Daniel Radcliffe on first Tony nomination, how Broadway challenged him after “Harry Potter”

Daniel Radcliffe may always be best known for his starring role as “Harry Potter,” but now he’s also a Tony-nominated actor. Radcliffe stars alongside Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez in the revival of “Merrily We Roll Along.”

Stephen Sondheim’s musical tells the story of the friendship between a pair of composers and a theater critic friend and its development in reverse. Although the musical was Sondheim’s favorite, it flopped in its initial run, lasting only 16 performances.

The revival of “Merrily We Roll Along” is now available seven Tony Awardsincluding acting nominations for all three stars.

On being a Tony-nominated actor

Radcliffe said he is excited about the nominations. Coming off the Harry Potter series, he had no idea what would happen next – and he certainly didn’t expect to become a Tony-nominated actor.

“I don’t think I dare believe you,” said Radcliffe.

“Merrily We Roll Along” debuted on Broadway in October 2023 after a successful run off-Broadway. Radcliffe said his friendship with Groff and Mendez only grew throughout the season, as did their lives.

But Radcliffe isn’t letting the Tony Awards distract him. While he is “ambivalent” about the possibility of his own victory, the story is different when it comes to Groff.

“I’m going to burn the building down if Jonathan Groff doesn’t win. Everyone else in the category is amazing. That’s true, but I’m very biased here,” he said with a laugh.

Juggling his Broadway career and his personal life has had its challenges, especially as a new father.

Radcliffe and his longtime girlfriend, Erin Darke, who he met on the set of “Kill Your Darlings,” welcomed their first child in 2023. As a new father, Radcliffe’s touring schedule has allowed him to spend some time during the day with your child, but matinees complicate things.

“The two-show days are particularly difficult and sad because I leave in the morning and he’s obviously asleep when I get back,” Radcliffe said. “I feel like I see him the next morning and I’m like, ‘Oh, you’re a different human being. You’ve grown a lot in the last 24 hours.’”

Taking on challenging roles

Since “Harry Potter,” Radcliffe has taken on a series of bold roles on stage and film, including playing a flatulent corpse in “Swiss Army Man,” an evil billionaire in “Lost City” and Weird Al in the 2022 biopic Radcliffe said he has the unique and enviable privilege of being selective in his roles and that he doesn’t mind making big changes.

“I have the most fun and I’m at my best when I’m a little scared that everything will go wrong at any moment,” he said.

This proves to be especially true in theater. While it hasn’t often gone wrong for Radcliffe while performing “Merrily We Roll Along,” it recently did during his standout song, “Franklin Shepard Inc.” when he said he skipped two whole minutes of the song.

At that moment, Radcliffe felt like he “could disappear into a hole, but Groff and Mendez kept him going.

Radcliffe said a moment like this will ultimately help him stay sharp.

With his fifth show on Broadway, Radcliffe is something of a veteran on the scene. Radcliffe made his Broadway debut in 2008 in “Equus,” a play that follows a child psychiatrist treating a young man obsessed with horses. This role came after “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, the sixth film in the franchise. He said he felt welcome in New York after his “Harry Potter” days.

“Equus” was considered a bold choice as it deals with themes of religion and sacrifice and required Radcliffe to appear nude on stage. But Radcliffe said he knew that if he continued acting on stage he wouldn’t be able to choose an easy role. He needed to face something challenging enough to prove that he was really trying.

“At a time when the rest of the world was saying, ‘You’ll always be Harry Potter,’ it was Broadway that said, let’s see what else you can do,” Radcliffe said.

Radcliffe would challenge himself again in 2011 when he took on his first role in the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” which he initially found “intimidating.”

When he met with director Rob Ashford, Radcliffe was confident he could act and sing the role, but was adamant that dancing was out of the question. With 18 months of practice before the show opened, Radcliffe exceeded his expectations and said that performing “Brotherhood of Man” in the play was “one of the proudest things” he has ever done.

The 77th annual Tony Awards will air at 8pm EDT on Sunday, June 16, on CBS and Paramount+.