The Woman In Black director takes Daniel Radcliffe to the dark side

What inspired you to cast Radcliffe in a role that’s so far from Harry Potter?
"I saw an opportunity for a real reinvention. Here he’s in a much darker, more adult role. I thought it would be a fascinating journey and when I met Dan he was really up for that journey."

He looks pretty different…
"He looks older and sexier. They aged him down in Potter and if anything we’ve aged him up. Take away the glasses and you can really look into his soul in a much deeper, more complex way. There’s a real contrast between his pale skin and the jet blackness of his hair, the sharp, intense burning blue of his eyes. I wanted people to see Dan afresh."

It’s a bit of a change for you too, after Eden Lake.
"There’s no violence! It’s a completely different aesthetic from Eden Lake, which was deliberately raw. Here the camera is always on a very slow creep, you’re coming round corners and discovering things. We shot everything on track or on steadicam, which is a very seductive and unnerving way of observing things."

This is a Hammer movie – did you pay homage?
"It’s Hammer in that it’s a haunted house movie – there’s some play on that. It’s a fantastic legacy of films, but I didn’t revisit the old Hammer films and I didn’t determine my thought processes by the fact that it was Hammer."

We heard it was going to be in 3D at one point?
"I thought that was a ludicrous idea. It would never have been made in 3D with me directing it!"

This feature originally appeared in Total Film magazine – Issue 189.

Click here to subscribe to Total Film magazine.

Click here to get Total Film magazine on iPad and iPhone from Apple Newsstand.