Dear Daniel Radcliffe, a.k.a. Harry Potter, please stop acting like a jackass.
In a desperate attempt to outgrow his lifelong association as the Boy Wonder of Hogwarts Academy, Daniel Radcliffe has been trying desperately to revamp his image lately. But he’s rapidly becoming too cool for school.
Last summer, Radcliffe revealed to the British press that he’d given up drinking after a longstanding battle with alcohol. Fair enough. Although it was disconcerting to imagine Harry Potter downing anything more than butterbeer, lots of child stars struggle with substance abuse problems at an early age, even if the kids on the set of Harry Potter were thought to have coped better with the dual exigencies of fame and childhood than the likes of Lindsay Lohan.
But recently, Radcliffe went into TMI overdrive, telling the Daily Mail about how he’s had sex with fans, sometimes while under the influence. (Again, one thinks back to that first kiss with Cho Chang and shudders at the thought.)
So what gives?
Read the rest of this post at The Washington Post’s She The People blog…
Image: Harry Potter by karly ilustraciones via Flickr under a Creative Commons license.
February 15, 2012, 1:57 am
I can’t fault him for being honest about his drinking problem. A person doesn’t have to be 55 with a red nose to have a drinking problem. If all goes well he won’t have to waste 30-40 years of his life battling booze before he realizes that life would be so much easier if he just didn’t drink.
Coming out in public and telling it is important. He isn’t too young to have a problem and it’s OK to say so. Maybe it will help some other youngest realize they have a problem too.
Remember, if you even think you have a drinking problem chances are you do. People who don’t have a drinking problem never even wonder about ti.
February 15, 2012, 7:27 am
@ginger, yes, I do agree with that and have gotten a lot of flack for the post. It’s not the drinking I have a problem with. It’s the sex stuff coming on top of the drinking confessions-it all sounded a bit contrived. But I could be wrong. Thanks for weighing in, as always.
February 17, 2012, 12:34 am
You know, in ten minutes of Googling you’d have discovered that the out-of-context quotes from the Mail and the Mirror, in their original contexts, show Radcliffe saying something quite different – which would have demolished your thesis, which is presumably why you didn’t bother to look.
February 18, 2012, 11:56 am
@SF and @maria – did look, several times, for quotes to the contrary and *still* can’t find them on the internet, let alone that this post was actually written several days before it posted. you are entitled to your opinions of course, but so am I.
February 17, 2012, 10:48 pm
this post disgusts me. you’re taking quotes completely out of context and trying to tear down a young man’s promising career. i saw the rest of this on facebook and i personally can’t believe you write for the washington post.
February 19, 2012, 3:48 pm
He is just doing what consumers in this society wants him to do. Selling scandalous stories. The world in large is immature and gossipy and loves hearing about other people doing unacceptable things. Also I think he says things because he wants to be forgiven about his misconduct though who is ever going to know his motivation? He obviously doesn’t like putting up facades. Maybe you need to grow up and not make a big deal out of the interview writing your obvious impressions of the interview since people do that at their own meet up with friends. Daniel’s useless remark making it to newspapers is the same as your useless letter making it in one.