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Will Daniel Radcliffe's post-Potter career be more Harrison Ford or Mark Hamill?
By Brett Buckalew, Special to Metromix
Scoring a lead role in a globally successful, insanely lucrative film franchise is like the acting equivalent of winning the lottery. It’s the difficulty of gaining distance from a character permanently lodged in the pop-culture consciousness that’s more burden than blessing.
This is the current career conundrum faced by Daniel Radcliffe, who spent his formative years bringing author J.K. Rowling’s bespectacled-boy-wizard hero to life in the box-office-record-breaking “Harry Potter” series. Now, Radcliffe makes an effort to put his “Potter” past behind him in the old-fashioned haunted-house chiller “The Woman in Black,” trading in his glasses and magic wand for mutton chops and Victorian-era duds as a lawyer and single father hounded by a ghost.
It’s a savvy if transparent 180-degree turn from the actor, who could yet manage to find career longevity. To help Radcliffe navigate down this perilous career path, here’s a look back at five actors who successfully moved beyond a household-name hero and five others who haven’t been as fortunate.
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