If you were looking forward to the day when Harry Potter posted on Instagram or joined in on a TikTok trend, we have bad news. Actor Daniel Radcliffe, 31, recently revealed that he might never get on social media.
While promoting his latest film Escape From Pretoria, Radcliffe made an appearance on the YouTube Channel First We Feast. Host Sean Evans inquired about his lack of an online presence—unless you count his fan accounts—while the pair indulged in spicy hot wings.
In between wing-induced head rushes, Radcliffe mentioned the extent of his social media efforts: one time, he “thought” about signing up for Twitter. But then decided it was best to not.
“I would love to say there’s some sort of intellectual, well-thought-out reason for this because I considered getting a Twitter and I 100 percent know that if I did, you all would be waking up to stories like, ‘Dan Radcliffe gets into fight with random person on Twitter,'” he said. “When I was younger, not anymore thank God, I would like to look up comments about myself on the internet and read s— like that.”
From his perspective, getting on social media breeds a variety of unhealthy habits, be it getting into virtual fights with strangers or just logging on to find anonymous compliments about yourself.
Besides, he doesn’t think he could handle the emotional tool Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, or any other social media platform takes on a person of his celebrity.
“I don’t honestly think I’m mentally strong enough but right now I think I’m all right with that.”
Radcliffe has spoken out before about his alcohol use and how he drank to cope with the pressures of fame when he was younger.
“The quickest way to forget about the fact that you were being watched was to get very drunk. Then as you get very drunk, you become aware, ‘Oh, people are watching more now because now I’m getting very drunk, so I should probably drink more to ignore that more,’” he told Sam Jones on his podcast, Off Camera with Sam Jones.
His fellow Harry Potter costars have similar social media views. While Emma Watson—who played the beloved know-it-all Hermonie Granger—has 59 million followers on her Instagram, her account is not active. Instead, her bio reads, “Emma’s official Instagram page is currently dormant and is not being updated,” and below it is a link to the organization Black Lives Matter. Rupert Grint is also inactive. His 3.7 million Instagram followers have not seen a post from the actor who played Ronald Weasly since November, and his feed boasts a mere three posts.
While Radcliffe may not be posing for selfies or going Facebook Live, he still manages to stay in the spotlight by appearing on podcasts and other shows to promote his recent work. Other than Escape From Pretoria—a thriller based on a real-life prison break—Radcliffe has starred in the TV series Miracle Workers and the TV movie, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend.
