Harry Potter Grows Up: Daniel Radcliffe Can’t Wait to Be a Dad

And the former child star is now enamored with fatherhood

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In an interview with Time Out London this week, Daniel Radcliffe, star of the Harry Potter franchise, revealed that he would like to father a child before turning 30.

“I really want to have kids. I’ve grown up around lots of people who were having kids when I knew them, because a lot of them were a lot older than me. And I saw the wonderful change in them. A lot more tired, a lot more happy,” said the 23-year-old actor.

He’s got big aspirations for his future offspring too. “I’m definitely going to be one of those parents who pushes their kids into things,” he said, adding, “I’d love my kids to be a boxer. Yeah! Cricket too.” But the 5-ft., 5-in. actor quipped that he will have to find “a very tall wife” to ensure that any kids he has are good at sports.

While he believes he’s too old to star as Harry Potter again, he says he would like to play the bespectacled boy’s dad. But that’s not his only career goal. Before hitting the big 3-0, Radcliffe also plans to direct a production and write a piece of work that he will be proud of. He’s also written his first screenplay.

(MORE: ‘Harry Potter’ Book With Author Notes Sold for $228,000)

For now, however, he’s sticking to acting. In The Cripple of Inishmaan, which debuts at the Noël Coward Theatre in London’s West End today, Radcliffe plays a bullied Irish country boy who tries to score a role in a Hollywood film being made on a nearby island.

He’s well prepared to play a victim of bullies, telling the Guardian that he “really enjoys stage violence,” which he first learned from stuntmen on the Harry Potter set. He says he later made a hobby out of choreographing fight scenes on his lunch breaks.

And the best question of all in the interview: when asked, “Why aren’t you a completely f—ed up egomanic?” despite becoming famous at age 11 and a multimillionaire by age 19, Radcliffe humbly replied, “I had really good parents.” Good answer.

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