Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe on love. loss and Diet Coke

Jul 8 2009

"Just as I was really sad when Sirius died because I love working with Gary (Oldman) and he's a little bit of a mentor for me and he always has been."

Considering the acting education he's been given by working with stars such as Dame Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes and Alan Rickman - who reportedly cut a holiday short to help Daniel with his role in Equus on Broadway - it's no surprise to hear the young actor has decided against continuing his studies at university, and will go into acting full-time.

In his first post-Potter role, he's set to play photographer Dan Eldon, who was killed in Somalia, aged 22, in The Journey Is The Destination - funding permitting.

"It is a long way off at the moment, but it's potentially a very exciting thing for me.

"The greatest quality I think people can have as actors is their fearlessness and their willingness to try something even if they think they might fail, to try it anyway it's that kind of fearlessness that I aspire to certainly."

But does Daniel have any desire to play a bad guy for once? "I'm not sure how many baddies are five foot five, but still I'd like to play one very much indeed. If you meet any producers, tell them I have a wonderful evil stare!"

EXTRA TIME - DANIEL RADCLIFFE

:: London-born Daniel is the son of casting agent Marcia Gresham and literary agent Alan Radcliffe.

:: His first acting role was as a young David Copperfield in a BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel in 1999.

:: In 2007, he played Rudyard Kipling's son, who died in the First World War, in the ITV drama My Boy Jack.

:: Daniel suffers from a mild form of dyspraxia, which affects his hand-eye co-ordination, so he can't swim or ride a bike.

:: In the first Harry Potter film, he played a practical joke on co-star Robbie Coltrane, which earnt him a reputation as a joker, but he insists he's never done anything like it since.

:: In the world outside of Hogwarts, Daniel and Tom Felton, who plays Malfoy, are good friends. They even go to the cricket together.