The young wizard with the scar on his forehead faces unprecedented responsibilities in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”. A painful opus for Daniel Radcliffe, who believes that his performance is not up to the evolution of the hero.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince : the beginning of the hunt for Horcruxes
In 2009, the saga based on JK Rowling’s novels draws closer to the final showdown between the bespectacled wizard and Voldemort with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The influence of the dark mage continues to grow in this sixth installment and now has an impact on the Muggle world.
In order to successfully infiltrate the halls of Hogwarts, Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) tasks Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) with a mission. To protect his students, Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) asks Professor Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) to resume his place in the establishment. He also informs Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) of the existence of Horcruxes, objects in which his greatest enemy has concealed parts of his soul. Their destruction could cause the death of the mage.
At the same time, the hero gets his hands on the Half-Blood Prince book, which obsesses him and will have major consequences on the events to come. Of the dangers and discoveries that arise as Harry, Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) make coping with the pangs of adolescence…
A painful film for Daniel Radcliffe
Harry must therefore assume increasingly heavy responsibilities in this sixth opus, the second directed by David Yates after Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. A feature film that Daniel Radcliffe hates to see again, believing that he delivers here his weakest performance in the franchise. Asked by the DailyMail in 2014, the actor confided:
I’ve never enjoyed watching myself in a movie, but I force myself to. I think it stems from not realizing that I don’t have to go to premieres and see the movie – it’s something I just realized. I always went there and sat with everyone to watch the movie.
And that’s why it’s hard to watch a movie like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, because I’m just not very good at it. I hate that.
The actor specifies that he has the feeling of having considerably regressed between the fifth and the sixth part of the saga. According to him, he did not know how to bring all the nuances necessary to transcribe the many upheavals that his character goes through:
My game is very monotonous and what I was trying to do just didn’t work. My best film is the fifth, because I can see a progression there.
