Paul Dano Had a Dummy For ‘Swiss Army Man’ But Opted to Carry Daniel Radcliffe Around on His Back

After becoming a global superstar as a child thanks to the Harry Potter franchise, Daniel Radcliffe has spent most of his adult years appearing in smaller, more experimental projects. One of the finest examples of that approach is Swiss Army Man.

The film stars Radcliffe and Paul Dano and takes the premise of Cast Away and Weekend at Bernie’s, adds a lot of farts, and attempts to tell a genuine story about the best way to live your life. The bizarre premise is off-putting to some, but the actors were committed to portraying these characters, spending more time together during production than the filmmakers initially planned. 

‘Swiss Army Man’ explores the relationship between a depressed guy and a gassy husk 

Hank Thompson (Dano) can’t see any hope on the horizon. He’s been stuck on a deserted island by himself for ages, and Swiss Army Man begins as he prepares to die by suicide on the beach. Just before he completes the act, Hank sees a body wash up on the shore and is intrigued enough by the event to investigate.

He discovers that this corpse (Radcliffe, who is eventually given the name Manny) is far from a lifeless body. His flatulence is so powerful that he can carry Hank across a stretch of the water, acts as a seemingly infinite reservoir of fresh water, and his rigor mortis-addled penis can double as a compass. You know, normal movie stuff. 

If that absurd set-up doesn’t immediately turn you off, Swiss Army Man does get more sincere as it goes along. Over time, Manny regains his ability to talk, albeit without any memory of who he was before meeting Hank.

The two of them fully embody the “just two guys being dudes” meme, bonding over adult mags, parties, and the Jurassic Park score to bring Manny up to speed. Hank’s issues are much more deep-seated, though, and Manny uses his extraordinary gifts to guide him toward his best self. 

An on-set audible brought Dano and Radcliffe closer together

Radcliffe appeared in a video for GQ discussing his most iconic roles. When it comes to the topic of Swiss Army Man, the actor first recalls how excited he was by the unorthodox nature of the project, followed by his delight in the finished product. Radcliffe said:

“It’s obviously got some fantastical crazy elements to it, but the combination of meeting them and talking to them, seeing their videos and reading the script, I was like, ‘yeah, I want to be involved in this,’ … That was truly one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and probably the film that I’m proudest of.”

While shooting the movie, he developed a higher level of respect for Dano, who bears the brunt of Swiss Army Man’s most human moments. He also carried Radcliffe’s literal body throughout the movie. A dummy version of Radcliffe was made to make the production easier for both actors, but Dano generally preferred to hoist the real man on his back to further understand Hank’s journey.

Radcliffe also saw the value in it and considers a scene where Hank and Manny roleplay a conversation on a makeshift bus to be particularly special. “If I get hit by lightning tomorrow or something, if there’s one scene that I could pick from everything I’ve ever done to just be the thing that like lasts after me, it would be the scene on the bus from Swiss Army Man,” he concluded. 

The movie’s creators made one of 2022’s best films

A movie this weird is never going to be a box office hit, but Swiss Army Man does have a legacy for its filmmakers. 

It was the first feature-length movie to be written and directed by the duo Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, professionally known as Daniels. Swiss Army Man was nominated and won several awards on the independent circuit, including the Directing Award at Sundance in 2016. (Several audience members walked out of the first screening at the same festival.)

The unbridled vision of the movie showed that the directors had promise, and their second feature, Everything Everywhere All at Once, brought them wider commercial and critical acclaim. The film was an increasingly rare original blockbuster and will surely be in the mix for a lot of awards at the Oscars. 

Meanwhile, Radcliffe continues to show up in strange, off-kilter projects, most recently in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.