Daniel Radcliffe Refused To Wear Glasses Even Though He Needed Them After His Harry Potter Fame

Daniel Radcliffe says you will never see him in regular eyeglasses. He is of course very synonymous with the round spectacles that became the signature of his famous Harry Potter character. The actor was in the earliest years of his acting career when he was cast as the titular character in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

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With a glowing recommendation from experienced actress Maggie Smith, Radcliffe started out on a journey that would turn him into a global icon, and earn him riches beyond his wildest dreams.

More than ten years since the release of the last film in the J. K. Rowling-created universe, he is still earning millions in royalties for his performances. As of May 2023, the English artist is estimated to be worth around $110 million, most of which is believed to have been earned from the franchise.

It has also since become public knowledge that Radcliffe nearly lost out on the role of Harry Potter. For a short period of time, Steven Spielberg was attached to direct the project, and he had his eyes on The Sixth Sense star Hayley Joel Osment.

In the years since he last played Harry Potter, Radcliffe has taken on multiple other significant roles on both the big and small screen. Some of his most notable credits include in The F Word, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and Equus on Broadway. Still, he continues to be intrinsically linked with Harry Potter, and his decision not to wear glasses is a countermeasure.

Daniel Radcliffe Wants To Distance Himself From The Harry Potter CharacterVia: WarnerBros

The reason why Daniel Radcliffe refuses to wear regular eyeglasses is because he really wants the world to see him as more than just Harry Potter. The actor’s efforts to distance himself from the beloved character has seen him opting instead for contacts or unique frames that help him shed the connection.

During an old interview with MTV, Radcliffe expressed his desire to create a clear distinction between himself and Harry Potter. Speaking about a potential remedy to any future eye problems, he remarked: “It’s gonna be contacts or like triangular glasses or something just to really put some distance.”

Radcliffe acknowledged that it was a formidable challenge to escape the overwhelming association with Harry Potter. “There is no one film that fully separates me, in the eyes of everyone else, from Harry Potter… That isn’t going to happen,” he said in the MTV interview, as was then reported by CTV News.

“It’s about building up as diverse and interesting a body of work as I can,” Radcliffe added, explaining what his goal moving forward is.

Was Daniel Radcliffe Allergic To His Harry Potter Glasses?

As well as wanting to shed off the persistent association with Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe might have also had more reason to stop wearing them. In a previous conversation with J. K. Rowling, the actor revealed that he actually had an allergic reaction to his character’s eyeglasses.

“We put the glasses on and eventually we realized I was allergic to them,” Radcliffe said, per Young Hollywood. While the allergic impact of wearing them was immediate, it took a while before he discovered that the glasses were responsible.

“I was allergic to the Harry Potter glasses because these two rings of whiteheads and spots had come up around my eyes, [but] it took us about a week to realize that it was actually the glasses [causing the reaction],” he added.

On her part, Rowling jokingly expressed delight that the allergy did not put her off ratifying the casting choice of Radcliffe for Harry Potter. “It’s lucky neither of us believe in signs, isn’t it?” she said.

Some Fan Theories Suggest That Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter Glasses Were Fake

While Daniel Radcliffe is working very hard to shake off the image of him in the Harry Potter glasses, some fans are insistent that they were never even real in the first place. At least this was the theory posed on Reddit by one audience member.

The user, going by the handle @mobyhead1, said: “As a near-sighted person, I actually find it distracting when a character wears glasses that the actor obviously doesn’t need. The same curvatures applied to eyeglass lenses to correct the images entering the eye will also distort the images leaving a person’s face.”

This was not the case with Radcliffe’s glasses, they posited, and therefore concluded that they were fake. “The worse the eyesight, the greater the distortion,” the post went on to say. “But when Daniel Radcliffe is wearing the glasses on-screen, there is no distortion. He’s wearing zero-prescription lenses.”

Another redditor supported the theory, but at least offered some defense for Radcliffe: “They also showed in several interviews that the glasses have NO lenses. It’s pretty obvious in the films when there’s no refraction or when water doesn’t cling. Personally, I don’t mind, and I can understand that some actors do not want to ruin their eyesight.”