‘Harry Potter’: Daniel Radcliffe Did 1 ‘Phenomenal’ Stunt That Had Him Shooting Out of Water Into a Ring of Fire
Harry Potter made the careers of many of the young actors involved. Actors like Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson became household names after starring in the critically acclaimed and beloved film series. Radcliffe recently revealed that he got the opportunity to do one “phenomenal” stunt that had him shooting out of water into a ring of fire.
Daniel Radcliffe was thrown into a ring of fire while filming ‘Harry Potter’
Harry Potter usually battled a lot of dark forces during his time at Hogwarts. This necessitated a lot of stunt work and stunt doubles for Radcliffe. Most of the stunt work involved the use of green screens, professional stunt doubles, stunt coordinators, video editing, and more.
However, sometimes Radcliffe would have to put in the work to make the scenes more realistic. In a recent interview with GQ, Radcliffe recalled one of the most intense scenes he’s ever shot for the franchise.
In one scene from Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, Potter is seen emerging from a ring of fire. Radcliffe told GQ about some of the stunts he was able to do on his own:
” … Those [stunts] on the fourth film … the dragon sequence on the fourth film. One shot on the sixth film I think, where I start off underneath the water, and I was on a wire, so I was holding myself by a rope under the surface of the water.”
The actor said that when the director yelled action, he let go, and the stunt crew pulled the wire, resulting in him flying out of the water and into the ring of fire. “I was just bursting out of the surface of the water through the ring of fire,” he recalled.
Daniel Radcliffe can’t believe they let him do some of his own stunts in Harry Potter
Radcliffe recalled filming underwater several times, revealing that he kept a detailed logbook of all the times he’d filmed underwater, calling it “really cool.” The actor said that despite filming all those hours underwater, they ended up getting “like seven seconds of usable footage a day.”
While he doesn’t look forward to doing such intense stunts ever again, Radcliffe noted that he looks back fondly at those scenes, saying, “It was one of those moments you look back on and go, ‘That’s really special.”
According to The Digital Fix, Harry Potter didn’t send Radcliffe into the largest underwater filming tank in Europe without any training. The outlet reported that the British actor needed at least six months of scuba diving training to be able to do those stunts.
Radcliffe gushed about the opportunities he had while on Harry Potter, saying, “It’s phenomenal that they allowed me to do that myself … I’ll never probably be on a job where they let me do that.”
Daniel Radcliffe was terrified about another scene despite having a harness
Movies and TV shows usually go to great lengths to ensure their actors’ safety. This may involve using trained stunt doubles, foam mattresses, and harnesses to prevent free falling. The ring of fire scene wasn’t the only time Radcliffe found himself doing a difficult stunt.
The actor said there were several things on the set that were “so intense and so crazy” that he never gave them much thought at the time. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Radcliffe’s character finds himself one-on-one with a dragon, and he has to let go of his support on the roof to avoid getting smashed to pieces by the beast.
Radcliffe had a harness on the entire time while filming the sequence, but he said he was “absolutely terrified” at the concept of having the harness as his only source of protection to stop him from free falling.
