Daniel Radcliffe is no angel and he acknowledges it fully. We learned in the summer of 2011 from British GQ, that Radcliffe had had to battle a reliance on alcohol. He stated that he felt he could not enjoy himself without alcohol and would drink profusely. In a recent article via hypable.com, Radcliffe reveals more of that time and admits to turning up on Harry Potter sets, especially Half-Blood Prince, still under the influence.
Radcliffe can easily point out where he looks “dead behind the eyes”. Here is what he had to say to Heatworld.com:
You’re only 22. Don’t most people in their early twenties drink too much? Unfortunately it’s not that simple. I have a very addictive personality. It was a problem.
Really? There were never any stories of you going on wild benders… People with problems like that are very adept at hiding it. It was bad. I don’t want to go into details but I drank a lot and it was daily – I mean nightly. I can honestly say that I never drank at work on Harry Potter. I went into work still drunk, but I never drank at work.
You mean Harry Potter had a hangover? I can point to many scenes where I’m just gone. Dead behind the eyes.
You were only 11 when you started on the films. Do you think growing up in the spotlight contributed to your drinking? I think it would have happened anyway. I think it’s just me. I loved the fact that I suddenly could talk to people and feel so entertaining and so interesting. But after a while, you’re living under such a cloud of shame about what you’ve done and the dread of who you might see, what you might have said to them, what you might have done with them. You either have to change something or give into that shame and I wasn’t prepared to do that at 21.
We are happy to report that Dan has since won this battle, no longer drinks at all and is doing well. Nevertheless, it is troubling to think how scary that time of his life was and for none of us to know.