Daniel Radcliffe Admits He Used to Get Very Drunk to Deal With 'Harry Potter' Fame

Daniel Radcliffe has been famous ever since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone debuted. At age 11, he couldn't have known what he was getting himself into. While playing the Boy Who Lived was probably an incredible experience, it also took a tole.

Daniel Radcliffe has recently revealed that he frequently used alcohol to cope with being the famous wizard.

In an interview with Off Camera with Sam Jones, Radcliffe said, "There is an awareness that I really struggled with, particularly in my late teens when I was going out to places for the first time where you would feel — again, it could have largely been in my head — where you would feel watched when you went into a bar, when you went into a pub." Radcliffe went on to say, "In my case, the quickest way to forget 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.’ It can affect your psyche."

He said getting out of it took years and many attempts.

"I don’t miss it generally now at all. I know that varies for some people. When I think of the sort of chaos I used to invite into my life, I’m really much happier now. I think there was some part of me that was like, ‘Actors have to be crazy cool drunks. I have to live up to this weird image that I had in my head of what it means to be a famous actor.’"

Radcliffe knows what it was like being a child actor so he can sympathize will them. "There is no blueprint for starting young and working stuff out,” he said. He concluded that to be able to be a child star you have to really immerse yourself in your work and don't let anyone make you think you shouldn't do something.

"Even at the lowest point, I still loved my job so much and I still loved going to set. There was never a day where my own s**t would affect how I was on the set,” he explained. "There was never a point where I was like, ‘Oh, I wish this hadn’t happened to me. I wish I wasn’t Harry Potter.’ That just didn’t happen.”

[h/t: ET]