Daniel Radcliffe Was ‘Terrified’ of Alan Rickman and Thought ‘He Hates Me’ on First Three ‘Harry Potter’ Movies, Then ‘He Saw I Really Wanted to Work’ at Being an Actor

Daniel Radcliffe was treated to an unexpected moment during an appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast alongside his “Merrily We Roll Along” co-stars Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez. Podcast host Josh Horowitz played a clip from his Alan Rickman interview in 2016, which Radcliffe had never seen before. Rickman and Radcliffe were co-stars for a decade in the “Harry Potter” film series. In the eight-year-old footage, Rickman heaps praise upon Radcliffe.

“As much as I was doing it for seven weeks, they were doing it for 52 weeks,” Rickman said about the child actors on the “Harry Potter” movies. “This was their life from 12 to 22. And you would watch it from the sidelines at times and throw the odd lifeline in because there was so little time for that. It’s only in recent years that I’ve managed to sit down in a cafe with Daniel in New York. He was at a theater and I was at another. Huge pride to go to see him in the musical [‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’]. How dare he be dancing as well as the New York dancers. He worked at it.”

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Radcliffe appeared visibly moved by the clip of Rickman, who died in 2016 at 69 years old. Rickman starred in the “Harry Potter” movies as Severus Snape. Radcliffe, of course, was Harry Potter.

“Thanks for showing that. I’ve never seen that before. Thank you,” Radcliffe told Horowitz.

“I was so intimidated by Alan Rickman. How can you not be by that voice?” the actor told the audience. “Even hearing that voice you forget quite how low it was until it echoes through you. I was so intimidated by him for the first three movies. I was terrified by him and was like, ‘This guy hates me.’ Somewhere along the lines he saw that I really wanted to do this and work at it.”

Radcliffe remembered how Rickman became one of his biggest supporters, even once ending a personal vacation early so he could catch Radcliffe on Broadway.

“He cut short a vacation in Canada to come and see me in ‘Equus.’ He saw every piece of stage work I did when he was alive,” Radcliffe added. “He would take me out afterwards and we would talk about it. He was one of the first people to say like, ‘You should look at voice coaching and investigate all this stuff.’ I am so lucky. To hear him say that is really lovely. Thank you for showing me that.”

Watch Radcliffe’s full appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast below.

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