How did you feel about how Kill Your Darlings, What If, and Horns ended up doing at the box office?
Daniel Radcliffe: It is what it is. Kill Your Darlings did exactly what I expected it to do. A gay murder movie is never going to be, like, breaking box office records. And you know, it was an indie movie that was made for nothing, so there was never a pressure for it to do anything.
F Word, if it had been allowed to be called The F Word… I actually think the title change makes a huge difference. I think F Word is a fantastic title. I think What If is, you know, not a fantastic title. It’s a title. It’s fine. It’s words. It’s funny that kind of thing can make a difference.
You’ve got to bear in mind, like, those films all came at a time when people were like, “Can he even act? Will he even do anything after Potter?” And so those films did what I needed [them] to do. I was good in them, and they showed different sides of me. I can’t control what happens at the box office. Frankenstein, I don’t know if it’s going to do anything. Who knows?
All I can do is do my best work in the movie that I can, and promote the hell out of it as much as I can. What people go and spend money to see is up to them. My friends have a great motto, which is, “I’d rather be nine people’s favorite thing than 100 people’s ninth favorite thing.” I feel like that’s absolutely true.
You’re nominally attached to several independent films that don’t yet have financing — Brooklyn Bridge with Brie Larson, Young Americans with Dane DeHaan, a Yakuza thriller called Tokyo Vice.
Daniel Radcliffe: I’ve learned over the years that it is harder to get these films made, but they are the things that I love doing. I never want to become one of those actors who’s on set and hates their fucking job. So I’ve got to keep myself entertained.
Even among actors that I really like as people, and they’re good people, there’s a tendency en masse when they all get together to moan and complain. The worst day on a film set is still better than the best day on most jobs, in my opinion. I’m not saying actors aren’t entitled to have bad days. But, like, you never see one of the camera guys come in and be like, “Oh, I’m just having a terrible day. I’m not sure if I can do this today.” It’s like, fuck off. He’d be fired. And actors, because our job has an emotional bent to it, they take it as an excuse to sort of be like, This is all therapy. And it’s not. If you’re having a bad day, get on with your job, because you having a bad day can affect everyone around you.
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