Daniel Radcliffe: Our Favorite Comic-Con Moments
[Movie still from Now You See Me 2, Lionsgate]
Daniel Radcliffe has come a long way since the days of Harry Potter. The young actor has moved on from the franchise that made him, experimenting with on-stage nudity in Equus, small screen drama/comedy in A Young Doctor’s Notebook, action in Now You See Me 2, and especially horror, with movies such as Horns and Victor Frankenstein.
As well as becoming known as an accomplished actor, Radcliffe has also gained something of a reputation for being a whole lot of fun off-screen, as well. He has pranked paparrazi by wearing the same outfit every day, to make photos useless. He’s rapped on late night television, played sticky balls with Jimmy Fallon and talked about naked bongo playing. It’s not surprising, then, that he’s had some great moments at comic conventions, as well—and we’ve wrapped up some of our favorites.
As Spider-Man
In 2014, Radcliffe attended comic-con for the first time to promote his fantasy-horror movie, Horns. Amazingly, the star had never attended the event for Harry Potter, so for his first year, he was already a massive celebrity. What’s a young man who wants to walk the convention floor to do? In Radcliffe’s case, he decided to go incognito as Spider-Man! He dressed up in a full Spider-suit and wandered the con without anyone knowing…before heading off to promote Horns, where legions of fans waited to greet him.
Hall H Happy Birthday
Once he took off the Spider-suit, Radcliffe joined 6,500 fans at Hall H (the biggest room at comic-con) for the Horns panel, which launched with the entire audience singing him Happy Birthday. Radcliffe’s 25th birthday was two days prior, so when the panel host mentioned it, of course everybody joined in for a song. Radcliffe was, of course, delighted!
The next year, Radcliffe was back at SDCC for round two, this time alongside veteran actor (and convention-goer) James McAvoy, his co-star in Victor Frankenstein. The two had an amazing panel, delighting fans with their constant banter – that quickly took a sexual turn! The jokes started with how Radcliffe’s character is abused by McAvoy’s, and quickly devolved into hilarious double entendres. Of course, the two also talked about the movie at length, but ended things with McAvoy pinning Radcliffe (happily) up against the wall. As the host says, it was the moment that a million slash-fics were born!
Professing Love For Every Person In The Room At London CC
Of course, Radcliffe has been to more than just San Diego Comic-Con (although not as many as you might expect, given how famous he is!). He also promoted Horns at London Comic Con, where his best moment was to profess love for the entire audience. After they erupted in cheering for his entrance, one attendee shouted out “We love you," to which Radcliffe replied, “I love you too! All of you, individually!” Of course, when marriage proposals were then shouted out as well, he had to let them down gently, saying, “I really can’t marry all of you.” It’s yet another great moment that shows how much he loves his fans and how much they love him right back.
When He Just GETS It
Of course, one of the best things about seeing Radcliffe at conventions isn’t just that he’s funny, and charismatic, and willing to interact with his fans and mix up serious answers with flirtatious and humorous ones. It’s that, time and time again, he shows that he really gets it. He understands the drive behind a convention and exactly what makes them as wonderful as they are. He described it at London Comic Con as “the overwhelming spirit of everybody being able to celebrate whatever it is they love without having to in any way apologize for how much they love it is the best…it’s a wonderful experience."
A year later, in a different interview for SDCC, he expanded on the same topic: “I feel like most of the time, studios are competing to make the most money, but at Comic-Con, everyone is competing to see who can make the strongest connection with their own fans. And that's cool. I can definitely associate with being a fan of books and poetry and being made to feel like that's a bit weird or whatever, but whatever you're passionate about, you don't have to apologize for being passionate about it."
