Daniel Radcliffe Once Visited a ‘Star Wars’ Set and Might Have Become Harrison Ford’s ‘Worst Nightmare’
Daniel Radcliffe has been a huge admirer of Star Wars alum Harrison Ford. But when he spoke with Ford on the set of Star Wars, he quipped that he possibly didn’t make the best impression.
Why Harrison Ford was Daniel Radcliffe’s hero
Radcliffe greatly admired the way Ford handled his career post-Star Wars. So much so that Radcliffe used Ford’s pivot away from the Star Wars franchise as inspiration for his own career. Similarly to Ford, Radcliffe was once mostly known for starring in the Harry Potter movies. After the conclusion of the popular franchise, Radcliffe wanted to further expand his career. But he was also concerned his legacy as Harry Potter might impede those plans.
“I had this awareness that people expected we would do nothing after Potter — that we would fade away,” Radcliffe told GQ. “I really wanted that not to be the case, because I knew that I loved it, and I wanted to do whatever I have to do to have a career with longevity.”
Radcliffe took note of Ford’s career, who was able to successfully branch out after his own hit franchise. Instead of fading away after Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Radcliffe continued building his career with films like Blade Runner and The Fugitive. Ford proved to be an actor capable of carrying films based on his own name alone.
Radcliffe has followed a similar trajectory for his post-Harry Potter filmography. He’s built up his resume with films like Woman in Black and Lost City. He’s very recently added another notable project to his legacy with Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. The movie has generated much buzz among fans and critics, furthering Radcliffe’s acting goals.
Daniel Radcliffe once said he might have been Harrison Ford’s worst nightmare on a ‘Star Wars’ set
Ford revisited his role as Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The long awaited sequel to the original Star Wars trilogy generated an almost overwhelming amount of buzz. Speculation and rumors ran rampant about the movie after it was announced and even while it was filming. One of those rumors was that Radcliffe had gotten a small role in the Star Wars franchise.
At the time, Radcliffe visited the set of The Force Awakens, which set off talks that he might appear in the movie. But Radcliffe wasn’t in Force Awakens at all, and had only just become a very casual fan of the sci-fi series.
“I have only watched the first three, like the original movies, within the last six months,” Radcliffe once said in an interview with MTV News.
Due to his lack of Star Wars knowledge, he felt he’d left a bad impression on Ford and Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams.
“I’m a new Star Wars fan. In a way, I might have been Harrison Ford’s worst nightmare, because I’m like ‘Those movie are so cool, man,’ like I’ve just heard about them,” Radcliffe said. “I admitted that to J.J. Abrams as well, and he looked at me like he maybe wanted to kill me for a second. They were very nice,” he said.
Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t want to do ‘The Phantom Menace’ version of ‘Harry Potter’
To Radcliffe and many fans, the Harry Potter films had a solid and satisfying conclusion to its long-running franchise. Still, Radcliffe didn’t completely shut out the possibility of revisiting the Harry Potter films in some capacity somewhere down the line. Given the quality of its ending, however, Radcliffe felt there was a certain risk that came with continuing his Potter legacy. And it was a risk he had to be mindful of when contemplating a possible franchise return.
“There’s a part of me that’s like, some things are better left untouched. If we went back to Potter, there’s a chance we’d make what Star Wars: The Force Awakens was to the original Star Wars, but there’s also the chance that we’d make Phantom Menace,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “So I don’t want to go back.”
