Daniel Radcliffe Has Found His Freedom

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Just before Daniel Radcliffe’s one-man show, Every Brilliant Thing, began on Broadway, he was down in the aisle. He handed a card with a line on it to a woman six rows up, asking her to say it when he signaled. He briefly touched her arm to calm her nerves, making her blush. As Radcliffe walked off, another audience member leaned across the aisle and asked if the woman was alright, quickly adding, “I got a picture, though!”

The play Every Brilliant Thing is a deeply personal and uplifting story about a person who deals with their mother’s struggles with suicide by making a list of all the wonderful things in life. Since its successful debut at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014, the play – created by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe – has been performed in 66 countries, featuring actors like Minnie Driver and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Recently, audiences in New York City have braved the winter weather to see the show – and maybe even become part of it. In the days leading up to its official opening, videos are circulating on TikTok and Instagram showing the lead actor connecting with fans before and after performances.

Daniel Radcliffe expected this kind of reaction. When he invited a woman from the audience to participate more fully, he admitted to her that people who seemed overly enthusiastic about being on stage with him made him uneasy. This was surprising coming from someone who once drew massive crowds to Trafalgar Square for a film premiere as the young wizard. Despite trying to move beyond being known as Harry Potter—his first adult stage role in 2007, in Equus, even involved nudity, signaling his transition from a child actor—he can’t fully shake the character’s hold on popular culture. He later told me another audience member he brought onstage turned out to be the father of someone in the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which was playing nearby. And journalists covering the show keep asking him about the upcoming HBO TV series based on the books.

He explained over Zoom that his celebrity status added a unique, and perhaps unusual, dynamic to his interactions within the play. However, he believes some audience members might be more receptive because they’ve watched him grow up. This play offers Radcliffe, who generally keeps to himself, a chance to connect with fans in a way he controls. He says it’s a welcome change from trying to blend in while walking around New York City – he demonstrated how he uses a cap to stay incognito – allowing him to feel relaxed and approachable with people.

Daniel Radcliffe is clearly enjoying his career choices after Harry Potter. He’s become known for taking on unusual, often funny roles – like a farting corpse in Swiss Army Man, the musician Weird Al Yankovic in a biopic, and a witty composer in Merrily We Roll Along, which earned him a Tony Award in 2024. In addition to his current play, Every Brilliant Thing, he’s starring in a new NBC comedy, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, where he plays the serious counterpart to the wild comedian Tracy Morgan. At this point, Radcliffe doesn’t need to work for the money; he’s simply choosing projects he finds enjoyable. He says he feels a real sense of freedom and relaxation in everything he’s doing now.

A major reason behind Daniel Radcliffe’s career choices is his young son, who is almost three years old. After finishing his Broadway run in Merrily, Radcliffe, 36, initially planned to take a break from theater. However, a conversation with an experienced actor made him realize how difficult it is to do theater when your children start school and are away all day—precisely when actors are usually available. Then, when the kids are home at night, the actor isn’t. Filming Reggie Dinkins was convenient because it was only 40 minutes from his house. Radcliffe jokes that he anticipates a time when his son won’t want to spend time with him, and he’ll be free to take on more projects. But for now, his son enjoys being around him, and he wants to cherish that time.

After each 85-minute performance, Daniel Radcliffe discusses the show with his girlfriend, focusing on both the comedic timing and emotional impact. Since the audience participates, every show includes some improvisation. At one point, he asks people in the audience for two books to use as props in a romantic scene. During the performance I saw, someone happily handed him a copy of Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists. Radcliffe playfully pretended to be annoyed as he ‘read’ it to his onstage love interest (another audience member), dramatically muttering with a grin, “I’m never speaking to you again.”

Despite its comedic moments, the play deals with serious issues surrounding mental health. Daniel Radcliffe’s character started making a list of positive things at age seven, as a way to cope with his mother’s hospitalization and encourage her to stay. Radcliffe finds this deeply moving – the instinct of a child to protect a parent is both beautiful and heartbreaking. Playing this role has made him think about his own son growing up and facing difficult times. He admits he’s worried about how he’ll handle it when his son inevitably encounters hardship. “My son is a very happy child, and the thought of him facing difficulties is something I don’t think I’ll be able to handle well,” he says.

Reggie Dinkins brings a genuine sincerity to the show, much like Every Brilliant Thing. It’s a more gentle and heartwarming comedy than 30 Rock. Daniel Radcliffe plays Arthur, a filmmaker brought in by Morgan’s character, Reggie – a former football player trying to rebuild his career – to create a documentary similar to The Last Dance. Radcliffe notes that the show features less harsh characters, saying, “We don’t need to see more self-absorbed people when there are already so many in the world.”

Arthur is also struggling with his career. Despite winning an Academy Award, he messed up a Marvel film, and a video of him getting frustrated while directing actors—who were acting opposite tennis balls on a green screen—became a viral sensation. In a classic 30 Rock moment, the situation gets even more ridiculous when someone points out that some of those tennis balls were supposed to be real in the scene.

Radcliffe jokingly points out he’s become known for acting against tennis balls – a technique used on set to create the effect of interacting with creatures or characters that weren’t actually there. He’s completely comfortable with it, saying he’s even done some of his best work that way. He imagines the more experienced actors, Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman, found it silly on the early Harry Potter films, but as a child actor, he and his fellow young cast members just accepted it as normal.

When Daniel Radcliffe was a teenager and finished filming for the day on one of the Harry Potter movies, he’d relax by watching comedies in his trailer – especially shows like Alan Partridge, The Office, and 30 Rock. He says if anyone had told him then that he’d eventually be working with Robert Carlock and Sam Means, produced by Tina Fey, and acting alongside Tracy Morgan, he would have jumped at the chance.

Daniel Radcliffe was a fan of comedy, but people didn’t necessarily expect him to be good at it. He admits he was very insecure as a teenager, especially about his facial expressions. By the time the Harry Potter films ended, he’d decided that if he kept his face still, he wouldn’t risk looking awkward. He points out that he’s particularly stiff in the sixth film because of this approach.

Right before the last Harry Potter film came out, he landed the main role in a Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. This was his second significant stage performance, following Equus, but his first time playing a comedic part. It allowed him to test jokes with a live audience and see how people reacted immediately. He discovered that his unique facial expressions could actually be an asset. “I realized it’s okay to be a little weird – it’s part of what you can bring to a role. When you’re young, you worry about looking cool, but as you get older, you learn that’s not important at all.”

He started to develop the comedic style he’d become known for—like remaining serious while Tracy Morgan tells wild stories, such as one about a raccoon coming out of his toilet. He explains that playing the ‘straight man’ is actually quite simple, because it’s about reacting to things as they genuinely are. He believes he’s at his funniest when the character he’s playing doesn’t even realize anything humorous is happening.

Now, he’s moving from being an actor to a filmmaker, having written a script he plans to shoot. Despite his success as a performer, he knows he needs to earn his place as a director. “I can’t expect to be given a great script,” he explains, “I have to prove I can deliver.” Throughout his life, fame has shaped his experiences – from disguising himself on the subway to challenging people’s expectations of his acting range. With Every Brilliant Thing, he’s breaking down the barrier between himself and the audience, seeing them not just as fans who allowed him financial freedom, but as partners in his future work. He’ll always rely on their support, perhaps especially to successfully complete this current project.

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2026-03-05 17:07