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Daniel Radcliffe: I Get Mocked For Nude Scenes

Daniel Radcliffe thinks a particular question asked of Demi Moore, by spoof interview Dennis Pennis, applies equally to him. “Under the right circumstances, if it wasn’t gratuitous and it was tastefully done, would I consider keeping my clothes ON in a movie?” He laughs. “It’s the thing everyone takes the p*** out of me for – even my parents. Last year I made ‘Kill Your Darlings’, ‘Horns’ and ‘What If’, and I’m naked in all of them.”

Yahoo has sat down with Radcliffe to talk about the last of those films: What If, which is gearing up for release this week. In it, he and co-star Zoe Kazan go skinny-dipping on a Toronto beach. It’s the latest in a string of nudity for Radcliffe, which started with his turn on stage in Equus. He even got his kit off in the final Harry Potter movie. “I don’t balk at it,” he explains. “I think there’s something about having done it on stage at 17. Stage is much more exposing than film, so I barely even register it when I read it in a script.”

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But he insists he’s not just looking for any excuse. “If it’s a moment that is taking me out of the story, I will go, ‘Why is he getting naked? That seems a bit gratuitous.’” He cites a scene from the second series of ‘A Young Doctor’s Notebook’ as an example of him putting his foot down. “They were like, ‘Let’s just do the naked embarrassment gag,’ and I said, ‘I’ve done a lot of this recently, guys.’ In the end we came up with a much funnier, much weirder joke. I’m aware it’s becoming a theme, so I’m starting to make sure it’s only being used where necessary.”

It’s small wonder such demands are taken in stride by the 25-year-old actor. When he did Equus, he says, he wanted to prove himself as a serious actor. His choices since the end of the Harry Potter saga suggest he’s not done exploring. ‘What If’ is his first big screen comedy, a witty tale about two friends who struggle to remain in the friend zone. It was his first experience with improvisation.

“We were lucky in that we had a fantastic script to begin with, but we’d generally do two or three takes exactly as it was in the script and then we’d go off and the director, Michael Dowse, would let us do whatever we wanted,” Radcliffe remembers. “It made the film a pleasure because most days your job was to come to set and try and make Zoe Kazan or Adam Driver laugh.”

He says he usually gets dark material sent his way, but comedy is absolutely his favourite. “It’s probably what I watch the most and I’d been on the lookout for a good one to do.” By page two of the script for What If, Radcliffe knew this was the one. “My character, Wallace, is correcting Zoe’s character, Chantry, on her pronunciation of a word. I was just like, ‘Ah, I’m that guy.’”

At one point the characters discuss a Fool’s Gold Sandwich – an entire loaf of bread, smothered in peanut butter and jam and piled high with bacon – and Radcliffe’s fondness for junk food ensured he had to try it. “It was amazing. They made some on set for the montage, in which it’s being made in the movie, and I don’t understand why but it was only me and one other guy on set who were excited to try it. Everyone else was being healthy and, frankly, gutless about it.”

The film shot in Toronto, a perfect place for Radcliffe to embrace his passion for extreme eating, “It has probably the best burger place I’ve ever been to,” he reveals. “It’s called Burger’s Priest, and they have a cheeseburger where both of the buns are grilled cheese sandwiches. It’s obscene. But it’s really good.”

Radcliffe has recently finished shooting a big-budget take on Frankenstein, in which he plays the hunchback Igor to James McAvoy’s titular mad scientist. The role required him to wear shoulder length hair extensions, and he was glad when they were taken out. “Aside from anything else, I won’t be answering questions about them anymore.”

But he did enjoy the distraction. He remembers a story he heard from Potter co-star Helena Bonham Carter, about a time she wore mismatched shoes on a red carpet, knowing that journalists would think of nothing else to ask about. “I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s brilliant,’” he laughs. “I’m going to do that going forward. Just wear very Lady Gagaish, outlandish outfits to everything.”

‘What If’ is in cinemas now.