Daniel Radcliffe Talks Falling in Love with His Girlfriend on Set: 'A Wonderful Record of Us Flirting for the First Time'

Daniel Radcliffe (Courtesy Playboy/Gavin Bond)

Daniel Radcliffe has — as is pointed out in a new Q&A with the Harry Potter star in Playboy — been famous for more than half of his life. So it stands to reason that there would be no place other than a film set for him to meet his girlfriend.

“That’s a wonderful record of us flirting for the first time,” Radcliffe says of Kill Your Darlings, the movie in which he starred as Allen Ginsberg alongside his now-girlfriend Erin Darke. “There’s no acting going on — not from my end, anyway. There’s a moment when she makes me laugh, and I’m laughing as me and not as my character. She was incredibly funny and smart. I knew I was in trouble.”

Radcliffe also opens up about his time as Harry Potter, saying that he can’t stand to watch himself in the sixth film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

“I really enjoyed my performance in the fifth — part of it was how much I worked with people like Gary Oldman and David Thewlis. On the sixth, I remember watching it and thinking, Wow, there’s been no growth,” Radcliffe says. “I had the idea that Harry was like a soldier traumatized by war, and as a result of that, he shuts down emotionally. That’s not a bad idea, but it’s not the most interesting thing to watch for two and a half hours.”

Radcliffe says that he’s come to accept that the attention from being Harry Potter will just never go away.

“If you were 14 when the first film came out, you’d now be almost in your 30s and could well have a child under 10 whom you’re now introducing to Harry Potter,” he says. “We’re already getting the next generation. That’s just bizarre. It’s never going away.”

The interview ends with a tip: please do not be a jerk to Daniel Radcliffe.

“Getting recognized on the street teaches you that most people are polite and nice and just want a quick picture. Then you get an occasional a—–e. Normally they’re drunk,” Radcliffe says. “One time, a girl came up to me and said, ‘Could I have a picture?’ I said, ‘Yeah, sure, if you want to.’ And she goes, ‘Well, I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to.’ What the f–k? [laughs] And of course, me being me, I’m just like, ‘Sorry, that’s silly of me.’ Then she walks off and Erin says to me, ‘That girl was a d–k to you. You don’t have to be nice if someone’s rude.’ But I’m better at saying no than Rupert Grint [Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films]. He ended up going back to a fan’s house because he couldn’t say no to anything they asked. That’s when it’s gone too far.”