Daniel Radcliffe Didn’t Think He Deserved His ‘Harry Potter’ Earnings: ‘I Feel Almost Guilty’
Daniel Radcliffe became one of the world’s most popular actors after starring in Harry Potter. But the fame and fortune he acquired from the hit franchise came with a bit of guilt attached to it.
Gary Oldman said Daniel Radcliffe had ‘f***-you’ money
Doing Harry Potter put Radcliffe in a unique position. Unlike other young aspiring actors, Radcliffe’s Potter success allowed him to steer his career wherever he’d like.
His recognition opened doors for opportunities he may or may not have gotten otherwise. His Potter co-star, Gary Oldman, was initially the one who helped Radcliffe realize the advantages he had and could utilize.
“He told me once that I had ‘f***-you money’. We had a conversation once, just about careers and all that, and he said, ‘You have f***-you money. So use it,’” Radcliffe once recalled in an interview with Now. “It just means you get to make the kind of career for yourself that you want. Like, all my friends – you get an audition, it doesn’t matter what the script’s like. You’re going in for it. And if you get it, you do it. And to be able to say no, to have some control over where my career is going – yeah, it’s amazing.”
However, that didn’t mean Potter gave him special privileges over other actors. Radcliffe had to work as hard as anyone else to establish a career past the wizard franchise.
“When I heard that he was doing the dancing, going into training, he said, ‘Look, I am not going to rest on my laurels and come out and think I’m going to get stuff because I was Harry Potter,'” Oldman once said in an interview with MTV News. “‘Once Harry Potter finishes, I’m in the arena with all those other actors who are going up for the job, who can dance and who can sing, and I have to compete with them.'”
Daniel Radcliffe almost felt guilty about his ‘Harry Potter’ success
It’s no secret that the Harry Potter cast made millions off of the franchise. But the reality of their success, and the money that came with it, could sometimes be unsettling for the actors. This feeling applied to Radcliffe, who couldn’t believe how much money he’d earned thanks to the films.
“I got paid so well for doing the Harry Potter films, it’s ridiculous,” he once said in an interview with Parade (via The Telegraph). “If somebody asked me, ‘Did you think you deserve that money?’ No, of course I didn’t. ‘But would you have taken it anyway?’ Of course. I happened to have found this industry where people get paid stupid amounts of money. That’s the reality. I feel almost guilty for having done so well out of Potter.”
It was why Radcliffe decided to use his influence for more positive means. One of those means was getting involved in The Trevor Project, which specialized in preventing young gay people from committing suicide.
“There is a sense that you have to do something. I feel Brad Pitt would agree that the way to help is to really get behind things that you’re passionate about, like The Trevor Project. You have to give back,” he said.
Daniel Radcliffe once claimed that he hasn’t touched his ‘Harry Potter’ money
Despite the money he’s made, Radcliffe once asserted that he barely uses his earnings from the franchise. Although nice to have, the young actor felt the money’s real value came in having a peace of mind.
“I don’t really do anything with my money,” he told Belfast Telegraph in 2016. “I’m very grateful for it, because having money means you don’t have to worry about it, which is a very lovely freedom to have. It also gives me immense freedom, career-wise.”
