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You read the script when you were on the plane just after you'd finished Harry Potter? Is that right?

Daniel Radcliffe: That is correct. We finished on June 29 and I read the script on the plane going to America that night, something like four hours after we did the last shot. And it was amazing. I think one of the reasons I was so excited by the script was the fact that I hadn't envisioned myself doing horror, it was never something that I gravitated towards myself particularly, so the fact that I suddenly found myself really enjoying this script was even more exciting because it was so unexpected.Also, Jane [Goldman]'s writing is kind of amazing. It's a testament to her writing that I read the script in an hour and it's mainly stage direction... there's not much dialogue but it was written so well and so compellingly that I just raced through it. So, I read the script, it was a great script and it was an interesting part, [involving] things I hadn't been asked to do before, and then I met the director, James [Watkins], who I immediately felt that we shared a kind of vision for the film and what it was about, and it being not just a horror film but also something where the characters are not just an excuse to scare people, but actually the characters are real, the relationships feel real, and it's got real heart as well. So, it was a chance to do something different and so, yes... great script, great part, great director... that's the holy trinity. Yes!

Had you seen the stage play?

Daniel Radcliffe: No, I never went on that school trip! Everyone else I know has seen it on a school trip and for reasons I need not go into I wasn't at school very much, so I missed out on that one. And I never read the book for AS Level. That seems to be the two things: my friends have either studied the book or they went and saw the play at school. I read the book obviously once I'd finished the script and knew I was meeting James. But no, I still haven't seen the play. I now will but I couldn't see it before for the same reason I didn't watch the TV movie that was made, just because I copy... I know that's what I do, so I have to stay away from other interpretations of the part if I want to give my own.

What intrigued you about the nature of the role? Did you see it as a kind of bridging gap into older roles?

Daniel Radcliffe: Yes, certainly I was never under any illusions that this would be the one film that I would do that everyone would suddenly go: 'Oh, he's no longer Harry Potter!' I don't think that's going to happen but I certainly think it'll start that. I think I look very different in this film, I think it's a very different type of performance that I give. I mean, when you play Harry, my own natural energy and attack is very useful because that's how Harry is as well. But with a part like this, it was about trying to completely suppress and deaden my own natural energy and give the look of somebody who has had the vitality taken out of him by the circumstances of his life. So, those were the things I was kind of concentrating on. I didn't think at the time about how much it would distance me or not distance me. Also, one of the things that was really appealing about this was that the story was so compelling that I... and I still think, even if people go in with Harry Potter in mind, after the first 10 minutes the story is quite gripping, so I think people are just going to be involved in the story and won't be thinking about too many other things. But who knows, I could be wrong!

Did the notion that it was going to be made by Hammer appeal to you at all?

Daniel Radcliffe: I'm somebody who is very, very proud to have been a part of the British film industry all my life and to have kind of been involved with a very important piece of British film history, so yeah to be going from something as prestigious as Potter to something as equally prestigious as Hammer was very exciting. Also, there's a few weird links between Potter and Hammer in that Amanda, who did my make-up for all the Potter films, her dad, Eddie, had done all the make-up for the original Hammers. I used to watch them too. Dracula was kind of our end-of-term film at school. So, I used to watch that a lot and I felt honoured to be filling what I regard as the Peter Cushing role in this film. If this film had been made then, Peter Cushing would have beaten me for this part 10 times out of 10! So, I was very pleased to be able to work with Hammer. And it is a thrill when the Hammer logo comes up at the beginning, I think... although every time it comes up, even though I've seen the film three times now, for the first moment that Hammer comes up I expect it to say Marvel, for some reason. It has that kind of superhero thing going on for half a second!

Does it seem weird that if you attach yourself to a project it will get a green light?

Daniel Radcliffe: Yeah. That's not a general rule. I mean, this project was already far enough along and had enough people behind it, including the Hammer name, to be getting it going. I was the final thing that it needed...

But you're a very modest guy...

Daniel Radcliffe: But I promise you it's not false modesty to say that. There are very, very few actors whose name... even people like me and Robert Pattinson, who are at the moment big names and bankable or whatever that means, but there's very few actors that saying 'yes' to something would be a green-light for the film. I think probably George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp are the only three that have that kind of pull and that comes from having had very long careers and kind of being universally respected as actors and as professionals. So, there's a long way to go before we're at that stage. But it is also a very nice thing to know that you are going to be able to help get films made that might not otherwise get made, particularly as I'm in a position now where I'm very fortunate, financially on Potter, so I don't have to work for the money now and I can just do the things that interest me. I like the idea of not having to do stuff for the money and if I want to, I can pick indie projects for the rest of my life and be quite happy doing that.

What will be next? What do you want to do?

Daniel Radcliffe: Next, I start filming a movie in March, which I think will be about a 30-day shoot called Kill Your Darlings, which is about a murder was sort of the catalyst for forming the beat generation. I'll be playing a 19-year-old Allen Ginsberg and Dane DeHaan, a young actor who is fantastic, is playing Lucien Carr, who is my best friend at the time, Jack Huston is playing Jack Kerouac and Elizabeth Olsen is playing Edie Parker. It's a very, very exciting... again, James [Watkins]' second film was The Woman in Black; John Krokidas, our director, is making his first feature. As I was saying to someone earlier, everyone wants to work with Scorsese and Spielberg, and who wouldn't, but I find it equally exciting the prospect that I might be working with the next Scorsese or the next Spielberg. I think it's very exciting to work with young, hungry directors.

Is it true that you have eight different Twitter accounts?

Daniel Radcliffe: None of them are me!

Do you Google yourself?

Daniel Radcliffe: I Google myself to see what come up when you Google Daniel Radcliffe because that's always amusing. At the moment, it's 'Daniel Radcliffe gay, Daniel Radcliffe Twitter, Daniel Radcliffe alcoholic', they are the three top suggestions that come up, which is kind of awesome! What was great was that when the news first came out, when me and my girlfriend were photographed together for the first time, within 48 hours, if you typed in R-O-S-A [her name is Rosanne Coker] she was Google's third search result after Rosacea and Rosa Parks, so I find that quite amusing. And also what I love about the gay thing is that every single person I type into Google, it doesn't matter if it's Florence Welch, anybody, if you are not being called gay you don't have a career. That's my theory!