It's hard to believe, but it's been nearly 20 years since the big screen Harry Potter franchise was introduced to the world. Taking advantage of the popularity of the book series, Hollywood was quick to adapt the Wizarding World into live-action, and Chris Columbus' Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone had its world premiere in November 2001. Given this special anniversary, we are guaranteed to hear a lot of actors and filmmakers reflect on their experiences from the movies in the coming months – for example Daniel Radcliffe talking about the time he performed what evidently still stands as the biggest stunt of his career.
Entertainment Tonight recently interviewed Daniel Radcliffe, who is promoting the upcoming season of Miracle Workers on TBS, and during the conversation the actor discussed a standout memory from the making of 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Talking about his favorite scene to film, he reflected on a long slide he did down a roof in the making of the blockbuster, and how it totally terrified him on the day. Said Radcliffe,
They let me do the craziest stunt I was ever able to do. It was like a 40 foot fall down on a roof. I was on a wire, but I was properly in free fall. It was only there to catch me at the end. And I was absolutely terrified. I worked a lot with the stunt department by then, and they were like, 'You can do this. Do you want to try it?' And I said yes. But then I got up there and was absolutely terrified.
For those who don't recall, the sequence in question here comes from the first task in the tri-wizard tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Along with the other wizards in the competition, Harry is flying on his broom above Hogwarts, and he is surprised when a dragon flies up from below him. He is knocked from his ride and does a slide down the roof that leaves him clinging to the building for his life. You can watch it in the clip below (you'll find the stunt at the 2:40 mark in the video)
While performing that scene would have been a simple feat for a trained stuntman, clearly it freaked Daniel Radcliffe out – but it is cool to watch the moment and know that it was really the 15-year-old actor doing that slide.
Continuing, Radcliffe noted that he actually had to do the stunt multiple times – but in retrospect seems to acknowledge that it was a rare opportunity on set, and that he's not likely to do it again in his career. He explained,
That was one of the things and we did it like two or three times, but it was for the fourth film. I've realized since that that was very special circumstances in that set and I will never be allowed to do something like that again.
If hearing about this scene and recognizing the anniversary now has you itching to revisit the wizarding world of Harry Potter, the good news is that it's very easy to do so. In addition to being available on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD, you can purchase all of the movies digitally, and find them all streaming on Peacock.
