleashed this tremendous noise in the great hall.

I immediately thought, ‘This is one of the other kids fucking around, and we were going to get in trouble.’

But as it turns out, it was one of the members of Britain’s acting royalty.

I think I laughed a lot, was probably a bit embarrassed, but it was really really funny.

oscarveli: Not including Harry Potter, who is your favorite character in the Harry Potter franchise?

Daniel: Probably Sirius. Like, I always loved the character, and then Gary [Oldman]’s portrayal of him I thought was perfect. Or Lupin, really. Any of the characters my [on-screen] dad used to hang out with, other than Wormtail. There was always something ’bout those two guys I loved a lot.

lmanders32: If you had a Horcrux, what would it be?

Daniel: WOW.
Um… that’s a really good question. First of all, congratulations to you for asking me a Harry Potter question I have NEVER been asked before; that is not easily achieved! I would say… I was gonna say my iPod, prolly put it in that, but I would put it inside an album on the iPod, so you’d have to open that album. So I somehow want it to be connected to a particular album that means something, like Ziggy Stardust. So that’s how I’d want to do that.

ThouShaltMakeItClap: Over the course of the Harry Potter films, you got to work with some amazing actors like Gary Oldman and Alan Rickman. Can you share any interesting stories about working with them?

Daniel: Well, one of the moments in my life that will forever be… you know, immortal in my memory, would be – because Gary Oldman is a bass player, a very good bass player, yeah, and um, I started learning bass on the 3rd film when he joined the cast. And so one day, I think actually maybe on my 14th birthday, that day started with Gary teaching me the bass line to ‘Come Together’ by the Beatles, yeah! And you know, that was just an amazing, amazing moment. What else… Michael Gambon was always also hilarious to be around. Something not every knows about Michael is that he collects and restores antique dueling pistols. Yeah! And they’re really his passion, much more than acting is, and uh, I remember he one morning gave me a demonstration of how you would shoot a man in a duel with a 17th century pistol in one hand and his morning coffee in the other!

Yeah, so my life has been blessed with many surreal, cool moments like that.

ajlposh: What was it like working with Richard Harris?

Daniel: Wonderful. I mean, he was just such a sweet man. You know… kind of relentlessly charming with women. I think I’m pretty sure I saw him flirting with female journalists at press conferences; I remember being a young child in awe of it… but yeah, he was a legend, and so to have been able to work with somebody of that generation, which was an incredibly important generation of actors for Britain, is amazing.

lmanders32: How terrifying was it to have a black magic version of Hans Gruber [Alan Rickman’s character in Die Hard] yelling at you for years?

Daniel: HAHAHA!

Um, yeah! I mean, pretty terrifying! The first few years I was genuinely quite intimidated by Alan, just because of the voice and the way he sort of carries himself. But as I grew up, I realized he was one of the kindest and most supportive members of that cast to me. I mean, Alan has cut short holidays that he’s been having to come and see me in plays and take me out for dinner afterwards to talk to me about stuff; I think when he realized how serious I was about wanting to be an actor, and he knew what a particular world the Potter set was to grow up in, he just sort of made it his – he just really wanted to help us all and has been very helpful to me, certainly.

Mad-Eye-Ryan:  How does it feel to be the main character of a story that almost defines a generation. I’m 22 and remember the final ending to the whole saga, and people were crying. After watching it, it felt like my childhood had finally ended, a very strange feeling.

Did you ever feel pressured or worried that you wouldn’t live up to the name?

Daniel: No, it wasn’t something we thought about at the time. I have thought about it much more lately than I probably ever did at the time… but yeah, it feels wonderful, honestly, to have people still come up to you and say you were such a huge part of my childhood. It’s genuinely lovely. I am very lucky to be famous for something so many people loved. And there’s… yeah, I always like to say that I think some people think that because I’m making an effort to have a career for myself after Potter that they somehow think I want to escape Potter? And I don’t; I”m very proud of what those films were and what we did with them. And so I always like to say I am happy to hear from people who still love the movies.

I remember when I met, once, a guy who’d been in a punk band in the ’70s, and then he wouldn’t talk about this punk days at all to me when I was asking; he sort of didn’t want anything to do with it. And I remember being really disappointed by that and thinking of how uncool it was for him to disown the thing that made him, and I just would never do that.

InsaneLazyGamer: Sorry for the HP question, but do you think you’d make a good wizard? Would you want to be a wizard?

Daniel: Yes, of course, absolutely, God! I think that was part of the huge success of those books, is that it taps into a set of powers and a fantasy world that literally everybody would love to be a part of. I think I would be a fantastic one if I were really one in real life. I think I would probably be, like, one of the cool [Defense Against the] Dark Arts teachers. There weren’t very many good ones, but I would be the Lupin equivalent.

And finally on the Potter theme:

OLEVAR: Daniel, did you put your name into the [G]oblet of [F]ire?!?!?!

Daniel: You know what, I don’t think [I] did, I’m pretty sure. Because I think that by that point, they had figured out my handwriting was so bad that they would never let it be seen in the film. So I’m pretty sure one of the props guys wrote ‘Harry Potter”‘neatly on a piece of paper for me to put in.

Finally,

WizardEric: What was it like to work on the Lord of the Ring movies?

Daniel: HAHA! Brilliant.

Just like… it was exhausting, but New Zealand’s lovely all year ’round.

There were so many great questions it was impossible to fit them all in. If you’re still hungry for more, check out the full AMA and plenty of other great questions and answers here.

Did you take part in the AMA? What would you ask Daniel Radcliffe?

Let us know in the comments!