Daniel Radcliffe was 'terrified' of Harry Potter co-star Alan Rickman

Daniel Radcliffe was ‘terrified’ of Harry Potter co-star Alan Rickman

Daniel Radcliffe was “terrified” of Alan Rickman for the first three ‘Harry Potter’ movies and convinced he hated him.

The 34-year-old actor shot to fame alongside the likes of Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) in the blockbuster wizarding franchise, and he has admitted he felt “so intimated” by the cold and mysterious voice he used for Severus Snape, but eventually realised he was rooting for him.

Speaking on the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast, Daniel recalled: “I was so intimidated by Alan Rickman. How can you not be by that voice?

“Even hearing that voice you forget quite how low it was until it echoes through you. I was so intimidated by him for the first three movies. I was terrified by him and was like, ‘This guy hates me.’ Somewhere along the lines he saw that I really wanted to do this and work at it.”

Daniel was shown a clip of an interview with Alan – who sadly passed away in 2016 aged 69 – speaking his and his young co-stars’ praises that he hadn’t seen before and was left moved.

Alan said: “As much as I was doing it for seven weeks, they were doing it for 52 weeks.

“This was their life from 12 to 22. And you would watch it from the sidelines at times and throw the odd lifeline in because there was so little time for that. It’s only in recent years that I’ve managed to sit down in a cafe with Daniel in New York. He was at a theatre and I was at another. Huge pride to go to see him in the musical [‘How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying’]. How dare he be dancing as well as the New York dancers. He worked at it.”

He reacted: “Thanks for showing that. I’ve never seen that before. Thank you.”

The ‘Woman in Black’ star recalled the ‘Love Actually’ star leaving his family holiday in Canada to see Daniel act in a West End revival of ‘Equus’ in 2007, and he never missed a single stage show he starred in and was always so full of praise and advice.

Daniel recalled: “He cut short a vacation in Canada to come and see me in ‘Equus’.

“He saw every piece of stage work I did when he was alive.

“He would take me out afterwards and we would talk about it. He was one of the first people to say like, ‘You should look at voice coaching and investigate all this stuff.’ I am so lucky. To hear him say that is really lovely. Thank you for showing me that.”