Sharanya Sankar
Daniel Radcliffe is and will always be Harry Potter to audiences across the globe. The star who brought J.K Rowling’s iconic young wizard to life grew up on the sets of the Harry Potter series which spanned 8 films. Radcliffe along with Emma Watson and Rupert Grint who played Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley respectively became household names and gained subsequent superstardom thanks to their performances in the Harry Potter films.
Daniel Radcliffe also surprised his fans by venturing into alternative territory thereafter by starring in romantic comedies, and parodies and even playing a flatulent corpse in Swiss Army Man. Despite his distinctive choices, the star also refused to be part of a few comedy projects that could have been up his alley.
Daniel Radcliffe Shunned Seth Rogen’s This Is The End
Daniel Radcliffe did a 360 after the Harry Potter films by signing up for vastly different projects that were far removed from his Wizarding World image. But the actor drew the line for This Is The End, a 2013 comedy film which was filled with frat boy humor, directed by Seth Rogen and written by Evan Goldberg. The film showcased celebrities playing exaggerated versions of themselves, including James Franco, Jonah Hill, Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, and Emma Watson, all surviving an apocalyptic crisis.
According to Goldberg, the film was offered to Daniel Radcliffe during the first draft with the hope that he would reunite with his Harry Potter co-star Emma Watson. But the dream was not to be. Evan Goldberg said,
“Two years before we brought it to anybody else, we brought it to Daniel Radcliffe, and he rejected it because it was shitty, it wasn’t good enough,”
Rogen and Goldberg subsequently accepted that the first draft wasn’t up to the mark and went on to rewrite the script. But Radcliffe remained steadfast in his decision to turn down the film. Rogen later admitted that the incident taught them an important lesson that the initial impression of a script must always be enticing.
Also Read: “They might have broken up”: Emma Watson Instantly Felt Guilty After Making Daniel Radcliffe Cry
Daniel Radcliffe Is No Stranger To Experimentation
Daniel Radcliffe’s film choices post his popular turn as a child star in Harry Potter have shown that the actor isn’t afraid to shed his established image and experiment with various roles. The actor recently played the lead role in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, a satirical parody film depicting comedy musician Weird Al’s life and career. The film, directed by Eric Appel, satirizes cliches and conventions within the biopic format. Radcliffe is a confessed fan of intelligent meta scripts and this performance showcased a different side of the actor.
Daniel Radcliffe also starred in the mythical black comedy Horns, a film about a grieving man who wakes up one morning to discover he is slowly turning into the Devil. The film was directed by Alexandre Aja and released the same year as This Is the End which raised speculations that the celebrity could have turned down Rogen’s film in favor of this one.
Source: Far Out Magazine
