Daniel Radcliffe has been riding the wave of success from the
Harry Potter movies since he was a whopping 11 years old. Since he's been in the spotlight, a lot of rumors and stories have been spread around the Internet about him. Dan took some time out to talk to
MovieFone about rumors that he's gay, has a feud with Robert Pattinson, and how he didn't become such an assh*le from becoming famous while he was so young.
You became rich and famous so quickly and at such a young age. How in the world did you avoid turning into a raging a-hole? "[Laughs] Thank you very much. Nicely phrased. I think I have just always had an awareness that when you go to a premiere and people start cheering and shouting your name and stuff, they are shouting at a perception of you that they have. They are shouting at an idea of you as a famous person. They don't know me. They might still like me if they got to know me, but it would be a different person than the one that they're cheering for. If you think they're cheering for you and all your flaws, and the slobbishness, and everything else that goes with you, that's when I think you start to become thick-headed and believe your own hype. Also I just think I've been lucky enough to have great parents, and I've had good people around me who have always been honest with me, who would give me a purely metaphorical slap if I ever got too big for my boots. I really think that's what it comes down to. I think England is a place that is not tolerant of arrogance, and also the reaction to arrogance in England is different than it is in the States, because sometimes in the States, people can be a bit freaked out by that thinking and back off, whereas in England, they become more aggressive at you and take the piss out of you. In England, anybody's arrogance is just lampooned, constantly. When you grow up in that culture, you know that's not what you want to be."
How do you feel about Dumbledore becoming somewhat of an icon for the gay rights movement?"It's wonderful. I grew up around gay people my entire life, basically, that's possibly why I'm quite camp, and some people think I'm gay when I meet them, which I think is awesome. It's always good to keep them guessing [laughs]. I don't go on any blogs or chats or anything, but my friends are demons for them, and apparently someone said "Daniel Radcliffe is gay. He's got a gay face!" [Laughs] I really don't know what a gay face is. But I think it's wonderful that Dumbledore was outed as gay ... Half of me thinks Jo Rowling just did that to see if she could piss off the right wing, but I'm not sure how true that is. I think she had it planned, I think she always knew he was gay."
So let's fuel it – any trash you want to talk to Robert Pattinson?"[Laughs] No, I've nothing but good things to say at Rob. I've worked with him. I won't pretend to know him really well or anything. It's interesting because people assume that because I'm famous I know all famous people. And so people come up to me on the street and say "Do you know Rob Pattinson? What's he like?" And I say, "Well, he's very nice. I haven't seen him in four years, but he's doing very, very well for himself and good luck to him, I hope he's doing alright."
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