Daniel Radcliffe isn’t a boy any more

Millions of fans watched him grow up and mature as an actor between the ages of 12 to 21 in eight smash hit Harry Potter movies, but Daniel Radcliffe is clearly ready to move on from his teenage wizard role.

The new full trailer for the 22-year-old’s forthcoming movie The Woman in Black has just been released and shows a very different side to the star.

Dressed in a three-piece black suit and tie, complete with pocket watch, the actor looks much more grown up and mature in his role as
young solicitor Arthur Kipps.

There is also mention of him in the trailer of having a young son, quite a departure from J.K Rowling’s famous boy wizard.

The trailer is suitably creepy, with Daniel’s character being warned against travelling to the eerily named Eel Marsh house to settle the affairs of an elderly and reclusive widow following her death.

The excerpt shows Daniel arrive at the bleak house, sift through papers with a glass of whiskey by his side and dramatically react to a room in flames.

‘I feel she’s there trying to reach me,’ he says at one point about the mysterious figure, whose curse hides an even darker secret, it emerges.

The film is written by Jane Goldman and co-stars Ciaran Hinds as local landowner Sam Daily.

Daniel recently said that the role of Arthur Kipps is ‘the first time I’ve played older than myself.’

‘It’s my first grown-up role,’ he said. I’m supposed to be 24 in this. And I’ve got a son.’

The star, who is currently appearing in Broadway musical How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, admitted he
was nervous about moving on from Harry Potter. 

‘I will have to work hard to stay busy, and try to separate myself from that character. So, I am slightly trepidatious. But
whatever cannot be avoided, must be accepted.’

‘The Woman In Black is very different from Harry Potter,’ he said. ‘But it’s different enough without me having to go all extreme and play a drug- dealing rent boy, or something where people go: “Oh, OK, he’s trying to shock us now.” I was simply after a good role.’

And fans will have a fright in store if Daniel’s reaction to the screenplay is anything to go by.

‘It’s scary on the page  –  absolutely terrifying!  And I must have freaked them out on the plane because I was pretty jumpy. By the time I landed, I knew I had to do it.’

Well Daniel, I saw ‘The Woman In Black’ down Drury Lane in London about 13 years ago. It starred two men, and the ghostly theatre really set the scene.

The first half of the show was quite boring…but after the break, it was one of the most edgy and tense plays that I’ve ever seen.

I hope the film does the book and play justice.

by Helena Bryanlith

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