Since bidding farewell to the wizard that made him a household name, Daniel Radcliffe has been on a creative roll, appearing in indies like his new role in Horns (out this Halloween weekend).  Indiewire Managing Editor Nigel Smith sat down with Radcliffe in New York to discuss his upcoming horror-comedy hybrid adapted from Joe Hill’s cult novel and directed by Alexandre Aja (Piranha 3D, High Tension) and slew of other topics.

What’s been your most uncomfortable fan interaction?

Well, I had a woman come up to me once with her husband in tow and tell me that her and her husband had one of those arrangements where if you meet this famous person, you can f**k them. She told me that I was on her list. Her husband was also there and I was like, “Hey! Hey fellow! Lovely to meet you darling, but you’re not on my list I’m afraid.” [Laughs]

How old was this woman if you had to guess?

I would say definitely not old enough to make it inappropriate. [Laughs] Not in her twenties, older than that, but not by much. It was just one of those things like maybe in another time and if her husband hadn’t had been there, maybe it would have been flattering. But, with her husband standing right there, it was just super awkward.

You’re obviously a fan of the horror genre, having made “Woman in Black” and now “Horns.” You also have an adaptation of “Frankenstein” coming up.

Yeah. It’s interesting because I used to always say, “Oh, there’s no connection.” These are just the things I choose. But now I’ve definitely had to concede that. Actually, I think it’s about the fact that movies like this give you the opportunity to tell a really fucking cool, compelling, exciting, weird, original story at a surface level, while dealing with kind of big, heavy, dark ideas on another level.

This film is about somebody ostensibly who grows horns and has to figure out both who killed their girlfriend and why they are turning into the devil. But, really it’s a film about what happens to us after we are separated from the one we love the most. It’s about how you can become what you are perceived as. So, there are ideas of being an outsider and dealing with grief are all things that people can connect to, but dealt with in a really cool, unique way.

Similarly, in a “Woman In Black,” it’s a ghost story and it’s kind of a wild ride around this house and it’s this claustrophobic, sort of tense, fun, scary experience. You can also enjoy all the stuff going on underneath, which is about a guy searching for proof of the afterlife because it’s a man whose wife has died, who suddenly starts seeing the ghost of a woman. So, it’s about him trying to figure out if, indeed, there is an afterlife and if that means that his wife is alive somewhere. So, it’s just about a man dealing with grief. So I just think horror, I fancy, you have the ability to have your cake and eat it.

And while “Horns” has a lot going on under the surface, it’s also the film in which Daniel Radcliffe sprouts some pretty huge horns.

Yeah. I mean, they’re kind of awesome.

Did you get to keep them?

I did. I kept one set. It’s a thing because it’s not like you can put them on and they look as good as they do in the film.

How long did it take to get those things on?

Only 20 minutes.

You can read the full interview at Indiewire.

Shahab Zargari

Shahab is a filmmaker, father and a huge geek.

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