How Many Pits of Mud has Daniel Radcliffe Sunk Into?

The most recent Daniel Radcliffe film to hit the big screen is Jungle, where he plays Yossi Ghinsberg during his real-life near-death experience of being lost in – you guessed it – the jungle.

In an interview with Digital Trends, Daniel opened up about how playing Harry Potter in his earlier years helped, in part, with setting him up for other films he has done.

To be honest, the stunts on Potter and the physical nature of Potter have sort of set me up amazingly for a lot of the films I’ve done since. Sometimes the frustrating thing is that I was allowed to do a lot of stunts myself [on Potter] because the stunt coordinator knew me really well, and he knew I could do a lot of it, and I was up for it. And then going to other sets with people [who] don’t know you as well, they are understandably a lot more nervous of letting you actually do stuff for yourself.

He went on to explain that even though he had to spend a whopping 41 hours filming water sequences for Goblet of Fire, his swimming skills hadn’t improved much.

The water stuff is always hard to film. You always slow down by at least 30 percent just because of safety issues and other stuff that starts coming up. But there is also something about being in the rapids for a few hours each day. It was definitely slightly grueling for me and for the crew and for everybody else [who] was there, but it’s one of those things that gives you a really nice sense of achievement when it’s done.

Not much of an outdoorsman himself, Daniel raved about the real Yossi Ghinsberg’s ability to still love the jungle, and nature in general, after it seemed like it was quite literally trying to kill him.

On Daniel’s “interesting” film choices of late? He doesn’t have any regrets.

 I think it’s fairly well-documented [sic] about me now that I like weird. Weird is good. And I like stuff that sometimes demands a little more of an audience. I’m thinking of Swiss Army Man specifically in that case, in terms of you needing to take a little bit of a leap into the world that we’re inhabiting as an audience member. But if you do, then it becomes incredibly rewarding as a film to watch. So I suppose that’s the kind of stuff I respond to, just like the chance to do something different.

In a separate interview with Newsweek, he elaborated a bit that he wasn’t intentionally putting himself in roles that involved him being dirty or in pain but that it just happens.

It’s not intentional, I promise. When I was doing the scene where I was sinking into the pit of mud, I was like, ‘I’m fairly sure this is at least the second, possibly the third, pit of mud I’ve sunk into in my career.’ I feel like it’s a weird trope to end up having in your career. But I keep doing films where I end up covered in mud or blood or both. You’re welcome to read into that and make an assessment if you like.

Though he says he “didn’t get as emotionally involved” in the film as some people did, it’s no question that his portrayal is nothing short of remarkable. GQ even called Jungle Daniel’s Revenant. We better keep our eyes open for a nomination come awards season!

Have you seen Jungle yet? What did you think of it?