Being immortalized for giving the best performance of their careers is a dream that many stars would give anything to see become a reality, and that was something that Daniel Radcliffe managed to achieve at a very young age when he was chosen to play the role of Harry Potter, the titular protagonist of the Harry Potter franchise.
Throughout his tenure as The Boy Who Lived in the film series, he has never once disappointed the audience, but he did disappoint, or rather, borderline enraged the dedicated fandom of the literary works by author J.K Rowling when they saw he had one key feature missing that the character from the books had, and still, there was a major reason why he was chosen to play the lead role.
How Daniel Radcliffe Enraged The Hardcore Harry Potter Fans
When you have been playing a character in your film career for so long that your face becomes almost synonymous with it, you can say that you have given it your all, which is what most people believe when they see Daniel Radcliffe and the first thing that comes to their mind is The Boy Who Lived. His portrayal of Harry Potter in the franchise has become one of the most iconic performances in the history of cinema, something that can almost never be replaced. But somewhere along the way, his depiction of the titular protagonist also made quite a few people mad.
As many who have read the lore about the film franchise as intended by author J.K Rowling might know, in the literary series, the protagonist is described as being a very timid and weak little boy with a thin face and intense green eyes. But when the Now You See Me 2 star first appeared as Harry Potter in Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, he was seen with a pair of blue eyes, the natural eye color of the actor.
This was the major thing that angered the hardcore bookworms who were fans of the novels and wanted their beloved character to be an accurate portrayal from the pages of the books. But even if he wanted to, Radcliffe couldn’t put on contacts since he had an allergic reaction to them. Still, apart from that one major quirk, his depiction of the protagonist was as close to the source as anyone could’ve asked for.
And even with such a big quirk, he was chosen to be the lead star of the hyper-successful franchise due to one feature that he possessed.
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Why Daniel Radcliffe Was Chosen To Play Harry Potter
In an interview, the casting director for the original film Janet Hirshenson revealed why Radcliffe became the clear choice to play Potter in the film franchise to everyone. She recalled that there were many stipulations in place that they had to adhere to, one of which was that the actor should be as close to the original age and description as possible. Hirshenson said that they did find an actor who looked perfect, but he was a little old for the role, saying:
“I know at one point there was a push for the actor who did ‘Billy Elliot.’ He was a really good actor, but he was 14 years old. It’s like, ‘No, he was 14 years old. It just can’t be.’”
Apart from that, one of the major things that sealed the deal was his ability to grow just like his character would in the film series as time went on.
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Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, streaming on Max.
Source: HuffPost
