The movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer�s Stone, captivated adults and children alike hitting the magic number of 968 million dollars worldwide. And now Daniel Radcliffe is back as Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and he�s getting a little bent out of shape. Take a look. Please welcome Daniel Radcliffe.
View Staff: Take us back a little bit as to how you ended up with this role. How did you end up auditioning for Harry Potter?
Dan: I went to see a play in London called �Stones in his Pocket� and sitting in the row in front of me was David Heyman, the producer and Steve Clovis, the screenwriter. And the next day they called up my dad cause my dad knew him cause my dad was a literary agent before and my dad knew him from work. And my dad said �Dan tomorrow you�re going to meet the producer of Harry Potter�. It wasn�t an audition. It was just to meet. And then we got a kind of a call back the next after meeting him and he said would I like to audition and like, of course, so yeah and so I went up and just kind of went from there.
View Staff: Had you done a lot of acting prior to this?
Dan: I�d done David Copperfield for the BBC and I did Tailor of Panama as well.
View Staff: But not much.
Dan: No.
View Staff: So how did you find out you got the role?
Dan: I was sitting in the bath at the time. The phone rang and my dad went and picked it up and my dad came back and just basically told me I got it and I cried. It was like, it was unbelievable.
View Staff: But didn�t he do like a little guessing game with you?
Dan: No! That would have been cruel!
View Staff: Actually that would have been something that someone from Slytherin house did right there. They do cruel things, you know what I mean�. I have to tell you. You have the most infectious smile of any young man I�ve ever met. I love Harry for some reason, which means that naturally I have to love Daniel cause you are Harry. Now before you were cast as Harry Potter, were you a fan of the books? Did you like them?
Dan: I�d read the first two and I didn�t get how big they were. I still don�t get, I can�t get my head around how huge a phenomenon it is. But I didn�t quite understand; I guess I just didn�t get into them as much as everybody else did but then I got the part and I reread them and I was just like�
View Staff: So you got obsessed with it?
Dan: I can�t wait for the fifth one to come out.
View Staff: Okay Daniel, so you go from basically being in the bath to becoming the star of one of the biggest movies ever. You are twelve years old. All of a sudden, your face is everywhere. Kids want to be you. What was that like and how do you maintain any sense of normalcy?
Dan: Well, obviously it�s really weird and I still can�t quite understand how it happened in a way. But as far as maintaining my sense of normalcy, it�s my parents. I have like amazing parents and they�ve just kept my feet on the ground and so..
View Staff: But you are a big celebrity now Daniel. How do you handle that? How do you like it?
Dan: I mean, I�m just really enjoying it. I try not to think of myself as famous cause then it might go to my head or something and then it goes..
View Staff: It�ll ruin you�.. What was it like when you first saw yourself on screen?
Dan: Freaky. Really really scary.
View Staff: Your head got big�.It�s interesting when you say that because Harry, the character, he�s not comfortable with being the famous Harry Potter either. He gets all anxious. I mean, everybody in their world knows who he is. Do you see any similarities at all in your personality and Harry�s personality?
Dan: I think it�s actually as I read more of the books, I can spot more things which we both have in common like that we both kind of get into trouble a lot and we�re not that hugely academic in class and stuff .
View Staff: You�re not an academic kid?
Dan: I�m not great at math or science or anything really.
View Staff: You�re an artist.
Dan: Not great at art either actually. But I like English a lot.
View Staff: It's okay cause you�re really rich.
Dan: I think his sense of loyalty to his friends and how important friends are, I think as well, we have that in common.
View Staff: How are your friends about this? This fame that you�ve developed?
Dan: They�re really happy for me. There�s not like any jealousy.
View Staff: You�re sure?
Dan: Yeah.
View Staff: How can you tell?
Dan: I can just tell cause they�ve been my friends for ages and they haven�t changed in their attitude toward me.
View Staff: Yeah? That�s nice�. Dan, what is like when people, I mean I�m sure lots of people come up to you and call you Harry. That�s kind of your identity. Does that bother you? Do you like that?
Dan: It�s actually really weird because the people who come up to me on the street actually call me Dan. People I�ve known for four years call me Harry sometimes by accident. I like actually hearing because when people do come up to me on the street, they�re always like so enthusiastic about the film it�s just like actually really nice to hear what they say.
View Staff: And now the third film, it starts shooting early next year?
Dan: Yeah.
View Staff: The third in the series. So does this take up all of your time? Are you able to do anything else if you wanted to? Any other roles?
Dan: I mean, at the moment cause each film takes about a year, well ten or eleven months. It�s takes quite a long time and there isn�t really much room for anything else filming wise but I think maybe after I�if I stop doing them at some stage� I�m not sure�maybe then I�ll go and do something else.
View Staff: Is there an age limit for Harry? I mean, where their gonna say �Now you�re too old�?
Dan: Who knows.
View Staff: If it keeps going on, he�s �. They�re gonna have to stick him in a box�. Yeah, keep you little.
Dan: But, no. You see Harry grows with the books.
View Staff: Does he get to be like a fifty year old? I don�t think so.
Dan: Well the books only go up to seven, I think.
View Staff: Yeah. Seven was supposedly going to be the limit so there you go�.For goodness sake, it�s only his second year at Hogwarts so you gotta get into Harry Potter honey�. We don�t ever want you to stop at all. You�re fantastic.
Dan: Thank you.
Daniel actually is sticking around. He�s going to be joined by Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. We�ll be right back. That was a scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and joining our coven right now, please welcome Harry�s best friends in the film, Emma Watson and Rupert Grant!
Dan: Grint!
Grint?
Dan: Grint.
View Staff: Hi! How are you?�.Emma, darling little girl, isn�t she cute?� Listen Emma, you had done just a few school plays and all of a sudden you�re in this big blockbuster of a movie! How are you handling all this?
Emma: I don�t know whether I�m really handling it unless I�m with my parents. I�m just really really excited I suppose.
View Staff: Do you like the celebrity that you�re getting here? Or do you feel uncomfortable with it?
Emma: Whoa! Celebrity, That sounds pretty cool!
View Staff: Now you�re getting it!
Emma: Yeah, I suppose so.
View Staff: Okay so now Rupert, I have to tell you I fell madly for Ron Weasley in this particular film. And your voice changed from the first film to the second so all of a sudden, he�s got this voice! You know what I mean? So I understand that when you auditioned it was creative. Did you do something wacky?
Rupert: Yeah, I did. Yeah. I was a big fan of these books and I really wanted to be in this film cause I like doing acting and everything. I did like school plays and stuff. So I made this video tape. First I dressed up with my drama teacher who is a girl so it was kind of strange and then I made up this rap song to be in the film and then I made this Ron script up and sent it in and the next thing I was doing screen tests.
View Staff: So you went after the part, pretty much, didn�t you? Good for you!�.Would you kill us if we asked you to do the rap?
Rupert: I can�t remember.
View Staff: It worked anyway� So you�d actually, you�d read.. so you were a big fan of the books.
Rupert: Yeah. Oh yeah.
View Staff: And what about you Emma?
Emma: Oh yeah. I was in the middle of the third one when I started auditioning and like finished the fourth by the time I got it. So a major fan.
View Staff: Rupert, you�re very very funny in the film and you say you�re a lot like your character. In what way?
Rupert: When I was in the books, I felt I could relate to Ron because we�ve both got ginger hair; we�re both scared of spiders; we�ve both got quite a bit of family. Those kind of stuff.
View Staff: Oh, you�re scared of spiders?
Rupert: Yeah, I am, yeah.
View Staff: Emma, how old are you?
Emma: I�m twelve. I�m gonna be thirteen in April.
View Staff: Now how did you feel when you first saw yourself on the screen. Tell us what it felt like.
Emma: Absolutely like the scariest moment of my whole entire life.
View Staff: Why?
Emma: I mean, it doesn�t happen every day that you see yourself like ten feet tall on a screen. It�s just like�
View Staff: Did you feel like it was unreal?
Emma: It was unreal! I think, it doesn�t matter who you are or how many films you�ve been in or how good or bad you are, you�re always really questioning yourself. Like me, for example �Oh my God! My hair looks so bad!� or �I could have done that better� or whatever.
View Staff: And it starts early doesn�t it.
Emma: And it�s just really embarrassing.
View Staff: How about you honey? How was it for you?
Rupert: Yeah, it was scary for me seeing myself that big. It�s hard to get used to, cause like you see yourself in two and a half hours and you�ve been doing it for like ten months. It�s weird but�
View Staff: But the size of the screen is what�s really intimidating, isn�t it? �. Especially Hermione�s hair, it�s big! She has the biggest curls ever there! So how fun was it for the three of you to get back together? You are either very great and phenomenal actors or you really are friends. Cause it looks that way on the screen. Are you friends then?
Dan, Rupert and Emma: Yeah, definitely.
View Staff: So do you hang out together outside of�. Well heck, ten or eleven months of the year, you don�t have much outside.
Dan: I think, by the end of the week, Rupert and Emma have probably had enough of me.
View Staff: So who�s the most serious and who�s like the biggest jokester of the three of you?
Emma: Oh dear. These two you can�t peg. They�re just like �. So I�m kind of left with the serious one I suppose.
View Staff: Well, like in the film�. So let me ask you a serious question then Emma. This movie takes place at Hogwarts most of the time and that�s a lot of boys and girls together. In the making the movie were there any romances?
Emma: Yes. Yes, there were a few.
View Staff: Were you one of them with somebody or�.
Emma: No. No, I�m much too far arranging other people�s love lives. That�s much easier.
View Staff: How about you, Dan. Do you have a girlfriend?
Dan: No.
View Staff: You don�t. Do you?
Rupert: No
View Staff: No. You�re playing the field at this point? Let me ask you� when you�re at�you�re at school obviously but how are you learning on the set? What�s happening there? You have your own tutors or what?
Dan: We all have a separate tutor.
View Staff: Oh, you all have your own separate tutor. So how do you like that? You�re not in a classroom. It�s not as much fun, is it?
Rupert: We don�t get any homework.
View Staff: No homework. Wow�.. Please don�t say that! I�ve got some kids here. Dan: And as well, I�ve actually kind of done even slightly better. In the class of like 18 to 20, the attention is like divided up between everybody naturally. And you get one on one.
View Staff: So you have all the attention on yourself. Right. Pretty good�.. In the films, Hermione is really the one who the boys depend on to get them out of problems. You�re the smart one. No question about it. And you�re the expert with the spells. So if you could actually cast one, what�s the ultimate spell?
Emma: What�s the ultimate spell? Well, I�d make myself sixteen so I could get into rock concerts.
View Staff: It starts already!�.. What�s your favorite band, Emma?
Emma: Oh my God. Can�t pick. No, can�t pick.
View Staff: No?
Emma: No, I like everything.
View Staff: Okay. So we know Daniel, you�re already signed up to be the Harry for the next film, okay. Rupert, Emma, you gonna be in the next film?
Rupert: Yeah, we start next year in February.
View Staff: And then after that you�re gonna continue to be great British actors? Or not.
Rupert: I hope so.
View Staff: You wanna be, I think, cause you went after the part. That�s very impressive��..I�ve gotta tell you. My kids actually dragged me to the first one because I really hadn�t read the Harry Potter series. It was so fantastic, I dragged them to the second one. It was so great. They loved it and I loved it. It�s just phenomenal and you�re all great actors. Good luck to all of you and thanks so much for coming on. Our thanks to Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets opens nationwide today. Go see it.