Even the newest Harry Potter movie is now a decade gone, but lots of fans still remember them fondly and probably always will. That includes Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry himself. Speaking film critic Ali Plumb on his show Howzit?, Radcliffe revealed that he has several keepsakes from his time as The Boy Who Lived, including some you wouldn’t expect.
“I’ve got a couple of sets of the glasses,” Radcliffe began (that’s not the unexpected bit). “I’ve got actually somewhere, I don’t know where, I don’t have it… it’s at my parents’ house I guess, maybe in the attic, what a weird thing for someone to find in the attic one day! I’ve got a prosthetic arm that was molded for me in the scene where Harry lost all the bones in his arm. So I’ve got like a big floppy arm in my attic.”
Way to go, Professor Lockhart:
The actor also mentioned that he has a mold of his face that was made when he was about 10 or 11 that resembles a death mask. For those of you who don’t know, a death mask is a cast or impression made of a person’s face after they’ve passed away. This was done to create effigies, memorial portraits, and busts, although the practice has largely fallen out of fashion. It makes me wonder what exactly the mold of Radcliffe’s face was made for…probably some kind of special effect.
All eight Harry Potter films are available to rent or buy on Amazon, RedBox, FandangoNow, Vudu, Google Play and iTunes. You can also view the magical movies with a Premium or Premium Plus subscription to NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. And you can check out Radcliffe’s full interview below:
Daniel Radcliffe has spoken out against J.K. Rowling’s controversial comments
The Harry Potter series has been mired in controversy over the past year or so thanks to author J.K. Rowling’s making known her deeply problematic views on the transgender community. In response to Rowling’s initial transphobic tweets (to be followed by the transphobic manifesto and then the novel), Daniel Radcliffe penned a poignant response published on The Trevor Project website that I think sums up my feelings on the issue.
The actor condemned Rowling’s comments and doubled down on his support of the queer community. He also emphasized that if fans took something positive away from the books, then their relationship to the story shouldn’t be compromised by Rowling’s opinions.
"If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much."
Even though you can never fully separate an author from their work, I think Radcliffe makes a good point. To “cancel” the entire franchise would also diminish the work of the cast and crew of the films, the hard-working folks who published the books, and those who helped to create The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, not to mention all the fans who have taken this story into their hearts and found new uses for it.
As such, my love of Harry Potter persists. It appears as though Daniel Radcliffe’s criticisms of J.K. Rowling haven’t dulled his fondness for the series, either.
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h/t Digital Spy