Everyone likes Daniel Radcliffe. Let me rephrase that — nobody dislikes Daniel Radcliffe. He never fell into the perils of child stardom other than a love affair with alcohol which seems to have quieted down. Dan keeps to himself unless he’s promoting something. He’s plugging the What If? UK DVD release. We already talked about how Dan pressured producers to change the film’s previous title, The Friend Zone, because he felt it was “sexist.”

Dan has a new interview with the Sunday Express. He talks about why this movie is different from other romcoms. Producers did make him use his English accent in lieu of a Canadian twang. What I find more interesting is how Dan says he’s rejected several good action films:

Why he picked this movie: “With actors, the only time we talk about one genre versus another is when we’re promoting a film and discussing it with journalists. It certainly doesn’t factor in my thought process when I’m picking a role. You’re not thinking, ‘I want to do a romantic comedy, so only show me romcoms from now on.’ You’re just looking for a good script and when What If? came along, I’d already read a few romcoms and it just stood out to me. I wanted to be part of it.”

He had to ditch the “Canadian twang”: “It was basically, ‘You’re not marketable without your English accent,’ which is bad news for all the other stuff I’ve done with American accents. It was one of those ridiculous last-minute panics on their behalf, but I certainly wasn’t going to go, ‘Well, screw you guys, I’m going to put 200 people out of work for the sake of an accent.'”

He’s rejected action roles: “A couple of quite good action films have come my way. But there’s never a fresh character involved in any of those films. It’s just the same people thrown into different cities with different casts. I like action movies and I feel there used to be lots of really witty ones, like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon and the Bourne movies, but the good ones are few and far between now.”

His girlfriend, Erin Darko: “I’m in a relationship with my best friend and that’s how it should be.”

[From S Magazine – The Sunday Express]

It’s hard not to agree with the assessment over Daniel’s accent – if you look at his box-office record, the receipts drop off steeply when Dan abandons his posh voice. I’m not even including the Harry Potter movies. I think Dan’s not that good at picking projects because he doesn’t have to worry about money. This doesn’t mean he has to shy away from blockbusters, right? He would have been very welcome in the recent The X-Men movies, or almost any studio project.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN