Daniel Radcliffe reveals why he refuses to watch the Harry Potter play

Daniel Radcliffe has been avoiding seeing J.K. Rowling’s acclaimed sequel play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and now he’s finally clarifying exactly why.

Appearing on Late Night With Seth Meyers on Wednesday, the British actor was asked about his reluctance to see the two-part spectacle, which focuses on a middle-aged Potter and his friends and family.

“I’ve been asked this a lot and I always give a boring charitable answer,” the actor admits, but this time he finally confessed he’s “probably not going to” see the play and explained his reasoning.

It’s not because Radcliffe thinks the play might throw him “into some sort of existential crisis, like ‘oh is that what happened?'”

His reluctance is because the experience would “not be a relaxing evening at the theater” because the actor would “feel like I [was] being watched for my reaction. And maybe that is completely conceited and egotistical and people wouldn’t care, but I do feel if I was just surrounded by Harry Potter fans, it would be a little odd.”

Which seems fair. If you were watching Cursed Child and Radcliffe was sitting nearby, it would be pretty tempting to sneak a few looks over. And Meyers noted that it could be distracting for audience members as well.

But what about donning a disguise?

“The thing about a disguise,” Radcliffe said, “is that if it stops working, then you’re just a dude who wore a disguise.”

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