Daniel Radcliffe reveals what he did to get into character for his new movie Imperium and it’s amazing.
Even though Daniel Radcliffe could probably never work another day in his life after starring in the Harry Potter franchise, the seasoned actor is always looking to push the limits of art, creativity and filmmaking. In his next movie, Imperium, Radcliffe plays an FBI agent who goes undercover as a neo-Nazi. However, this may have been Radcliffe most difficult role to date.
According to an interview with Fast Company, Radcliffe reveals what interested him in the script, how he played such a layered character, and what it felt like to say racist dialogue.
Radcliffe begins by explaining the type of movie scripts he comes across. He explains, “Often in these kinds of scripts you’ll have a character that’s set up as being smart and that’s how he overcomes obstacles in the first two-thirds of the film, but then in the last act, it’s just, ‘Ah fuck it, give him a gun.’ And it’s nice to see a script that has the balls to keep him unarmed and using his brain until the end.”
Radcliffe also had several discussions with director Dan Ragussis about how to portray his character. Radcliffe wanted to show the audience that the character was multi-dimensional having two distinct personalities, a neo-Nazi and a FBI agent. He says, “Something I deferred to Dan [Ragussis] on all the time was working out how good Nate is at hiding his feelings. Because you want to show the audience stuff that you don’t want to show the character you’re in the scene with, so it’s sort of trying to find that line of showing I’m shit-scared in a way that they can see it without the guy I’m with being like, ‘Hey, you’re obviously shit-scared—presumably you’re FBI.’ It was hard to make sure you know where he is emotionally at all times but make it believable that the people he’s with wouldn’t.”
However, for Daniel Radcliffe the hardest part of making the movie for Radcliffe was the racist dialogue. He explains, “No swear words can offend me but when you get to the racial stuff, it’s like, oh yeah, this is the last bastion of what is really truly horrible and offensive. There’s a reason those words are powerful. Even though you know that everybody knows and understands that you’re acting and this in no way reflects on you, it’s still just horrible to say some of this stuff, so I found myself going up to some of the actors between takes and apologizing: ‘I know you know, and I know I don’t have to, but I just feel like I need to.’”
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