Daniel Radcliffe on Playing Adult Harry: ‘My Inclination Is to Say No’

TCA 2014: The actor discusses J.K. Rowling’s new story featuring an older version of his famous boy wizard

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Oleg Nikishin/Epsilon/Getty Images

Daniel Radcliffe doesn’t seem too interested in jumping back into the role that made him famous — even if Harry Potter were older.

On Tuesday, author J.K. Rowling released a new short story online portraying the Quidditch World Cup and one very famous person in the stands — wizard (and the Chosen One) Harry Potter as an adult.

Radcliffe, who was speaking via satellite from New York during Tuesday’s Television Critics Association press tour in support of his Ovation series, “A Young Doctor’s Notebook,” addressed whether he would reprise the role of an adult Harry.

Also read: J.K. Rowling Posts New Harry Potter Story, With Adult Harry at the Quidditch World Cup

“I don’t know, my inclination is to say no,” he told TheWrap.

He later said, “I mean, he’s at least 12 years older than I am now. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about that for a long time.”

Radcliffe said that he doubts that he will ever have to actually make the choice, at least not based on the short story released Tuesday.

“It’s not even hypothetical in the moment, really,” he said. “What she’s written — I haven’t read it yet, I am going to read it — is, from what I understand, a very short piece, not as itself worthy of being adapted to film.”

Also read: Jon Hamm: ‘Young Doctor’s Notebook’ Co-Star Daniel Radcliffe ‘Doesn’t Have to Work This Hard’

Radcliffe stars alongside “Mad Men’s” Jon Hamm on “A Young Doctor’s Notebook,” which returns for a second season on Ovation in the late summer or early fall.

In a somewhat related topic, Hamm actually does play an older version of Radcliffe’s character in the surrealistic series set at a solitary Russian hospital in 1918.

“It’s incredibly flattering, He suggested me to play the young him,” Radcliffe said of his casting — even though he’s so much shorter than Hamm. “The show’s so crazy anyway and the audience won’t care about [the height difference]. If they get hung up on that, then there’s more problems they’ll have with the show.”

Also read: Wizarding World of Harry Potter Opens New Diagon Alley Attraction, Fans Overwhelm Park

Currently, Radcliffe is starring on Broadway in “The Cripple of Inishman.”

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