Dan The Man

A film veteran at just 26, Daniel Radcliffe talks writing and directing, protecting his relationship and why he's finally happy to take a holiday.

- Olivia Foster

ASK ANYONE ABOUT MEETING DANIEL RADCLIFFE AND THEY WILL ALL SAY the same thing: ‘He’s such a nice man,’ with added emphasis on the ‘such’. And as he comes bounding into a hotel room at The Soho Hotel in London, clutching a Robinson’s Fruit Shoot (Apple & Blackcurrant, FYI) and joking about the lack of ‘squash’ in America (Radcliffe lives in New York a lot of the time), it’s easy to see why. The child star turned proper grown-up actor is easy-going, funny and charming, and he knows how to hold a stare just long enough to get his point across. In fact, spend five minutes with him and you’ll quickly forget that he cut his teeth on one of the biggest movie franchises of all time and has a net worth of more than £70 million.

For all intents and purposes, he is a ‘normal’ guy. His friends, he says, are ‘normal’, his life outside work is ‘normal’ – he likes to spend his time reading and hanging out with said mates in London playing Cards Against Humanity. On this particular trip, he’s been desperate to catch up with his godchildren: ‘I’ve got quite a few godkids so I try to make a point of seeing them, otherwise I feel like a terrible godparent.’ Even visits to regular celeb hangouts like Nobu are restricted. ‘You can have too much of a good thing. If you had Nobu every day, where would you go for a treat?’ Such a nice guy, you’re thinking, and so down-to-earth.