Daniel Radcliffe on The Woman in Black, Harry Potter - and acting "sexy"

…being a child actor

“I’ve been asked a thousand times if I’ll end up like Macaulay Culkin, but I’ve never been asked if I’ll end up like Jodie Foster or Tobey Maguire or Elijah Wood. Or Christian Bale.”

…his finances

“My mum will run decisions past me. So, if they’re thinking of investing in something, she’ll say, ‘How d’you feel about this?’ and I’ll say, ‘I guess. I don’t know.’ I don’t understand it. And I trust my mum totally. She’s looked after our family for a long time, so she’ll look after my money.”

…Harry Potter

“The set became harder to learn on because it was so comfortable, so at ease.”

“There are times when you go, ‘Am I good at this? Did I just get lucky?’”

“Any viewer who is judgmental about an 11-year-old boy is just an idiot. Gauche: that’s how we were in the first film. Naive kids, and we had a good time, and people loved it. What more can you say?”

“It’s kind of disheartening [that Potter has been overlooked by the Oscars]. I never thought I’d care. But it would’ve been nice to have some recognition, just for the hours put in. I don’t think the Oscars like commercial films, or kids’ films, unless they’re directed by Martin Scorsese. I was watching Hugo the other day and was going, ‘Why is this nominated and we’re not?’ I was slightly miffed. There’s a certain amount of snobbery. [Still], how much of a pat on the back do we really need? We get paid stupid amounts of money.”

…co-star Emma Watson

“We used to argue about everything. Religion. Politics. I remember one of the big arguments we had on the fourth film – we didn’t speak to each other for a couple of days – was about... she was arguing about the Latin language; that nobody knows what it sounds like, what a Latin accent should be. And I was like, ‘Yeah, but it’s still spoken a lot in the Catholic church.’ Such a w**ky argument, looking back, and it got totally out of hand. She was furious; I was livid. I certainly would advise anyone, if you’re going to debate with her, know your s**t.”

…acting

“I had a conversation with Alan Rickman about self-doubt. He just said: ‘It’ll never leave you. And the moment it does, stop acting.’ If you step on that stage thinking you’re brilliant, you’re f***ed.”

“The mistake actors make is to get it into their heads that they’re the hardest-working people on set. And it’s never the case. You can have the hardest day filming of your life, and you won’t have worked as hard as the runner, who opens your car door for you in the morning.”

…his girlfriend

“She’s really cool. She’s chilled out. Going out with me is not easy. There’s a lot of stuff that goes with it in terms of time spent apart; she does very, very well. She’s self-assured and composed. Understandably, though, the first time paparazzi pictures of us came out, she got totally weirded out by it.”

…on acting “sexy” for magazine shoots

“Being asked to be sexy and all that stuff is very strange. I don’t think many boys in their late teens know how to do that.”

“I’ve never thought of myself as a sex symbol. I like the idea that I’m not conventionally sexy. I think I’m sexy in a nerdy way, and I’m perfectly happy with that. That’s quite a cool thing to be, all of a sudden.”

“My girlfriend told me that when I get angry my jaw clenches and that’s sexy. So I’m just going to try to do that.”

This is an edited version of an article from the issue of Radio Times magazine that went on sale 7 February 2012.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is nominated in several categories at The British Academy Film Awards, tonight at 9pm on BBC1/BBC1 HD