Dan Radcliffe for Heat Magazine

You’re only 22. Don’t most people in their early twenties drink too much?

Unfortunately it’s not that simple. I have a very addictive personality. It was a problem.

Really? There were never any stories of you going on wild benders…

People with problems like that are very adept at hiding it. It was bad. I don’t want to go into details but I drank a lot and it was daily - I mean nightly. I can honestly say I never drank at work on Harry Potter. I went into work still drunk, but I never drank at work.

You mean Harry Potter had a hangover?!

I can point to many scenes where I’m just gone. Dead behind the eyes.

You were only 11 when you started on the films. Do you think growing up in the spotlight contributed to your drinking?

I think it would have happened anyway. I think it’s just in me. I loved the fact I suddenly could talk to people and feel so entertaining and so interesting. But after a while, you’re living under such a cloud of shame about what you’ve done and the dread of who you might see, what you might have said to them, what you might have done with them. You either have to change something or give into that shame and I wasn’t prepared to do that at 21.

Did you sleep with loads of groupies?

Not at all. I was always very nervous about the groupie thing. I like to like somebody before I sleep with them, I really do. You know you’re going to have to talk to them afterwards, even if it is a one-night stand. I have… I mean that has happened, but generally speaking I’ve known the person. Someone once said to me, “You can go outside and pick from the girls at the stage door.” And I said, “No, that’s not me.” [Stops.] Because, to do that, you kind of have to be a dick.

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