Daniel Radcliffe Made a ‘Harry Potter’ Fan Faint With a Simple Gesture: ‘My Truest Beatlemania-Type Experience’
Daniel Radcliffe makes fans of the Harry Potter movies literally swoon. The 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter movie just passed in November 2021. And in celebration of the occasion, the Harry Potter cast and crew are speaking out about what it’s like to be involved with such an iconic film series. Moreover, Radcliffe recently revealed that he made a fan pass out with a simple gesture.
Daniel Radcliffe accidentally brushed the arm of a devoted ‘Harry Potter’ fan
The Harry Potter movie star made the surprising admission during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show.
When host Jonathan Ross asked Radcliffe where the most “obsessive” fans of the Harry Potter series live, Radcliffe responded quickly.
“Japan, without a doubt,” he told Ross. “They love Potter over there.”
Radcliffe then proceeded to describe a dramatic encounter with a young fan. And he compared the incident to the raging phenomenon of Beatlemania.
“I had my truest kind of Beatlemania-type experience once when I was over there,” the actor continued. “I was walking through a school corridor — I was visiting a Japanese school for a publicity thing. … And I literally brushed a young girl [on the arm] while I was walking past her, and I said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ And boom! Fainted. I had brushed her and spoken to her, and [it] was too much. And she fainted.”
The actor says that kind of fame is fleeting
Radcliffe was quick to point out that the encounter amused him. And he admitted that he enjoyed it.
“You know, you’ve got to enjoy that stuff because that doesn’t last forever,” Radcliffe said. “Like, when you have a moment like that, you’ve kind of got to take in how cool and weird it is.”
Daniel Radcliffe is now a full-fledged, 32-year-old adult. He was only 11 when he starred in the first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It took him an entire decade of his youth to complete the movies. He wrapped up the film series at 21 years old.
He’s since starred in a string of eclectic projects, including a stage production called Equus and a horror movie called The Woman in Black.
Ironically, the first ‘Harry Potter’ director wasn’t looking for famous actors when he cast the film
Chris Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter movies, recently said he specifically cast actors who weren’t famous. That’s ironic because Radcliffe ultimately wound up so famous that he caused fans to faint.
“We weren’t looking for famous kids,” Columbus told Jake Hamilton of Jake’s Takes on YouTube. “You know, people were suggesting famous kids at the time, and I thought no, Harry Potter has to be someone we’ve never seen before or seen very little of. So there were no surprises there.”
The director also compared casting Harry Potter to his 1990 holiday classic Home Alone.
“I wanted to go with an original, sort of very green cast,” he added. “It’s like we did on Home Alone with Macaulay Culkin because they bring a sense of naturalism and honesty in their performances, even though it’s sometimes a little tough to get the performances. But when you get them, it’s something real, and that’s great.”
Daniel Radcliffe’s encounter with an overwhelmed Harry Potter fan was certainly “something real,” as well.
