Growing up as a child star, especially being involved in a huge franchise, it’s hard for people to associate you with anything else. However, Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t think the wizarding series is his most revealing work.
In an interview with Collider, Radcliffe revealed which movie people should watch for a first impression of him as an actor. “Honestly, Swiss Army Man,” the actor said. “Because throw them in at the deep end.”
Swiss Army Man is a 2016 movie by Everything Everwhere All At Once directing duo Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, starring Radcliffe and The Batman‘s Paul Dano. It’s described as an absurdist black comedy where a man stranded on a deserted island (Dano) befriends a corpse (Radcliffe), and the two embark on a journey to return home. The dead man slowly relearns how to speak, and adopts the name Manny. In short, it’s nothing like the Harry Potter films.
Radcliffe’s acting in the movie has been widely praised, as has been his turn towards independent film making, despite his childhood fame being propitious to a career in blockbusters. The actor seems to be proud of his work in Swiss Army Man, saying that the bus scene is “the most beautiful thing” he has even been involved in.
“I’ve always said if there’s one scene, if everything in my career was going to be destroyed except for one scene, the scene on the bus in Swiss Army Man, I think is the most beautiful thing that I’ve ever been a part of, so yeah, that.”
Radcliffe has starred in 27 feature films, and 14 television series, across his 21 year long career. Obviously, he is best known for playing Harry Potter in the movie adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy novels but he’s striven to make a name for himself outside the franchise, both on screen and on stage.
Radcliffe’s upcoming biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, also starring Evan Rachel Wood, Rainn Wilson, and Jack Black, and directed by Eric Appel, will arrive to free-of-charge streaming platform Roku on Nov. 4.