Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe names Gary Oldman, Imelda Staunton as key influences

July 6, 3:48 PMBooks on Film ExaminerConnie Ann Kirk

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In a new interview by Geoff Boucher in the Los Angeles Times, actor Daniel Radcliffe names fellow actors, Gary Olman and Imelda Staunton, as key influences on his work.  The star of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, due in theaters July 15 and based on the novel by J. K. Rowling, has had the unique opportunity to work at a young age with the best and brightest of Britain's thespians.

Over the years, these actors have included the late Richard Harris, Dame Maggie Smith, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Richard Griffiths, Alan Rickman, and Michael Gambon, to name a few.

Of Oldman and Staunton, Mr. Radcliffe says,

"To me those are the two that are just in the firmament.  All of them, everyone, has been brilliant, but those are the two that mean something special to me.”
 

Gary Oldman plays the role of Sirius Black in the films.  A friend of Harry's father from their youth, Sirius Black adopts Harry as his godson but then meets a tragic end before Harry is of age. Black is seen as a positive but mixed influence on the young wizard's development as a hero.

On the other hand, Imelda Staunton plays Dolores Umbridge.  Umbridge is, by all accounts, one of the most disliked of the unfavorable characters in the books and films.  A member of the Ministry, Umbridge takes control of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and decrees new and unfair rules on a daily basis. She is cruel to Harry--in one scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, he must write sentences over and over as punishment, but these lines get cut into the backs of his hands as he does so.

The comradery with Gary Oldman is perhaps easy for outsiders to see, given the relationship between the actors' two characters--Sirius Black and Harry Potter.  The benefit Dan Radcliffe received from working with Imelda Staunton may not be as readily understood by audiences.  Work on set, time, cooperation, compassion, and teaching, mutual understanding and skill all likely play into Mr. Radcliffe's reasons. 

He has certainly had a wide choice of talent to serve as his mentors in the acting profession.

[Photos:  TOP:  From left, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe attend a photocall to launch the new film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, at Claridges Hotel, London, Monday July 6, 2009. (AP Photo/Ian West/PA).  BOTTOM:  Promotional poster, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince / Warner Bros.].
 

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