It takes much more than a cliche Harry Potter pun to get a laugh out of Daniel Radcliffe.

The former Boy Who Lived has spent the past 25 years listening to wizard puns, quips, and riddles, so it’s no surprise he has such a high bar. But during a recent visit to Late Night with Seth Meyers, Radcliffe revealed that someone managed to break through with a solid one-liner.

“It’s very rare that I experience a Harry Potter joke in the wild that makes me truly laugh,” the actor told Seth Meyers on Monday night’s show. “Not because they’re bad, just because I’ve heard all of them! It has to be really good to make me laugh.”

He went on to explain that during his prior visit to the late-night show, Meyers was planning to ask him a question about his son, whom he and partner Erin Darke welcomed in 2023. “I don’t say his name on TV,” Radcliffe pointed out.

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2’.

Everett

Jumping in, Meyers said he was backstage with producers when the joke was made. 

“I was like, ‘Tell me how old Daniel’s child is,'” he recalled. “And they were like, ‘Two years old but [Daniel] never says his name publicly. And then my producer Kevin Miller said, ‘Is it Voldemort?'”

Still impressed by the quip, Radcliffe said, “It’s really good. It’s a really good joke.”

“Obviously you’re the audience for it,” Meyers pointed out.

The Monday night appearance also saw Radcliffe reunited with his Merrily We Roll Along costars Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez to promote the live recording of the musical slated to arrive in theaters next month. To the delight of musical theater fans everywhere, the Tony-winning production was filmed live during its 2024 stage run. This also means that the three leads have now had the chance to enjoy the show as audience members — an experience that Radcliffe found a bit painful.

“Dan was in a ball, not wanting to watch himself,” Mendez told Meyers of attending the premiere screening. 

Radcliffe didn’t deny it, admitting that he always struggles to watch himself onscreen.

Daniel Radcliffe at the premiere of Weird: The Al Yankovic Story on Nov. 1, 2022.

Slaven Vlasic/Getty 

“I started watching it and I was like, ‘Oh god,’ but then I watch these guys and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s nice,'” he recalled. “It was mixed for me. If there could be a cut made of everything I’ve ever done without me in it, I would love watching that.”

But Meyers was quick to expose a flaw in that plan: “They say the Potter films are not great without Potter,” he quipped.

“I mean, I beg to differ,” Radcliffe laughed. “I think there’s a lot of people doing some really good work.”

Though Radcliffe probably won’t be revisiting his Harry Potter movies anytime soon, he will soon have the chance to see the magic unfold with a new young star leading the way. 11-year-old Dominic McLaughlin has been tapped to star in HBO’s series adaptation of the bestselling novels.

Thus far, Radcliffe has made it abundantly clear that he has no intention of getting involved or appearing in the new project and has spent the past few years distancing himself from controversial series author J.K. Rowling, whose transphobic rhetoric he has repeatedly condemned. 

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Even so, the former child star still made an effort to reach out to McLaughlin ahead of the young actor taking over the coveted role.

“I wrote to Dominic and I sent him a letter, and he sent me a very sweet note back,” Radcliffe last week revealed to Good Morning America, explaining that he told the kid, “I hope you have the best time, and an even better time than I did. I had a great time, but I hope you have an even better one.”