That was Radcliffe's closest brush with a haunted house before starring in "The Woman in Black." The thriller, in theaters today, is about a ghostly woman who haunts a British town and one mansion in particular.
Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipp, a single father and solicitor who travels to settle the affairs of the mansion's deceased owner, despite being consumed with grief over the death of his young wife.
"Arthur and the Woman in Black represent the two spectrums of what happens when you can't move on from a death," Radcliffe said. "Arthur has become practically catatonic, emotionally paralyzed and physically exhausted. The Woman in Black has gone completely the other way and been driven to vengeful insanity and hatred by the loss she's suffered. Neither of them are able to move on."
The character is a departure for Radcliffe if only because of Arthur's relatively advanced years. "I'm very aware of people having seen me in a schoolboy's outfit for 10 years," he said. "It might be difficult for people to immediately accept me as a dad."
To create chemistry between Arthur and his son, Radcliffe asked director James Watkins to audition Radcliffe's actual godson, Misha Handley, for the part.
"There was no substitute for that natural chemistry," Radcliffe said.
Much will be read into Radcliffe's first post-Harry Potter role, as if it will foretell the rest of his career. But to Radcliffe, "The Woman in Black" was simply a script he liked that fit between the end of the final Harry Potter film and the beginning of his nine-month run on Broadway in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."
"The Woman in Black" was filmed in England - like the Potter films - but was backed by Hammer Films, the celebratedhorror production company. Radcliffe isn't a Hammer fanatic, but he grew up around its legacy. "I feel - this sounds ridiculous - like a servant of the British film industry," he said.
He's excited to start his first American production in March - "Kill Your Darlings," a mystery about the Beat Generation, featuring Radcliffe as a 19-year-old Allen Ginsberg - but appreciates keeping the British film industry thriving, despite hits it's taken from their government. He scoffed at criticisms from David Cameron, whom Radcliffe called, "our prime minister for lack of a better word," about the popularity of British films. Radcliffe believes England needs more tax breaks to woo productions. "When a film crew comes in, you might as well have a Viking horde," Radcliffe said. "They're going to race through the local resources like a plague of locusts. Especially alcohol."
