Highlights
- Daniel Radcliffe, known for his role as Harry Potter, broke at least 70 wands while filming the movie series.
- Radcliffe admits to his habit of drumming with the wands, causing the paint to wear off and the props to break.
- Radcliffe denies breaking as many wands or glasses as rumored, stating that the numbers have been exaggerated.
Daniel Radcliffe has moved past his Harry Potter days, but fans definitely haven't. New details are always emerging about the cast's experiences filming the movie series, and although Daniel Radcliffe says he doesn't want to play Harry Potter again, he still looks back on the experience fondly. Yet Radcliffe was fighting his own demons in those days.
Daniel Radcliffe once admitted to a bad habit on the set of Harry Potter, and he took full responsibility for partying a bit too hard while filming was in progress. But by all accounts, Daniel did an excellent job on set and was the perfect Harry Potter. The crew seemingly had only one complaint about Daniel Radcliffe's behavior on set, and it had to do with his prop wands.
Daniel Radcliffe Broke At Least 70 Wands While Filming Harry Potter
Hardly anyone had a complaint about Daniel Radcliffe being cast as Harry Potter, and in fact, the director wanted Daniel for the role as soon as he saw him perform (though a different child actor was originally slated to play Harry Potter).
But during one on-set interview, it turned out that the prop crew had a complaint about Daniel, and that was his apparent abuse of Harry's wand.
Pierre Bohanna, Warner Bros. prop designer and "supervising modeler" for all of the films, had one complaint as Deathly Hallows wrapped up.
Speaking with Pierre, an interviewer found out that the prop department had to replace Daniel's Harry Potter wand at least 70 times during the seven films. Pierre noted, "We've probably produced over 70, 80 of those. He fiddles with them all the time and the paint wears off."
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When the interviewer approached Daniel with the "secret," he was shocked, asking "18?" and looking flabbergasted when he was corrected with eight-zero. Radcliffe then looked shocked, eyes wide, and said, "I thought you said eight!"
Processing the information, Daniel said, "Wooooow... I'm so sorry Pierre."
As Daniel processed the information, the video runs a sequence of videos of him with Harry's wand: poking it against the ground, tapping it against his palm, drumming against his leg.
While the video ran, Daniel could be heard admitting, "I don't know how I've managed to break that many wands. I know I drum with my wands a lot, I bang them against my leg and sort of do some rhythm. I really don't know, I just feel very bad..."
When asked whether he hadn't just been sneaking the props off the set, Radcliffe responded, "I really haven't been, I'm not the person selling them on eBay."
Later, however, once he processed the information, Daniel had a very different explanation for the statistic about how many wands he broke.
Daniel Radcliffe Swears He Didn't Break That Many Wands During Harry Potter
Fast forward a decade or so, and Daniel Radcliffe now swears he never broke 70-80 wands while on the set of Harry Potter. In WIRED's Autocomplete Interview, Daniel answered the question of how many Harry Potter wands he actually broke during filming.
The most-searched question was "How many times did Daniel Radcliffe break his wand," to which Daniel replied that it was a rumor he would "like to disperse." Daniel noted that he sometimes sees the "amazing fact" that he broke a hundred wands or "like 60 wands" on set.
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To that, Daniel said, "It's not that many, guys." He reiterated the story of drumming with his wand, which he agreed would break the prop down over time. However, Radcliffe maintains that everyone on set eventually broke some wands, but "it wasn't as many as that and I feel like everyone got through a few and I was probably 12 maximum—absolute maximum— of 20."
Daniel Also Says He Didn't Break As Many Pairs Of Harry's Glasses As Rumored, Either
Daniel has addressed the wand-breaking rumors multiple times already, in various interviews. Daniel discussed his Harry Potter prop problems during an appearance on Hot Ones, explaining that he did break some wands.
In that interview, Radcliffe also gave a more specific count of how many wands he snapped, noting, "So, once every three or four weeks, it would weaken to the point where it just snapped. So, I would say I was very sorry to the prop master, and he would give me a look like, ‘Please stop drumming'."
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Given the length of time the seven films were in progress, breaking one every few weeks seems like it could easily amount to 70 or more, of course. Still, Daniel denies breaking that many wands and he also doesn't think he broke that many pairs of glasses on set.
Daniel said the numbers were exaggerated, "The glasses one massively so, like I definitely didn't break the glasses that often at all, I don't think."
Of course, no one has made an exact claim (or offered any proof) as to how many pairs of glasses Radcliffe did break—including Daniel himself.
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