Daniel Radcliffe Talks About Getting Sober in British GQ

Daniel Radcliffe, star of the hit Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, has opened up about a drinking problem nobody knew he had. “I became reliant on [alcohol] to enjoy stuff,” the star told British GQ in an interview that will be published on July 7. “There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person’s lifestyle that really isn’t suited to me.”

Radcliffe told the magazine he gave up alcohol in the summer of 2010, after filming the final installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which will be released on July 15. “There’s no shame in enjoying a quiet life,” he said in the interview. “And that’s been the realization of the past few years for me … I'm actually enjoying the fact that I can have a relationship with my girlfriend [reportedly Olive Uniacke, stepdaughter of David Heyman, the producer of the Harry Potter films] where I'm really pleasant and not fucked up totally all the time ... As much as I would love to be a person that goes to parties and has a couple of drinks and has a nice time, that doesn’t work for me. I’d just rather sit at home and read, or go out to dinner with someone, or talk to someone I love, or talk to somebody that makes me laugh.”

Within his own Broadway cast, Radcliffe can count on the support of Tony winner John Larroquette, who has spoken openly about giving up alcohol in 1982; Larroquette played a newly sober character in his self-titled 1993 sitcom.