“I Think It Surprises People To See Me In Funny Stuff”: Daniel Radcliffe On Finding An Affiliation To Comedy In A Post-Potter Career

With his new NBC sitcom, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, pulling in plaudits, the Harry Potter star is shining in satire. But the 36-year-old has been polishing his comedic chops for years.

Daniel Radcliffe is feeling confident about his new sitcom. “I’m really glad you said you thought it was funny because for me, if this isn’t funny, I don’t know what it is,” he exclaims through the screen from the other side of the Atlantic. As we speak in January, the 36-year-old is deep in rehearsals for his one-man show on Broadway, Every Brilliant Thing, a humorous think-piece about a person who deals with their mother’s suicide attempts by listing everything brilliant in life. It’s been met with stellar reviews. But we’re here primarily to discuss his new NBC comedy series, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, under the direction of the 30 Rock creators and starring alongside sitcom royalty in Tracy Morgan. Radcliffe is also busy at home with a young son. There are fingers in pies, you could say.  

It’s quite an odd, thrilling and surprisingly warming experience chatting with Radcliffe. This is the boy who lived, after all. The epicentre of one of the most popular film franchises of all time. As a teenager, one of the most famous people on the planet. Some 15 years on from retiring his magic wand, putting his flying broomstick in the cupboard, and washing off the lightning bolt scar make-up for one last time, who is Daniel Radcliffe? The reality is that he never really fitted the movie star mould. He’s mild-mannered, jovial, and geeky in an endearingly British way. A man whose life exploded at the roots, and now surveys his exponential success with a smirk of gratuity, and, I’m sure, sometimes still disbelief. 

There’s a free-wheeling libertarianism to Radcliffe’s post-Potter screen tenure – the kind that can only be afforded to someone who made his fortune before he could legally buy a pint. There have been some flirtations with overtly serious roles – Imperium, The Woman in Black, Kill Your Darlings – but it seems he quickly became disillusioned with the idea he should be a Hollywood heavyweight. Instead, he has settled into idiosyncratic, oddball, mostly comedic parts. There was the brilliantly weird Swiss Army Man, parodying the emblem of parody himself, Weird Al, in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, and a recurring starring role in cult anthology TV series, Miracle Workers. 

Comedy is, and always has been, what comes most naturally to Radcliffe. He remembers being on the set of the Potter films, obsessing over Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge with Matthew Lewis, the actor who played Neville Longbottom. There was his hilarious turn in Stephan Merchant and Ricky Gervais’ Extras in the late noughties that suggested he could hold his own among the best in the business. And of course, as Potter, his comedic chops were regularly tried and tested. 

Decades of love and intrigue for the art of comedy culminate in his new mockumentary series. The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins follows a washed-up, disgraced football player (played to perfection by Tracy Morgan) on a quest to regain his muddied reputation by enlisting a director, once acclaimed, now sidelined, to shoot a documentary about himself. Radcliffe takes up the role of the filmmaker, Arthur Tobin, and fills the role seamlessly. He brings a dry British wit, a deadpan satire, and just the right amount of pretentiousness to Tobin, who, at first, we find a degree of sympathy for, but as the series progresses, we realise his true colours – painstakingly, potently, hilariously. 

Dropping by to talk about his natural inclination to comedy, finding purpose in his career, and his desire to direct, below, Man About Town get to know the real Radcliffe. 

Congratulations on the new show! How did you get involved in the project? What drew you to it?  

Generally, in my life, I’ve always watched more half hour comedy than anything. It is what I’ve been drawn to as a viewer compared to big, heavy movies. I worked with Robert and Sam, the show creators, years ago on an interactive Kimmy Schmidt movie for Netflix, which I did with them, and that was great. And I’ve been a fan of Robert and Tina from 30 Rock, and Sam, I didn’t realise what a big role he’d had on 30 Rock. So I’ve always loved their stuff, and when I got to work with them on Kimmy Schmidt, that was a moment of like, I can’t believe I’m working on something that Tina Fey is working on, that’s so cool. And then I really got on with them and Robert and Sam, and we did this animated show for Netflix called Mulligan, which we recorded most of during the pandemic. So I would just see Robert and Sam in a Zoom box once every six months and record some very funny stuff. And I always just really liked them. And thankfully, the feeling was mutual enough that they wanted to involve me in something in a larger way. 

So when this project came in, it was almost a job where I didn’t have to read the script, like, ‘Oh, I’m almost certainly I could probably just say yes without having read it.’ But, you know, there was a script, so it feels like you’d just be stupid not to read it. So I did, and it was exactly what I would want from them. And obviously, knowing Tracy, there are lines that you can write for Tracy that you just can’t write for other people, because he has access to certain line readings and certain levels of things that you’ll believe him when he says that you just wouldn’t from most people. And so reading the script and hearing it in his voice, I was just like, ‘Yeah, this is it, this is the funniest shit.’ I love this writing, this style of comedy. So to get to jump in two-footed into a whole series with them has been awesome. 

When you watch the show, you very quickly pick up the tone of what it’s going to be – this mockumentary format that’s also sketchy, zingy, and full of one-liners. 

To me, that’s the hallmark of their comedy. It is dense with jokes – there’s a joke every few lines on the page. And it might not be a line of dialogue, it might be a stage direction or a prop or something. They just find ways of layering so many jokes through all of their work that it honestly doesn’t matter if you don’t get one or two or three because there’s gonna be another one coming in like ten seconds that you will. I read the scripts a lot, obviously, as we’re doing the show, and sometimes it will be on a third or fourth reading where I realise there’s something in it that I completely missed. So hopefully it’ll bear rewatching as well. 

Was it quite a unique process with it being a mockumentary style? How was it different to other stuff you worked on? 

It was faster, that was awesome. So the style of documentary, which by the way, every comedy on TV right now is a fake documentary of some kind, I know that that’s very much the thing that everyone’s on. But we try to layer it into the story more, maybe more than some other shows. The style means that you can have characters say their inner monologues to the camera, and that affords you a lot of comedy. But also in a very practical way, the thing it does is mean that: you set up a scene and the cameras are all on, and you’re shooting from one side of what’s called the ‘line’, which is an imaginary line that’s going through the set or the scene. And if you go from that side to the other side, that turnaround is when you hear people talk about waiting on sets; that’s what you’re generally waiting for. There’ll be a moment where everyone says, ‘Okay, now we’re turning around, and you move all the cameras and all the lights and everything.’ It just takes time.

On this show, we don’t do that because that’s not what documentaries do. We just shoot one side on two or three sizes, and it’s bliss. It means you get to spend a lot of time on the scene and you get more chances at it. I think it is conducive to comedy because it means you get more time. And if you’re working with people like Tracy or Bobby Moynihan, they get more time to play and improvise. It frees up a lot of time for comedy. 

Your character, Arthur Tobin, is this kind of pedantic pseudo-intellectual whom I couldn’t help feel an affinity towards. What were the building blocks for that character? Were there any real-life presenters or documentarians that you were basing him on?

Not particularly. I think if there is a real-life person that he’s the most like, I guess it’d be Louis Theroux. But he’s not actually; he’s a lot more pretentious and not as good as Louis Theroux [laughs]. I was trying to think of serious documentarians who also appear on camera a lot as parts of their documentaries, and it’s quite a rare thing. 

He’s more based on experiences. I’ve certainly seen assistant directors and DPs lose their minds on blue screen sets before as a result of having been there too long. So again, not based on a specific person, but based on circumstances that I have witnessed in real life. And it is interesting because you do sympathise with him a little bit in the beginning, because he’s trying to keep all this craziness under control, trying to figure out where he fits in, and he’s trying to make a good movie while Reggie’s being wild. But as the series goes on, I will say you will have less and less sympathy for him. There are moments where he gets more and more desperate to make the documentary. But yeah, he’s a funny, pedantic Englishman, we definitely are playing into the Englishness for a lot of humour. At the beginning, he’s the eyes of the audience quite a lot, but as the series goes on, he becomes a little less relatable and a little bit crazier and more manic.

Why was this character, at this point in your career, something that you really strived to want to do?

Honestly, the criteria by which I make pretty much all of my decisions now is: would I like to watch this, and do I think it’ll be fun to make? And this was definitely going to be both of those. The thing with TV – which is still crazy to me – is that you will commit to potentially, if all goes well, several years of a show, having read only one pilot script originally. That’s why I’ve really only done it in America twice, once with Miracle Workers, which was written by a guy called Simon Rich, whom I was a huge fan of his writing, so I was confident that whatever he came up with, I would be happy to do for multiple years. And similarly on this – with these guys, I just know that whatever they write for the next few years is going to be good and fun to do. They kept 30 Rock going for seven years, I think Kimmy Schmidt was four or five seasons; they know how to keep long-running shows good and to stay at that quality. 

I love working in comedy. It’s something that I’ve done quite a bit of, but never in such a highly visible way as this. I feel like this will be a lot of people’s first time seeing me do a comedy like this. So getting to work on something fun that you love that is going to remain of a high quality for hopefully at least a few years. And also, you know, it films in New York, and I have a young child, and to get to do a job that’s 40 minutes from my house and then I get to come home and see my kid every night, it’s the dream. Tracy was running around on set, saying we’re going to run for 10 years. He’s the most optimistic, positive person about that stuff. I get very English about it and go the other way. I’m like, ‘No, even by saying this out loud, we are  pouring negative luck towards ourselves.’ But yeah, the truth is I hope we get at least a few [seasons] out of this. I would love that. 

When you look at your discography, there is a lot of comedy in there, even the likes of romcom What If and action flick Guns Akimbo. Is comedy something that you’ve been more naturally drawn to in the post-Potter era? 

Yeah, I think so. Again, I think it all comes down to the fact that it’s most of what I’ve always watched. When I was growing up, me and particularly Matt Lewis, who played Neville in the Potter films, were obsessed with Alan Partridge, obsessed with Steve Coogan, obsessed with Brass Eye, etc. We would just go around quoting to each other on set in the way that annoying teenage boys can do. So I think that was always something that I knew I was going to be really drawn to and want to do. 

I remember when I did Extras when Potter was still going on, and Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant gave me a chance to set myself up and show that I didn’t take myself too seriously, or that I knew what people thought child stars were like, and I was going to take the piss out of that or whatever. Because people have seen me as Harry, and there is comedy and humour in those films obviously, but he is quite a serious guy. So I think, at the start at least, it surprises people to see me in funny stuff, and I like doing unexpected stuff, so that’s maybe why I was so drawn to it. Humour and dark humour always exist in life and are actually a very important part of how we deal with serious situations as well. So whenever I read something, and there’s not even a wit to it or opportunity for some funny moments, that rings more false to me for some reason. Everything should be a little bit of comedy. 

Do you think that comedy – and the need to make someone laugh – is more difficult than serious dramatic roles?

It’s different strokes to different folks. I think some people find it much harder. Some actors love it when it gets intense. Some actors want to be just crying and doing all that stuff all the time; they love that shit. I can do that shit sometimes with a lot of prep, but I’m not like, ‘Oh my God, I want to do those scenes.’ Whereas I generally do have a really good time in comedy, and I have a good time working out what is funny about something. And there are different ways of being funny as well. Tracy is naturally one of the funniest people on the planet. What he has can’t be learned and can’t be taught. It’s just, it’s him. And it’s really cool to watch that up close. And then you’ve got Bobby Moynihan, who is also an unbelievably naturally funny person,  but there’s also a precision about Bobby, and he’s come up through improv and SNL – obviously, Tracy was SNL as well – but I like watching the different schools of it. The comedy I generally do better at is finding funny writing and playing it very straight,  because most of the time, for me, I’m at my funniest when I seem to be unaware that anything funny is happening. When I play it for real, but it’s a funny situation, that’s generally what I think I’m best at.

It’s been 15 years since the Harry Potter franchise finished. You achieved so much from a young age, and since it concluded too, you’ve put together an excellent body of work. So at this point, what gets you excited about working and about life?

I really want to direct, that’s the next big thing. It won’t be anytime soon but hopefully in the next few years I’ll start making some moves towards that. I love being on film sets and I love being in the middle of it and I think I’d be decent at that, at least. In terms of work, it is just finding people that I want to work with. Because life is truly too short to spend time with people that you don’t like. So it’s about the group of people I’m going to be working with that gets me very excited to go to work every day. And getting to work with people I haven’t worked with before, and getting to do stuff that I haven’t done before. 

I’m about to do a play in New York, and it’s kind of…it’s not a one-man show, but it is a one-actor show. So I’m the only actor, and there’s a lot of audience participation every night, which is going to be crazy, and I don’t really know how it’s going to work. With that, I’ve just moved from the point of like, ‘Oh, this is going to be fun in theory,’ to, ‘Oh my God, I’m starting rehearsals soon, and now I’m just shitting myself.’ But there is something good about that, I’ve realised as well. Most of the time that I have learned or got better has always been through doing something that was a little bit intimidating, something that I didn’t really know how it would work out. I feel like that’s an exciting feeling. So to still be able to have that, and to have it in a way where you’ve got some control. To get to pick work that you love and believe in, but also that frightens you a little bit and pushes you a little bit, is really the dream. And so few actors are in a position where they get to have that kind of autonomy that I’m just very grateful to be in the position I’m in. 

To round us off, what’s something that you wish more people would ask you?

Honestly, if every interview was just talking about my kid, then I would be so happy. I’ve become that person recently, of like: my partner and I were sitting with two friends the other night who don’t have a child, and they asked a question about him. And we both talked about it for like 10 minutes and told them all the cute stuff he has said recently. At the end of the 10 minutes, I felt that we both knew they didn’t want to know this much; they were just being polite. There’s nothing more boring for a childless couple than hearing everything two parents think their child said is really sweet. So if every interview could just be me telling you about how my son sings a really cute rendition of Cruella De Vil, that would be great. 

Well, next time.