No one could accuse 25-year-old Daniel Radcliffe of taking the easy road after his rise to international superstardom in eight Harry Potter films. He’s challenged himself on Broadway and chosen difficult roles in indie films such as last year’s Kill Your Darlings in which he played Alan Ginsberg. Radcliffe’s latest film, Horns, directed by Alexandre Aja and based on the book by Joe Hill, required him to go to some very dark places. He plays Ig Perrish in the film, a young man who has been accused of murdering his longtime love, Merrin Williams (Juno Temple). Everyone in his small town believes he is guilty and he is completely ostracized. Ig awakens one morning to find he’s grown a pair of horns. Armed with the supernatural powers that his horns possess, he sets out to find his girlfriend’s true killer. Horns also features Max Minghella, Joe Anderson, Kathleen Quinlan, Heather Graham, David Morse, James Remar, and Kelli Garner. I attended a press conference just before the film’s Halloween release at which we talked to Daniel Radcliffe about this haunting story.
On what attracted him to this project
The thing that attracted me to it was the fact that it was so bold and so heartbreaking. I’ve always really enjoyed magical realism and that’s how I viewed this script — this whole world is very, very grounded in reality with this one extraordinary insane thing happening in the middle of it.
On wearing the actual horns in the film
They looked really normal really quickly, that’s what I thought was remarkable about them. You see a line in the script that says the guy has horns and you think, okay, in my imagination that’s fantastic but how will they really look? So the first time I saw them, it was a combination of relief and excitement. When you have something stuck to your head, it can go either way. I think the word “organic” is one of my most hated, over-used words but the horns really do look organic — they look like they’re made of organic material and are actually coming from my head!
On the scene in which his character makes a bunch of reporters viciously attack each other
I won’t lie, I took no small pleasure in watching that, it was a moment of catharsis for me! I promise I don’t think of you all in that way, but if I could hand pick five or six journalists from the UK, well… It’s great that the film has some fun moments because it also takes many dark, heavy turns.
On whether he could relate to his character’s status as an outsider
It has definitely been a theme in my life — the gap between how I am perceived and who I know myself to be. Not that anyone has ever thought that I killed someone! I never want to sit here and be the actor who’s whining about being famous, but there are definitely elements of it that are isolating. As many opportunities and fantastic things that come into your life, there are also things you have to struggle against.
On how much he relied on the director to set the right tone for the film
I think that was probably Alex’s biggest challenge on this film. It’s very nice as an actor to be able to go, “I’ll just follow your lead, you tell me what you want, I’ll be guided by you.” I had such trust in him as a director. There was never a moment, for example, where I thought something should be played really funny and Alex felt it should be dark. Thankfully we were on the same page.
On his performance on The Tonight Show the night before rapping “Alphabet Aerobics” by Blackalicious
Someone asked me in an interview ages to ago to tell them something people don’t know about me. That was getting harder and harder to do so I said, “Well, I know all the words to ‘Alphabet Aerobics’ by Blackalicious.” Fallon’s producer called me up and asked if I could do it on the show. I was literally shaking with adrenaline!
On working with snakes
They were fantastic! I didn’t know going in if I was comfortable with snakes but it turns out I’m extremely comfortable with them! I may be completely projecting human emotions onto these creatures but I became completely convinced that they was very affectionate towards the end. You know, snakes aren’t cold-blooded. This is my favorite word I learned on the shoot, they’re poikilothermic, which means they can’t control their body temperature so whatever the temperature is outside, that’s where they’ll be. Which means they’re freezing and you’re really warm so they just love you, they want to hug you! I really liked them. We had one scene with 100 live snakes which was awesome.
On whether there were parts of this role he found particularly challenging
I think actors are lucky because we have a job that becomes more fun as it becomes more challenging. There were lots of things that were difficult in this film — I’m thinking of the break-up scene. It’s not so much, “Oh, will I be able to do that?” as it is, “We can’t not do that right — that scene has to be perfect!”
On shooting the sex scene with Juno Temple
It’s easier when you get on with the person. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve never had to do a scene like that with someone I didn’t like. Of course, in Kill Your Darlings, the man who my character has sex with was not a principal character in the film so it was quite odd — essentially you’ve just met for the very first time and that’s what you’re doing! There are emotionally intense sex scenes in movies and then there are just lovely, happy sex scenes and that’s what this one was. We were listening to Bowie!