Potter Is Blind To The Dark Side

As the star of a wildly popular film franchise, you’d think Daniel Radcliffe would be well-versed in pop culture phenomenons. But as it turns out, Harry Potter himself hasn’t seen “Star Wars”!

In an interview with Moviefone, Radcliffe reveals that he’s never seen the 1977 space opera. “Yeah, I know. It’s really bad,” he says of the gap in his film knowledge.

The 22-year-old actor explains, “I saw 'The Phantom Menace,' and everyone's like, ‘You saw that one! You didn't see the originals?!’ I know! I was ten! I didn't know any better!”

But despite never having seen the films – of which Radcliffe says, “I'm sure they're amazing and incredible” – the actor does have a criticism. “I think there is a slightly more balanced split between the sexes in the fan base of 'Potter,'” Radcliffe postulates. “I associate 'Star Wars' as being a predominantly male thing. And I think 'Potter' is split more evenly.”

He also notes that “because 'Potter' started out as a book, it's created a generation of literary nerds in a way that 'Star Wars' perhaps didn't.”

Despite the differences, Radcliffe says he sees where the comparison comes from. “I do think of 'Potter' as being this generation's 'Star Wars,'" the actor says. "It's something that an entire generation has lost themselves in and it's a meticulously created, detailed world.”

And Radcliffe  loves the major thing that “Star Wars” and “Harry Potter” have in common: nerds. “Nerds are the best things in the world,” he says, “I think of myself as a nerd.”

And this nerd won’t be a “Star Wars” virgin for long – someone is getting him the new Blu-rays.

“I know that I would love them because I'm a geek,” he says, “so I would definitely get into them.”

Harry Boozer

Now that Daniel Radcliffe's decade-long turn as "Harry Potter" is drawing to a close, the actor is revealing some personal details about life behind the scenes at Hogwarts. The 21-year-old says in an interview with GQ UK that by the time he was filming "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," he was drinking to deal with the fame.“I became reliant on [alcohol] to enjoy stuff … There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person’s lifestyle that really isn’t suited to me," the actor reveals in the interview according to U.K. paper the Telegraph.

Although he'd begun drinking whiskey on the set of his 2009 film, Radcliffe says he was able to avoid paparazzi evidence. “I really got away with that," he says, "because there were so many instances when a paparazzi shot like that could have been taken."

He soon realized that something had to change, and as of last August gave up alcohol altogether.

"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," Radcliffe admits. "I'd just rather sit at home and read, or talk to somebody that makes me laugh. There's no shame in enjoying the quiet life. And that's been the realization of the past few years for me."

Besides, he says, "I'm actually enjoying the fact that I can have a relationship with my girlfriend where I'm really pleasant and not f--ing up totally all of the time."