Behind-the-Scenes Pics From Our Daniel Radcliffe Photoshoot

Hopefully, you've already read our interview with Daniel Radcliffe, in which he reveals which historical figure he'd like to play, what he really thinks of celery, and the British slang he believes Americans should adopt, among many other things. We had tons of photos we loved and couldn't fit in the print edition, so here are a few outtakes from our August 5 photoshoot, a couple of behind the scenes shots, and some more quotes from Radcliffe.

If you've ever wondered what a photoshoot looks like, check out this panorama snapped by our associate art director, Lucy Quintanilla.

When it comes to picking his projects, Radcliffe told us that he doesn't have a checklist or a list of requirements. "Basically, I just want to do original things that feel new and challenging, and obviously I’m looking for something that shows a different side of what I can do," he said. "It’s really what you respond to, what excites you, because there's no possibility of predicting correctly whether or not a film will be successful or not. So the only thing you can do is be guided by your own taste and hope that some of them come off."

During the shoot, Radcliffe jammed to Harvey Danger and The Kinks.

"The best British accent ever on screen that I’ve seen—although again it was playing upper class—was Edward Norton in The Painted Veil," Radcliffe told us. "Apart from one moment when he got angry, it was flawless. His accent in that was amazing."

In Horns, out at the end of the month, Radcliffe's character, Ig, is accused of murdering his girlfriend—and grows horns that compel the people around him to blurt out what they really think. It's an ability Radcliffe does not covet. "What Ig learns very quickly is that it’s not a power that he wants or benefits from; I think you see too much of what's going on in people's heads," he said. "He's just been accused of murder, and in that situation you always hope that your parents at least would know the real you, but then the horns draw out of them the fact that they think he's a murderer like everyone else. So I think no."

If you were to call Radcliffe a workaholic, you wouldn't be far from the truth. "I think a lot of people think I work out some sense of desperately wanting to prove myself and move past Harry Potter, but I actually just like what I do and I'm lucky to be in a position where I like my job. I guess I'm very relaxed on film sets—it's a real place of comfort for me because I've always been there, and I miss it when I'm not there." And it's not because he doesn't like to take vacation, either. "I can have a vacation but then if I really want to do a film and that film starts during that vacation, then I'm not in a position to say 'Wait two weeks,' because if I wait two weeks then they lose the financing—so you kind of have to take it as it comes," he said.

Radcliffe loves American football—his favorite team is the New York Giants—and during our photoshoot, he tossed around a football with May's assistant.

Radcliffe got major height on his jumps, and he always pointed his toes—a skill he honed while preparing for his time in the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway. 

Radcliffe told us that he's "obsessed" with the English TV show QI—and then gave us quite the compliment: "I feel like mental_floss is the closest thing America has to QI." Thanks Dan!