Daniel Radcliffe once gave an excellent response when he was, rather awkwardly, asked by an interviewer what it was like to be earning more than his parents while still a teen.
Radcliffe rose to fame when he was just 12 years old after he bagged the role of the titular wizard in the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone back in 2001 and played the character in seven more movies ending with 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.
You don’t need me to tell you that the Harry Potter movie franchise was a huge success - in fact, it’s the fourth highest grossing film series of all time pulling in $7.7 billion (£6,345,878,000).
Advert
The movie franchise also made Radcliffe one of the world’s highest paid actors.
According to reports, Radcliffe was paid $1 million (£824,140) for the first Harry Potter film and saw his salary increase with each sequel, ending up with him being paid a whopping $50 million (£41,207,000) for the final two movies in the franchise - not bad for a lad who started out when most of us were just trying to make it through double maths on a Thursday afternoon.
A resurfaced clip shows a still-young Radcliffe give a pretty smart answer when he’s asked how he and his parents feel about his newly minted status.
In the clip, a youthful-looking Radcliffe is told that he’s the ‘richest teenager in Britain’, which appears to be news to him as he replied: “Really? Oh right. OK.” Cool as a cucumber, isn’t he?
He’s then asked: “What’s it like to earn more than your parents?”
After letting out a little chuckle, he responded: “It’s… erm… we sort of have a bit of a laugh about it, to be honest.
“We don’t… you know… it’s not something we take particularly seriously. I don’t rub it in their faces or anything.”
The incredibly modest star has previously said he didn’t feel he deserved all the money he earned for his role in the Harry Potter movies.
In a 2012 interview with The Times, he said: "If somebody asked me, 'Did you think you deserve that money?' No, of course, I didn’t. 'But would you have taken it anyway?' Of course. I happened to have found this industry where people get paid stupid amounts of money. That’s the reality. I feel almost guilty for having done so well out of Potter."
Unlike so many child stars before him, Radcliffe has gone on to have a successful movie career as an adult with roles in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Escape from Pretoria and the wonderfully bizarre Guns Akimbo.
His later movie successes are said to have bolstered his net worth to around £95 million.
Topics: Harry Potter, Money, TV and Film, Daniel Radcliffe
Claire Reid