Radcliffe: 'I'm no heartthrob'

2009-07-06 22:12

London - Daniel Radcliffe, the British actor who plays boy wizard Harry Potter, laughed off suggestions he has become a heartthrob on the eve of Tuesday's premiere of the sixth film of the series.

Radcliffe, 19, who won the role of Harry as a cherubic 11-year-old, has updated his image by appearing naked on stage in the play Equus between filming recent adaptations of JK Rowling's phenomenally successful books.

But he said most fans still think of him as the bespectacled Harry.

"If girls like me, it has not been proven yet," Radcliffe told journalists ahead of the London premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

"OK, I go to the red carpet in Tokyo and thousands of girls scream at me... but the me that sits in a darkened room watching cricket for eight hours with a bowl of pasta in his underwear and socks is not quite so attractive to girls."

Male hormones kick in

Radcliffe admitted in an interview that the male actors on the Potter set had felt male hormones kick in as they grew into adolescence on the set, telling Esquire magazine: "We were all unbelievably horny from about the third film to probably about the end of the fifth; then it all settled down."

But Emma Watson, who plays the geeky Hermione Granger in the films, said fans should forget any hopes of her, Radcliffe and Rupert Grint - who plays the gawky Ron Weasley in the films - pairing off with each other in real life.

"When we were younger, we were always going back and forth to school so it is not as if Rupert and Dan were the only boys I saw," the 19-year-old said at the news conference.

"I know it would be of huge interest to the media if we were hooking up. But we grew up together and we are just like siblings.

"There have not been any pairings like that (among the cast), I'm afraid."

The six Potter films so far have earned $4.5bn, making them one of the most successful film franchises in history.

- AFP