Daniel Radcliffe on fear
Our local paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, includes PARADE Magazine in its Sunday issues. The January 8th edition featured Daniel Radcliffe, who was interviewed as he finished his run on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business . . . and was ramping up to host SNL.
And in his interview, he said a little something that resonated with me, perhaps in part because I'd been thinking about what Steven Spielberg said in Entertainment Weekly. Here you are:
At 17, when you played the deranged, sometimes naked stable boy onstage in Equus, or this past year starring in your first musical, did you worry that the critics would be gunning for you because you're a young, successful movie star?
[laughs] I knew they would. But I've worked out recently that I don't do very well without fear. There needs to be a part of me saying, "You can't do that--that's going to fail," for me to prove myself wrong. What I've learned, particularly this year, is that all actors--no matter their status or brilliance--still feel like fools.
Fools?
Yes, like we're conning people and we're not really any good at it. What I learned is that acting is to a large extent about trying to stave off self-doubt long enough to be natural and real onstage. I'm at the point in my career where I should be learning a huge amount from every job I do, and unless something's going to give me that, I'm not really very attracted to it.
And in his interview, he said a little something that resonated with me, perhaps in part because I'd been thinking about what Steven Spielberg said in Entertainment Weekly. Here you are:
At 17, when you played the deranged, sometimes naked stable boy onstage in Equus, or this past year starring in your first musical, did you worry that the critics would be gunning for you because you're a young, successful movie star?
[laughs] I knew they would. But I've worked out recently that I don't do very well without fear. There needs to be a part of me saying, "You can't do that--that's going to fail," for me to prove myself wrong. What I've learned, particularly this year, is that all actors--no matter their status or brilliance--still feel like fools.
Fools?
Yes, like we're conning people and we're not really any good at it. What I learned is that acting is to a large extent about trying to stave off self-doubt long enough to be natural and real onstage. I'm at the point in my career where I should be learning a huge amount from every job I do, and unless something's going to give me that, I'm not really very attracted to it.