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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What made you pick December Boys? And had you met director Rod Hardy before?
DANIEL RADCLIFFE: To be honest, we were getting a lot of scripts, but none of them really compared to December Boys. It was the standout by a long, long way. It had the most heart and the most warmth. And it wasn't an overly sentimental warmth, which is a massive turn-off for me. I'd not had any sort of relationship with Rod prior to December Boys at all.

He works a lot in TV in L.A., so, since you're rarely there, you wouldn't be likely to cross paths, right?
We met at a hotel in London to talk about the Maps character and the story, and we really got on pretty well instantly. He's lovely to be directed by. The biggest problem he had with me was that I'm quite open. If I like something, I won't in any way hide my enthusiasm. Whereas Maps is much more reserved. If something excites him, he'll be happy about it, but it's almost like he doesn't even know how to show it, or how to communicate what he's feeling. And so Rod had the challenge of basically reigning all that enthusiasm back in.

You get a scene in a cave with Teresa Palmer that's pretty sexy stuff — you are clearly simulating actual intercourse, although you've still got most of your clothes on.
What I love about that scene is that it's very, very sweet. It's a mixture of genuine innocence and something that's not anywhere near innocent. Even though you get the feeling she's being very overtly sexy, it still seems very harmless and tender and caring.

It's like the real goal isn't having sex. She says to him, ''I always want you to think of me as your first.''
It was pretty hilarious during the press tour for Harry Potter 5 that everyone kept asking me, ''How was it doing your first onscreen kiss?''

You mean with the Cho Chang character?
I kept saying, ''Well, it's the first one people will see. But it's not the first one I've done!'' Teresa was great. She'd done a couple of screen kisses before. I think she'd done a sex scene as well. She was fantastic at making me feel not-quite-so-nervous about it all.

How did she do that?
She was just so relaxed about it, I couldn't help but be relaxed, too. I did get very, very giggly. There were points where I was laughing because it seemed so surreal. There is actually one moment in the scene where she kisses me, when Roger left the camera on me just a beat too long, and I started cracking up because that was the first time I had been kissed on-screen, in front of a crew. Totally out of character at that moment, because I thought he'd cut the camera. But actually it worked really well in the context of the scene.

I think I've read you wrapped Boys in late 2005?
We finished shooting at quarter-past-four in the morning, Christmas Eve, 2005. That was the longest day I've ever worked. It was a long, long day, because we had a lot to get done. That's what happens on a six-week shoot.

And you'd begun it right after promoting Potter 4?
Yeah, and then we started pre-production on Harry Potter 5 in January 2006, and started filming in February. It was a busy while. But I quite like being busy.

So you finished December Boys nearly two years ago. Why the hold-up releasing it?
I don't know the conversations exactly, but obviously, these things need to be spaced out, because I don't want it to cloy. People have been seeing a lot of me this year. December Boys is an independent film, and it takes a while to get the distribution together. It's not going to be playing on masses of screens at all. It's not like Potter. The publicity we do for Potter is great fun and all of that, but ultimately, Harry Potter, people will go and see it.

They're predisposed to see it, really.
Whereas with December Boys, every interview counts.


Posted Sep 14, 2007 | Order Article Reprints
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