Daniel Radcliffe says Harry Potter fame drove him to drink

daniel radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe has given an insight into the true price of worldwide fame by admitting that he briefly became dependent on alcohol.

“I became so reliant on [ alcohol ] to enjoy stuff,” he said during a recent interview.

“There were a few years there when I was just so enamoured with the idea of living some sort of famous person's lifestyle that really isn't suited to me.”

Radcliffe, who’s played Harry Potter since he was 11 years old and is worth an estimated £48m, revealed that he started drinking during filming of 2009's Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince .

He’s put that behind him, though, and hasn’t touched alcohol for almost a year, since August 2010.

“As much as I would love to be a person that goes to parties and has a couple of drinks and has a nice time - that doesn't work for me. I do that very unsuccessfully.”

The final, eighth Potter film, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 , opens 15 July. Co-star Rupert Grint admits “it hasn’t really sunk in yet” that the films are finally coming to an end.

“We finished a year ago now but it was a really sad day,” the actor says.

“We all cried and I wasn't expecting that. I have felt a little lost really without it because it's been such a continuous part of my daily routine for ten years.”

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.