With the final Harry Potter film set for release in July, franchise star Daniel Radcliffe is already focused on how he can continue his career beyond the role of the boy wizard.
The actor stars in a Broadway revival of the corporate-world satire How to Succeed Without Really Trying, which opens March 27, and he told the New York Times that he took the role as part of a desire to “prove that a child actor can go on to have a career with longevity.”
“If I can actually do it,” Radcliffe said of his newest role, “having been in one of the biggest franchises ever, then that can end the debate. It is possible. That’s what my mission is.”
How to Succeed marks Radcliffe’s second Broadway role, following the 2008 revival of Equus. While that role required him to sing a candy-bar jingle, Radcliffe admits he’s still anxious about how audiences will perceive him in How to Succeed, which requires him to not only speak and sing with an American accent but also dance.
“I think to a lot of people it’s a slightly confusing choice,” he said. “But I like that.”
He spent months training for the role and is driven by a need to succeed.
Asked what makes him nervous, Radcliffe replied: “Fear of failure. Fear of mediocrity. Fear of not meeting the goals that I have set myself. Fear of failing in my mission.”
As for the release of the final Potter film — Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 — Radliffe said he’s done being sad about the franchise’s coming to an end and shed his last tear last summer when the majority of his filming was done.
“For me I’m done, I’m finished,” he said. “People have to remember, we are not mourning the death of an actual person. There is not an appropriate grieving period which I have to observe.”
