Daniel Radcliffe Interview For ‘The Woman In Black’

Based on the classic ghost story, ‘The Woman In Black’ tells the tale of Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a lawyer who is forced to leave his young son and travel to a remote village to attend to the affairs of the recently deceased owner of Eel Marsh House. Working alone in the old mansion, Kipps begins to uncover the town’s tragic and tortured secrets and his fears escalate when he discovers that local children have been dying under mysterious circumstances.  When those closest to him become threatened by the vengeful woman in black, Kipps must find a way to break the cycle of terror. ’The Woman In Black’ also stars Ciaran Hinds (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) and Janet McTeer (Tumbleweeds), was adapted from Susan Hill’s novel for the screen by Jane Goldman and directed by James Watkins (Eden Lake). The film is set for release Febuary 10th in the UK, while it’s out now in the US.

What did you enjoy most about stepping back into that time period?

Daniel Radcliffe: On a completely superficial level, the costumes. If I could wear that stuff all the time I really would. When you put that on you stand differently, it ages you slightly. It was quite helpful to me in that effort. What’s great about that period is that it came in a time when the English had 5000 years of being a completely pagan nation, we fell out of love with any kind of spirituality as soon as Christianity came in. In that period, the Victorian era, England started to come around to the idea of spirits and demons and the notion of their being a potential to transcend the real world and the afterlife. That idea was very prominent at that time, so it’s very useful in telling ghost stories.

This is a Hammer Film in the tradition of English horror and Christopher Lee/Peter Cushing. Were you trying to pay tribute to that in your performance?

Daniel Radcliffe: Absolutely, yes. Peter Cushing was the still center of all those films around which all the rest of that chaos could develop. So yes I was, if not actually paying tribute, I was certainly aware that had this film been made at a different time Peter Cushing would have got the part. The Hammer banner is wonderful, and it’s a fantastic thing for me particularly because having been in the British film industry all my life, if you’re not working with people who actually worked on the films you’re working with their kids. So the person who did all my make-up on the ‘Harry Potter’ movies, her dad, Eddie Knight, did all the original Hammer make-ups.

Growing up in the industry in England you’re always very aware of those films and the importance they had and what they did for the industry. Them and also the Ealing comedies gave England a confidence in filmmaking they didn’t have before, it seems to me anyway, on a commercial level. Also it’s great because we can push the horror thing a little more. We can go back to old standards like creepy toys and a haunted house and all those kind of things that recur, and because it’s Hammer nobody questions it because it feels right within the frame of the film. It’s a film of two halves. The first 45 minutes we were looking at films like ‘The Others’ and ‘The Orphanage’ in terms of the tone, then after that it gets a lot more bombastic. Once we get into the house it’s just James playing with the audience. He worked out so many of those scares and knew he could just take over from there.

It’s like a carnival spook house.

Daniel Radcliffe: Yeah, it is!

There are scares in the film that are fake-outs, “Oh, it’s a bird,” and there are ones where you go ,”Oh sh*t!” When you saw the final cut which one made you go, “Oh sh*t”?

Daniel Radcliffe: I love all the stupid fake ones at the beginning. It’s the water pipe and then the bird twice in one scene. That’s James Watkins going, “Yeah, I can do a scare like that, and I’ll be doing them whenever I like over the next hour and a half!” (Laughs) What scared me the most was the hand going up to the window and the face appears, that was one I knew was there and it still got me. I’d completely forgotten about it.

Do you have a belief in ghosts?

Daniel Radcliffe: It’s non-existent I’m afraid (laughs). I don’t have any belief in ghosts, or the supernatural, or anything like that unfortunately.

It’s interesting because your character is vacillating back and forth between this guy who has to get this job done with the paperwork, and also questioning the realities of whether the supernatural realm exists.

Daniel Radcliffe: Absolutely. One of the first questions I asked James when I met him is, “Why does he stay there?” The moment you read the first page you know it’ll end badly, like, “Get out of there you idiot!” There’s that great line where I say, “Oh it’s fine, I’ll just work through the night.” And you think.…(laughs). But James said this was a young man who lost his wife and starts seeing what he thinks is the ghost of a dead woman. To have any confirmation that that is what he’s seeing would mean that there is an afterlife and he will one day see his wife again. So he’s staying there for some sense of consolation, I suppose.

In horror movies there’s always a subtext going on, something beyond just the surface. What was the subtext of this film that appealed to you, made you want to take the part?

Daniel Radcliffe: That was one of the things I loved about it, that it felt unusual for the genre. It was a horror film, unashamedly, but it is character-driven and, yes, does have some really strong themes. For me the film is about what happens to us when you can’t move on from a loss. Arthur is someone who is devastated by his loss, has become completely disconnected from the world, from his son, from his life. The woman in black has had a terrible wrong done to her during her life and has been unable to move on from that and has been consumed by grief and rage and has carried that desire for revenge into the afterlife with her. Then there’s the Fisher’s marriage, which has all gone wrong. The fact that Ciarán is in denial and Janet is having visions, everybody is reacting to grief in a different way in this film. If you like the battle in the film between Arthur and the woman in black it’s a fight for closure, who can move on first.

They’re two sides of the same coin….

Daniel Radcliffe: Oh yes, absolutely. They’re the two most extreme reactions to a death.

Would you consider yourself a fan of horror films?

Daniel Radcliffe: I would, but I wouldn’t consider myself an aficionado in any way. I’m not one of those guys that will see a trailer and then go see that so I can rate it against all the other horror films I know. I’m like that about some things, but not about horror. I never had that obsessiveness about this particular genre, which comes in part from the fact that I can never cope with gore or anything like that (laughs). I would never be exposed with everything the genre has to offer.

What do you think James Watkins brought to this film?

Daniel Radcliffe: James brings a vast understanding of the thriller genre. From what I was able to work out, he’s a great study of past films, particularly with something we looked at for this, ‘The Shining,’ in terms of creating an environment. Because we wanted to make the house feel alive, and that’s obviously something the house in ‘The Shining’ has. He’s got a huge amount of knowledge about the genre. He’s great, so great.