Queue-T: How is Daniel Radcliffe So…Normal? A Look at His Post-Potter Career

Daniel Radcliffe is strangely normal, especially for a celebrity. Like, TOO normal. It’s almost as if he’s under some kind of spell or something, hey-o!
Let’s get this right out of the way: I have never read nor seen anything Harry Potter. I’m in no way against it as a concept, and plenty of people I respect love it, so I’m sure it’s wonderful. I just missed the boat on it and there are too many other things I want to swim through before I attempt to read and watch about the magical wonder boy (is he magical?).
But I do know that Radcliffe starred as the main character in 8 humongous franchise films from the time he was 10-years-old until he was 22-years-old. Normally that would be enough for most people to say, “K, I’m all set, gonna go live in a hut on the beach now, bye!” Or at the very least, do the things that Justin Bieber does these days. But it’s Radcliffe’s post-Potter career that is even more interesting than anything he could’ve learned at Hogwarts.
Once he left the wand behind, Radcliffe made some very interesting choices when it came to the projects he wanted to be a part of. Amazing what creative freedom can do to an actor when getting paid is not a concern!

First up, he took on the horror ghost thriller, The Woman in Black, followed by Kill Your Darlings, where he starred as poet Allen Ginsberg, in a pair of glasses not unlike Harry Potter’s. Now, here’s where things get interesting. Radcliffe starred in a pair of movies, released in 2013, that are quite entertaining in very different ways. Horns is a fantasy thriller about Ig, a man whose girlfriend breaks up with him and then mysteriously dies that night. Everyone believes he did it, but he’s too busy worrying about the weird ass horns growing out of his head that cause everyone to confess their sins to him. There’s mystery and action and a lot of weird stuff in this movie, but the performances from Radcliffe and his best friend Lee, played by Max Minghella, are what carry this movie to its surreal ending. As you can tell, it’s not a simple film to describe, and it doesn’t immediately make much sense…and that doesn’t change after viewing the entire thing. It was an odd, risky role for Radcliffe to take on, and while it certainly didn’t have much of a presence in theaters, it’s an interesting notch to have on his acting belt.
He also teamed up with Zoe Kazan for the delightful romantic comedy, What If. In this film, Radcliffe plays Wallace, a dude who meets a pretty lady and gets his hopes way up, but as soon as he finds out she has a boyfriend, he starts lying to himself and pretending he can (or wants to) be just friends. It didn’t reinvent the rom com wheel, but it probably loosened an axel or two. Plus, there’s a recipe in there for peanut butter and jelly that everyone needs to know. Most importantly, it cemented Daniel Radcliffe: Romantic Comedy Star as a potential move for his career. And it should be! If he can find other unique romantic stories to tell, he’s more than capable of doing so. With the exception of his appearance in the movie within a movie in Trainwreck, where he scored tons of laughs as a dog walker, he doesn’t seem to be wandering down that road.

Instead, Radcliffe jumped into the TV series, A Young Doctor’s Notebook with Jon Hamm as well as Victor Frankenstein, and for some reason, Now You See Me 2. Hey, I can appreciate him going for the lighter fare, even though he plays kind of a douche in the film. And then there’s Swiss Army Man, the polarizing movie that caused both walkouts and praise when it premiered at Sundance. The film, in theaters now, finds Radcliffe in the role of farting corpse, as he is traipsed around by Paul Dano, because what would you expect from the dudes who directed the “Turn Down For What” music video?
Still to come, Radcliffe’s got a trio of movies that include an undercover FBI investigation into terrorism (Imperium), a look at Karl Rove and Lee Atwater’s early political careers (Young Americans), and a movie about dudes hiking in the jungle (Jungle, natch). In other words, not stacking his IMDB page with rom coms. Yet!
Still, quite a varied and impressive bunch of projects that have attracted Mr. Radcliffe so far. Yet the most astonishing thing about them all, is how incredibly down to earth he comes across during the press tours for these films. If you can find an interview he’s done where he doesn’t mention how obsessed he is with American football, kudos to you. He’s got a realistic view of himself and his career, a winning sense of humor, and a life off-screen that remains way more boring than anything he’s bringing to the big screen. Staying away from social media certainly helps with that one, and clearly this dude is getting all his weirdness out at work. It helps keep viewers interested in the projects he shows up in, even though they are intriguing enough as it is. So whether he’s walking dogs, growing horns, or farting his way across the ocean, we’ll be watching every weird step of the way.
[Where to watch What If]