DANNY!!! Oh, my love affair with little Daniel Radcliffe is totally unending. You know how Dan is totally in love with the gays, right? He’s like, one of the biggest gay rights advocates in Hollywood, basically. So it’s completely natural for Dan to agree to do a cover profile for Out Magazine, of course. And Out just had to send Dan’s friend, “trans musician” Our Lady J. They’re buds. Of course. One of the funniest things about this to me is that Dan is promoting Harry Potter! Disney produces that sh-t! Disney does not want their star on the cover of Out magazine, being interviewed by his fabulous transvestite buddy. Oh, well. This is why I love Dan.

The full Out interview is here, and it’s totally worth the read. First, the background on his relationship to Our Lady J, from Out: “In 2009, when the British tabloids played a salacious guessing game about the nature of his friendship with American trans singer-songwriter Our Lady J, Radcliffe didn’t jump to fire off a press release to refute the claims, as many straight young leading men would do. He’s better than that. Instead, he simply gushed about how talented he thought she was and left the world to think whatever it wanted about their relationship.” Aww…okay, here are some extensive highlights:

Daniel Radcliffe: Hi, J, how are you?
Our Lady J: I’m very well and you?
DR: I’m very, very well. I’ve just finished Potter properly yesterday.
OLJ: Did they let you keep the glasses?
DR: Yes! I’ve got two pairs from the seventh film and the pair I wore in the very, very first movie — which are really tiny on my head now!

DR: I was just in L.A. for the first time in my life. I went for the premiere of the fifth [Harry Potter] film, but other than that, I’d never really gone there before. So I went for five days and did my first round of meetings and going to studios. It was very exciting.
OLJ: You just made your first trip to Hollywood?
DR: People seem to have a very bizarre perception of me — that I’m a Hollywood actor. I don’t think of myself that way. And when I was out there and telling people it was pretty much my first trip, jaws just hit the floor. They were looking at me like I had two heads.

DR: It’s strange. I think it’s a mixture of people who actually do, in some way, think I am Harry Potter and a number of people who can’t be bothered to know my name, which is fair enough. I mean, when you’ve been so identified with one character for so long, it’s natural that it should almost become an alias. But I’ve been encouraged lately to find that people are using my real name more often.

OLJ: You’re coming to New York for your second Broadway show, this time a musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. What is it that you love so much about New York?
DR: I love the city as a whole, absolutely, but I love Broadway. And the community on Broadway is something that you hear talked about and talked about by other English actors who’ve been over there. And you think, Well, OK. How could it be that different or that much better? Because they make it sound amazing. And then you come to New York, and you actually experience [Broadway], and it is like nothing else. We were across the road from Gypsy when we did Equus, and we were constantly hanging out with them after the show, and it was fantastic. And we went and met with the cast from The Seagull and Black Watch a couple of times. It’s very, very hard to actually describe why New York is so brilliant. But the community is amazing, and if you get involved with all those events, and you show how much you love and appreciate being there, you really get nothing but generosity and kindness back.

OLJ: I was surprised, actually, when I first moved to New York that these people are doing eight shows a week on Broadway, and yet on their night off, they’re going down to Marie’s Crisis or whatever their favorite cabaret bar is, and they’re still singing or they’re doing a benefit on Monday night. It’s so obvious that they’re in love with the craft.
DR: I’ve got to mention Sean Hayes, who is in Promises, Promises at the moment, which is a fantastic show. Up until he hosted the Tony Awards, he was rehearsing. The hours he was doing and the commitment he showed — because the Tony Awards is not just an awards show, it’s a massive Broadway party, and for him to be showing both huge commitment to that and his own show as well — was amazing.
OLJ: Speaking of which, it’s pretty impressive that you were shooting two films over an entire year and trained for Broadway at the same time. How did you handle that?
DR: Training for Broadway is an ongoing process. I’ve been doing dance lessons for about a year and a half, at this point, and singing for two and a half years. But the singing lessons actually stemmed from having to sing the Milky Bar [candy ad] theme tune at the very beginning of Equus. For some reason, I kept inventing a new tune every night. So they sent me off to this guy, Mark Meylan, who, among other people, taught Alan Rickman [Harry Potter’s Professor Snape] to sing. To use Alan’s words, “Mark Meylan teaches through sarcasm.” He sort of just abuses you as you get it right. He’s also just a lovely, kind, and brilliant man.

OLJ: When we met during the last big U.S. election, I was so excited to find out you’re passionate about politics. Have you been able to pay attention to politics in the last year, in between filming and training for Broadway?
DR: I’ve been trying to. Certainly, British politics have been fantastic. I’ve not been keeping up with America quite as much.
OLJ: I’ve paid a bit of attention to the politics of Nick Clegg [leader of the government’s coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats]. Are you a fan?
DR: I’m a very big fan. I’ve actually met him, and I have to say he’s a really, really good man. I don’t agree with everything he says, but of all the party leaders, he was the one I voted for. I thought he was a great speaker and very charismatic and very statesmanlike. And I’m glad that he is still in a prominent position in British politics because I think he could make a great contribution. He comes from absolutely the right place in terms of what his values are.

OLJ: Is there anything you would like to see for the LGBTQ community around the world, not just in the U.S. or the U.K.?
DR: Well, obviously, in general terms, yes. The world needs to become better educated, but I would defer to you slightly on that, J, because I would never profess to be an expert. What would be high on your priority list?
OLJ: Well, I was impressed that Obama declared June national LGBT month, because change begins with education. But he also extended benefits for same-sex partners of federal employees, which is a pretty big deal. And then the U.S. State Department has a new policy that allows transgender people to change the genders on their passport to match their identity, rather than their sex, which I’m completely relieved about. It’s a bit of a hassle when you go through an airport.
DR: That really does sound very important and vital to people who are making that transition, because otherwise you presumably, as you say, still have that moment in airports when you’re forced to offer a look of explanation or something, which is totally unnecessary.
OLJ: Exactly. A lot of people keep it light and make a joke of it just to get through. But there have been circumstances where it’s been a little bit more difficult than that. How about your involvement with the Trevor Project? How did that come about?
DR: My family and I have always thought it was best to focus our efforts rather than kind of spreading ourselves too thin across a lot of different organizations — just really picking things that you care about and really, really believe in, and Trevor absolutely was one of them. And when I got to have a tour of the New York call center, my admiration for the projects, but also for the place and the people, tripled. The systems they have in place, the actual way the call center works on a practical level, is so brilliant and efficient. It’s something I’m very, very proud to be able to be involved with.

OLJ: Many transsexuals are technically heterosexual women because gender and sexuality are different things. I wonder if we’re becoming more fluid in gender and sexuality as a whole?
DR: I think that with every generation, people become more open to those ideas and more aware and more educated. But it’s a really, really slow process. If you take any family with parents who are bringing their kids up in a narrow-minded way that includes homophobia, it will take a very profound moment of realization to change those deep-seated views.
OLJ: Do you think there’s a stigma with men who date transgender women, or is it just kept in the dark?
DR: I think to a certain extent, there would be a stigma — it depends on which person you’re talking to. But I certainly think in this day and age it would be less of an issue. I was on the [Harry Potter] film set when all that tabloid stuff happened with us hanging out last year and none of my friends gave me shit about it. Nobody took the piss. And the film set encompasses groups from every area of society, and I have to say it’s a pretty good cross-section. There was certainly no stigma…. There is a novelty factor, almost, with some people. I grew up in a world where I was aware of gay and transgender culture from a very young age, because I was brought up with a real mix of people around me. And people who have a huge, different range of experiences. But not everyone grows up in the same circumstances.
OLJ: That’s why you’re getting major points in tr-ny heaven for doing this interview, because it is exposure and it is important.

OLJ: Are we allowed to talk about your love life?
DR: Yes. It’s very uninteresting, but you’re more than welcome to.
OLJ: What’s happening?
DR: I was in a relationship with somebody for just about three years, and we broke up just shortly before we hit that mark. But [the breakup] was very amicable. At the moment, I’m just being single and running around chasing girls. [Laughs] I’m not getting too many responses, but, yes, I’m having a go. I’m also starting to go on dates for the first time. I’ve never really done it because all my girlfriends that I’ve ever met, I’ve met through work. So we got to know each other really well at work and then kind of ended up going out.
OLJ: What is it like to go on dates as Daniel Radcliffe?
DR: It’s quite nerve-racking because it’s not something I’m used to. Not that I struggle with talking, but I have this incredible anxiety about awkward silences and pauses and all that stuff, which I think everybody worries about. But I get quite wound up about that beforehand. I do actually manage to get quite chatty in the end — probably too much — and probably a bit boring. I just try to make girls laugh. That’s really the only thing I’m particularly good at on dates.
OLJ: Well that’ll give the ladies of New York City something to look forward to when you’re in town.
DR: [Laughs] I can’t pretend I haven’t thought about that a couple of times. I’ve already had people offering to set me up!
OLJ: Well, if you ever need any help, I have a few girlfriends.
DR: Oh, fantastic. You’ll have to introduce me.

[From Out Magazine]

Is there anything else to say? God, I love this kid. I know I say that every time, but he’s just such a lovely young man. My little pocket lover. And he’s single now! Sigh…

Out photos of Dan and Our Lady J (photos by Terry Richardson) courtesy of Out online.