Daniel Radcliffe has shared details of the “craziest stunt” he did on his own while filming Harry Potter and The Goblet Fire. The fourth film in the Harry Potter saga saw Harry (Radcliffe) being tricked into competing in the highly dangerous Triwizard Tournament, even though according to the rules its three champions- Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson), Fleur Delacour (Clémence Guichard), and Victor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski)- had already been chosen. But Dumbeldore is unable to pull Harry out of the tournament despite him being underage, as once the Goblet of Fire spits out a champion's name, they are bound by contract to participate.
Harry Potter thus takes part in all three tasks in the tournament- retrieve a golden egg guarded by a dragon, diving underwater to rescue someone valuable, and reach the Triwizard Cup first, which is located in a complex maze. Both Harry and Cedric reach the Cup first and decide to take it together but it turns out to be a trap that lands them at the mercy of Voldemort and his vicious Death Eaters. But while Harry's duel with He Who Must Not Be Named included a lot of impressive special effects, not everything was make-believe in the film.
When Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire came out in 2005, Daniel Radcliffe was 15, which would directly translate to him not performing any of the dangerous stunts in the film. But recently, in a chat with Entertainment Tonight, Radcliffe was asked about his favorite scene to film in all eight films. In response, he disclosed that he actually performed the first task of the Triwizard Tournament in the film, which involved dropping from a height of 40ft on a roof, and how it completely terrified him.
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. 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.
The scene in question involves Harry flying on his broomstick and dodging the particularly vicious dragon, the Hungarian Horntail, who breaks his chain to follow him as they soar high about the towers of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry ends up falling from his broom onto the sloped, tiled roof and then to a ledge from where he hangs for his dear life as he dislodges his broomstick only to fall again before he manages to fly away and get the egg. Watching the scene now, it is pretty scary to even visualize Radcliffe doing the stunt himself at such a young age.
Even though stunts are best suited to be performed by professional stuntmen who have years of experience doing such scenes, there have been many instances where even they sustained grievous injuries. Radcliffe’s stunt double in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Thankfully, Radcliffe has not performed such a stunt after Goblet of Fire, neither in other Harry Potter films or the films he did after his stint as The Boy Who Lived.
Source: Entertainment Tonight
