Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson Only Felt Famous for a Few Weeks a Year
Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson are easily two of the most recognizable celebrities today. Thanks to their involvement in the highly-successful Harry Potter film franchise, the actors are worldwide celebrities. From the moment it was announced that the pair had been cast as Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, the media took notice of them. In fact, both actors had to temporarily move into a hotel after the news of their casting broke to avoid the media frenzy posted up outside their respective homes.
Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe managed to avoid the child star stigmas
The attention that Radcliffe and Watson received would only increase throughout the decade that they spent filming and promoting the Harry Potter movies. But despite being child stars, the pair remain very well-adjusted and capable of leading fairly normal lives. Neither actor seemed to have let their fame go to their head. Perhaps because neither Watson nor Radcliffe ever really felt famous for more than a few weeks at a time.
Radcliffe claims he only experienced ‘Harry Potter’ fame for a few weeks a year
While speaking with Collider, Radcliffe got candid about why he never let the fame of being Harry Potter get to his head. According to the actor, he was too busy working and leading a normal life to really feel famous for the majority of his year.
“But the thing is, you only have that sense for that about three weeks a year, maybe, because that’s the time you’re not working,” Radcliffe shared of adoring fans and intense media attention. “The rest of the year we’re working, we’re on set. And then for these three weeks of madness, you know, you’re in the middle of lots of people screaming.”
Watson was in denial about the levels of fame that ‘Harry Potter’ brought her
Interestingly enough, Watson expressed similar sentiments as Radcliffe. However, unlike her fellow Harry Potter castmate, Watson shared that she actually rejected the very idea that she was famous for as long as she could. While speaking with W Magazine, Watson explained that she eventually had to come to terms with the fact that she was famous in her late teens.
“I think when I — when it finally started to hit home that I was really famous, I sort of lived in denial for as long as I possibly could,” Watson admitted. “Telling myself ‘Oh I’m like famous for two weeks when the Harry Potter movie comes out and then everyone forgets about who I am.’ up until the age of 18.”
The ‘Harry Potter’ actor eventually had to stop taking the public bus
But what was the moment when Watson could no longer deny that she was famous outside of the two weeks she’d given herself? When she discovered that her presence on public transportation was causing a commotion, she had to reevaluate some of her choices.
“I would take the Oxford tube, which is a public bus, up and down from London,” Watson recalled. “It got to the point where the fact that I was on the bus would spread from one end to the other and like it would just start to get totally crazy. And I would feel like ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’” Eventually, Watson decided to get a car to avoid causing a spectacle. But even then, she got a modestly priced Toyota Prius despite her staggering net worth.
It’s certainly interesting that both Radcliffe and Watson expressed similar sentiments about their fame. Perhaps mentally limiting their fame to just a few weeks a year is what allowed them to have some semblance of normalcy. But considering they filmed in Leavesden, a fairly isolated studio, for the lion’s share of the Harry Potter movies, perhaps they didn’t brush up against their immense fame as much as other celebrities might.
