Daniel Radcliffe found playing a white supremacist in Imperium very challenging for him

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Daniel Radcliffe has established himself as an extremely talented actor. However, it is difficult for him to outrun his past, after having worked in the Harry Potter franchise for the majority of his life. Despite this, the actor is seemingly not afraid of taking risks. This is because being a part of the 2016 movie, Imperium, was one of the biggest risks of his career.

Daniel Radcliffe

In the crime thriller, Radcliffe plays the role of Nate, an FBI agent who went undercover into the world of white supremacists by becoming a part of a neo-Nazi group. The process was certainly not easy for the actor.

Also Read: Daniel Radcliffe Won’t Ever See Eye to Eye With J.K. Rowling, Said She Tried to ‘Invalidate’ an Entire Community

Daniel Radcliffe Felt Guilty For The Things He Said In Character

To fit into the role that he was playing, Daniel Radcliffe had to do a lot of things that he did not agree with. during an interview with The Telegraph, the actor talked about all of the challenges that came with playing a white supremacist. The biggest challenge that he faced was having to say racial slurs.

Daniel Radcliffe in Imperium

“Whenever I was using racial slurs and stuff in the film I would have to go up to the actors afterwards and be like, ‘I’m so sorry’,”  he mentioned, “’I know you know that I don’t mean this, but I still feel like I have to say it’. We were the most apologetic bunch of skinheads.”

He explained that whenever he would say things like this on camera, he would go up to the actors and the crew after the cameras were turned off and apologize to them profusely. He would tell them that he was sorry even though everyone on set was aware that he was just laying the character, uttering those words did not sit right with the Harry Potter actor.

Daniel Radcliffe Found The Movie To Be Polarising

On top of finding it challenging to say racial slurs in the movie, Daniel Radcliffe also had quite a unique and odd experience shooting it. On one hand, making a movie as weird as Imperium was a unique, welcome experience. It was only made better with the crew, which he revealed was amazing.

Daniel Radcliffe in Imperium

“It was a very weird film to make in one way because it was a fantastic experience and it was a great crew,” he said. “On the other hand, we are dealing with this very heavy stuff and filming, like, Right-wing, white-supremacist rally scenes and we were all wearing T-shirts that said ‘white power’ on them, and stuff like that is weird and horrible.”

While it certainly added to the positive experience he had onset, however, it would seem that the character that he was playing kept getting in the way. Filming and playing a character such as this is no easy task. He mentioned that the costumes, which also followed the themes of white supremacy, made the experience weird in a negative way and flat-out horrible for Radcliffe