Daniel Radcliffe just opened up about turning to alcohol to forget his HP fame

‘I really struggled’

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows may have come out over a decade ago, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve moved on from the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

In fact, us millennials are probably still as hooked as we were when the series was actually still going.

Too many of us own wands, chocolate frogs and clothes emblazoned with our Hogwarts House crest (we’re ALL Gryffindor, OK?) and we can all admit to having debated HP theories deep into the night.

It’s hard therefore to remember that the actors have their own lives, with the three leading stars speaking openly about the realities of having fame thrust upon them at such a young age.

This is something that lead actor Daniel Radcliffe spoke out about this week during an appearance on Off Camera With Sam Jones.

Describing his fame, the 29-year-old recalled: ‘I really struggled with particularly in my late teens when I was going out to places for the first time where you would feel - again it could have largely been in my head but - you would feel watched when you went into a bar, when you went into a pub.

'Then, in my case, the quickest way of forgetting about the fact that you were being watched was to get very drunk and then as you get very drunk, you become aware that, “oh people are watching more now because now I’m getting very drunk, so I should probably drink more to ignore that more.”’

He continued: ’Part of the thing is the expectation that you should just be delighted all the time. You have a great job, you’re wealthy, you don’t have a right to not be excited about the thing all the time. I think that’s a pressure as well. You suddenly start to feel, "Man, if I am just feeling some human emotion of sadness, does that mean I’m doing this wrong? Am I not good at being famous?"'

How did he get through it? 'I have been unbelievably lucky with the people I had around me at certain times in my life,’ he explained. 'I met some really key people, some actors some of them not, who just gave me great advice and really cared for me. Ultimately it was just my own decision. I woke up one morning after a night, going, "This is probably not good."'

Harry Potter fans are coming out in force to praise Daniel for speaking out on the subject.