- I'm curious.
As you look at the illustrious actors
you've worked with over the years,
who could you count on to come save you in a pinch?
Who has the skills?
Who has the know-how?
Who has the courage?
- I mean, honestly, Channing Tatum.
I would back Channing to actually
be able to rescue Sandra [Bullock],
or me, if that's the scenario.
I think he's done like a show with Bear Grylls or something.
He's got some survival skills,
and he is also, you know, he's a strong dude.
He's a big lad.
I like his chances.
I'm trying to think of anyone else.
Yeah, I don't know that I know anyone else is capable.
They're all actors.
[Laughs]
- They're good at pretending. - Yeah.
- It's good to see you again, man.
Congratulations on 'The Lost City.'
I'm a sucker for a good action-comedy. Operative word, good.
It's been a while since I've seen one that works like this.
- Yeah, people keep saying like, why,
like, why do you think people don't make movies
like this more?
My answer is 'cause I think it's really hard.
Like, it's a hard thing to, like, make a film like this
with characters that you care about,
where the romance is also something you're invested in
and doesn't feel corny.
Like it's a hard bunch of tones to straddle
and I think we do it.
- Absolutely, and it's funny 'cause, like,
we've talked about all the films, post-'Potter' for you,
and very few of them have been
in the kind of mainstream bucket, in the studio film bucket.
And this one is, like, made for a wide audience
and it works on all those levels.
I'm just curious,
'cause I know your tastes run kind of esoteric and weird
and that's why I love talking to you always,
but, like, what do the studios come to you with?
Like, do they have you in any kind of box?
Like, what do you get offered?
- I mean, honestly,
I feel like, if I do have a studio box now,
after this and 'Now You See Me 2,'
it's like petulant billionaire, which is kind of fine.
Like, if that's a role, you know,
if studios need me as the British bad guy and stuff,
I'm very happy with that.
That's the thing.
I'm always up for doing studio movies,
but I'm so picky about, like, scripts
and something being, like, genuinely funny.
Sometimes I'll read stuff that's from a studio
and I'll want, in my head,
I'll want to, like, throw my agents a bone
and be like, you know, "Yeah, I'll do a big movie."
Sometimes, I'll be, like, working hard to be,
"Oh yeah, this is funny.
"Like, no, this could be made funny."
But with this one, it was like, oh no,
this is actually really funny and this is, like, genuine.
Like, the comedy is there,
and that's the one thing
that if it's not there on the page,
it's very hard to imagine it suddenly appearing.
And reading it,
I was just reading it,
knowing Sandra and Channing were in it.
I was like, I wanna see these guys do these roles.
Like, I wanna see this movie.
So yeah, it was,
and I'd recently re-watched 'The Mummy,' the first one,
obviously not the Tom Cruise one,
and I do feel like it's not the same,
but it's a similar tone.
I know 'Romancing the Stone' has been referenced a lot,
but for me, 'The Mummy' was my comparison of, like,
oh yeah, it's a high stakes adventure movie
where the stakes are unbelievably high all the time
and people are in real danger,
but everyone's still being really quippy and funny
and there's comedy action and yeah.
So for me, yeah, I read it and I just watched that,
and I was like, yeah, man,
I wanna be a part of making something like that.
- You've worked with some iconic actors
who have essayed, like, the best villains
in the history of cinema. - Yeah.
- I mean, obviously we think
of the late Alan Rickman, of course, Hans Gruber.
I mean, Sheriff of Nottingham,
two of the greats. - Yeah.
- Ralph [Fiennes], I mean, obviously with Voldemort.
Did you consider asking them to remove your nose in this?
You could have had -
That's really the secret to a great villain, right?
A missing nose. - Yeah.
I guess apparently, yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I didn't, although there was something like,
I will never have one iota
of the gravitas that Alan Rickman does,
but he is somebody that when you watch him,
there is a precision about his acting
that I think is really compelling to watch,
particularly in 'Die Hard,'
which I watched again not long ago.
He's just so funny in it.
He's so funny and so good.
- He's also kinda like the smartest character.
It's kind of chilling 'cause he's like, so like, oh wait,
this guy actually could win.
- And then, yeah, that moment
when he's like, he's, the Alexander the Great reference
and then the benefits of classical education.
Like, it's so, it's like dripping with intelligence
but also real kind of menace.
So yeah, I didn't really take -
I don't think I did a lot of homework on that
or take inspiration from him,
'cause I think we're very different actors,
but this has really just been an excuse
to talk about how great Alan is in 'Die Hard,'
which I never mind doing.
- There's a joke made at your expense late in the film
that, I confess, I really laughed hard at.
[Laughs]
I don't know if it was in the script
or if they added it in ADR.
- It could be it. - But there's something,
there's a ref - Yeah,
"I thought that was a little boy,
"but then I saw he had a beard." Something to that effect.
- Yeah, it was a little boy,
but it was, he has a full beard, yeah.
- So when you hear a line like that,
are you, I mean, I know this from experience,
you're pretty cool with jokes at your expense.
Did you enjoy that when you saw it in the script
or heard it in ADR or what? - Yeah, 100 percent.
I did my first, like, comedy comedy,
probably was actually on stage,
was a show with me and John Larroquette,
and for everyone who doesn't know, I am five foot five.
John Larroquette is six foot five.
There is a full foot of height between us,
and immediately, I was just like, yeah, no, oh,
height difference is comedy.
Like that, I learned that on this.
There's also a line which I'm really proud of,
'cause it was adlibbed and it goes for nothing in the film,
but I really like it. When Channing looks into the tunnel
late on and says, "I don't think that's person size."
And I say, "Speak for yourself,"
which I think is a really good joke
and I'm really happy with it.
- You mentioned the jungle,
I don't think of you,
and take this in the spirit which it's intended,
'cause I count myself as an indoor kid myself.
I don't think of you
as this being your milieu necessarily.
- Yeah. - Is that fair to say?
- 100 percent. I spent a lot of time in it weirdly on jobs,
but no, my natural setting is not in nature.
Yeah, it's in a room.
There's something about doing a job
out in the jungle though that is great
because growing up on 'Potter,'
you'd always hear all the crew
talking about going and filming on 'Bond' or, I don't know,
'Gladiator' and getting to go to all these exotic locations,
and we were just filming outside of Watford,
and then occasionally, we'd get to go to Scotland.
And so I was always like, "Oh man,
"I'm never gonna get to go to any of these places."
And then so when I'm filming in jungles now,
I am kind of like, oh yeah, we're making a movie.
This is cool.
- I believe your buddy, your new buddy now, Channing,
who's gonna save you apparently in the future,
is off right now making his new 'Magic Mike' film.
Have you campaigned for the role of a stripper?
What's your song?
Are the moves ready?
You can dance. We know this.
- I can dance.
Is there a Broadway stripper act?
There must be.
Maybe tap stripping is something that has not happened yet,
and maybe it needs to, yeah.
That would be my pitch.
- You've done nudity on stage,
you have the dance skills. - Right.
- I'm just saying- - You just put them together.
Yeah, exactly.
- It's time. It's time.
Speaking of music,
I know you just shot this very exciting new flick,
this biopic about the great Weird Al.
How do the loved ones in your life
like your newfound accordion skills?
Is that something that drives people insane or?
- Fortunately, the accordion is, you know,
it's not the bagpipes.
It's not an inherently angering instrument.
I think, honestly, the first few weeks of learning it
was rough for Erin [Darke]
because I was basically playing the
beginning of "My Bologna"
but never getting to the part where you say, "My bologna."
So it was like listening to the build-up to the chorus
and never getting the chorus.
So that was her life for a while
and that must have been rough,
but I think she's adjusted now,
and thankfully, my playing has got a lot better
than it was at that point.
It's still not like, it's fine.
I'm not like an amazing -
I'm not a good accordion player,
but I can hit the right notes now without being offensive.
- I mean what a catch you are.
A Lego-loving, accordion-playing actor.
- I mean, it is lucky for her.
No, it's lucky for me now.
Otherwise, she'd be like, "Oh God, no."
- We all loved the 'Potter' reunion recently.
One of my favorite moments was you and Helena Bonham Carter,
which made me laugh so much, in which she kind of revealed,
she outed you as having this longtime crush,
which you, I guess, outed to her
at the conclusion of the film series.
I mean, dude, that takes a lot to say that.
Were you nervous about telling her?
- Oh, I think that's the confidence of youth, isn't it?
It's the confidence of being like, I'm 17.
She doesn't care. [Laughs]
Well, I mean, was I 17?
I was probably older than that by then actually.
But yeah, I mean, who could not have a crush on Helena
when you've grown up around her?
And I honestly had completely forgotten
that I had done that,
and when she showed me that photo, I was like,
"Oh my God, no."
A bad pun and I flirted with you.
It's all of my nightmares.
The interview with Helena was genuinely, was so lovely,
'cause I mean, I've seen her
a couple of times over the years,
but I suddenly realized I had only had conversations
with her when I was a kid.
So it's very nice to be able
to, like, have adult conversations
with somebody that you grew up with,
and like, yeah, it was really, it was very, very lovely.
- I know you've said recently,
like the time is not now for another 'Potter' thing.
You need some more distance, totally understandable.
I'm just curious between you, Emma [Watson],
and Rupert [Grint],
is there a spoken or unspoken understanding
that like, we're gonna wait until we're all ready,
like it's all of us or none of us, that kind of thing?
Like, have you ever
discussed it in that way? - I don't know.
It's definitely, if there is, it's unspoken.
I do think there is an unspoken thing
where we can all just kind of see that like,
oh, we're are all enjoying
doing lots of different things right now.
Let's just keep doing that for a while.
So yeah, no, I definitely,
I mean, I don't speak for Emma and Rupert with this.
I'm sure they would have their own answers.
I don't wanna be in the headlines tomorrow
and be like, "Dan Radcliffe says no one's coming back."
So like, but you know,
I think it is just it feels way too close
to even think about right now.
So like again, I never say never,
'cause never gets you in trouble,
but yeah, generally speaking, it's just not something
that I'm rushing back to at this moment.
- I know you're a late bloomer to 'Star Wars.'
I think of that because they just launched
the, like, 'Star Wars' hotel theme thing,
and I feel like it's, I don't know if you're into that,
if that appeals to you at all,
because it feels inevitable that it -
- It feels cool, but it, that's the one
where they, like, wake you up at like 3:00 a.m.
and be like, "This is a drill."
- Exactly, "We're being attacked."
- Like yeah, and I guess that would.
No, you know what?
Actually, if I had kids that were into 'Star Wars,'
that would be amazing.
Yeah, you are right.
There does seem like there would be a
'Potter' version of that
not far behind, but yeah.
- And that's where you're gonna live.
You're gonna live in Hogwarts castle.
That's where you obviously wanna be.
- That's where I do the last 20 years of my career.
I just do a residency, yes.
- Your dinner theater years, yeah, exactly.
You are coming back to New York to come to the stage
where I always love to see you
and you're doing a musical
for the first time in a long while.
- Yeah, first time in 10 years.
- No less than Sondheim.
Had you been looking for a while
to return to your musical theater love?
- Absolutely, I've been looking.
It's been something that I've been really conscious of
and people have been like,
"When are you gonna do another one?"
But the thing that I learned from
'How to Succeed [in Business Without Really Trying]'
is that you have to love it,
whatever you are gonna do,
because of the the economics of musicals
meaning that you have to do longer runs
and have to be prepared to commit for that.
Whatever it's gonna be has to be great.
Obviously, Sondheim, 'Merrily We Roll Along,' pretty great.
I feel very certain
about my ability to still be finding things in that
many, many months into the run.
And yeah, and honestly, a big part of it as well
was that musicals are terrifying.
Like musical theater is so terrifying
that I feel like unless you are doing it every so often,
I'm just gonna lose my nerve.
Like, I'll just, it will seem too intimidating
to go back to.
So now I'm kind of like,
while it's still just about in there,
I wanna get back to it.
And also I've seen this exact,
in the very very rare position
of having seen this exact production in London in 2014.
So I've seen the production that I'm going to do.
So I like know it's good.
I know the only thing that can screw it up now
is the new cast.
That's our project.
But yeah, it's a brilliant show, a brilliant production.
Our director Maria [Friedman] is amazing, so yeah.
End of the year.
- I'm curious.
Do you audition much anymore?
Like, are you willing to go up for stuff
and like, is that something you enjoy, you dread,
or like, where are you at right now?
- Definitely dread it.
Definitely don't enjoy it.
I'm very also bad at it.
Like I haven't had to do a lot of it.
So like, I get, the last time I auditioned,
which was not that long ago, it was like 2000-,
it was a couple of years,
but it's definitely still something I do,
but I was as nervous -
it was the most nervous I could remember being,
and I'm sure it wasn't a good audition
on the strength of that.
I do still, particularly when it's a director that
I'm like, I just wanna work with this person.
I don't care.
Like 'cause often, sometimes your agents will be like,
"We don't want you to audition."
Like, no, I don't care though.
If it's about pride, I'd rather put that aside
and just audition.
So yeah, not a huge amount,
but it happens occasionally and I'm bad at them.
- Excellent, well, now I know what our next sketch will be.
I'm just gonna put you through the paces
and just grind you down.