Radcliffe was cast as Potter for the debut film Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone in 2001 when he was 12 years old. He would appear as the titular character for each installment afterward, finishing his run in the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, when he was 22 years old, effectively spending his childhood and early 20s in the Wizarding World.
Radcliffe has gone on to appear in a number of varying projects since finishing the Harry Potter series, including Swiss Army Man with Paul Dano, Alexandre Aja's Horns, Greg McLean's Jungle, and Guns Akimbo with Samara Weaving. The actor has also worked in TV, playing the part of Ezekiel Brown in the comedy series Miracle Workers. Radcliffe's most recent work includes The Lost City with Sandra Bullock and will appear as Weird Al in the comedy biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
While appearing on the A24 Podcast, Radcliffe discussed his career, including his time playing Harry Potter, giving a hilarious reason for playing the part for 10 years. The actor said that his parents asked him each year if he was still interested in going back and playing Potter for another film, to which Radcliffe would always reply, "Yes. I hate school." Of course, Radcliffe didn't get out of school, per se, but rather had his schooling done on set, which he obviously preferred to the real thing. Read his full comment below:
My mom and dad asked me between every film, basically, ‘Are you still enjoying it, and do you want to go back?' I was always like, ‘Yes. I hate school.'
The Harry Potter series has continued on without Radcliffe in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, which has been moderately successful by comparison, with the latest entry, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, suffering the biggest box office drop yet. It was recently reported that a Harry Potter-themed series would be coming to HBO Max, although no details in of characters or time period were revealed. Many have suggested that it would be the prime time to bring Radcliffe and his co-stars back to revisit the characters as adults.
Many child actors, especially ones in a long-running series, grow up on sets and immersed in the world of moviemaking, which in turn makes it difficult to go back to a "normal" life with regular school. It's not much of a surprise that Radcliffe would choose to play Harry Potter rather than go to school at home, especially when his movie school was Hogwarts. While not everyone is made the same in that way, it would take a lot to persuade a child actor playing such a massive role to forego it, especially with Radcliffe frequently saying that the cast and crew of the Harry Potter films are like his second family.
Source: A24 Podcast
