Harry Potter Returns

Actor Daniel Radcliffe Reprises His Role Of Young Wizard In New Movie

(CBS)  Everyone's favorite boy wizard is back. In "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," Daniel Radcliffe returns as Harry, who begins his third year of sorcerer studies.

And though there is a bit of controversy about young children being disturbed by its dark subject, Radcliffe tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith, “I think it’s going to be fine for younger kids to see because the scariest aspect to it is psychological, like a psychological thriller that 6, 7-year-olds aren’t going to recollect.”

In the latest film, based on the popular children's novels by J.K. Rowling, 13-year-old Harry Potter has used magic outside Hogwarts, which is forbidden by the Ministry of Magic. Before heading for his third year of study, Harry finds himself in danger, as new friends and enemies are introduced to his world.

Gary Oldham plays the dangerous Wizard Sirius Black, who is on the hunt for Harry. Working with one of his idols, Radcliffe says, was an extraordinary experience.

Radcliffe says, “Basically, for me, he kind of steals the film without even trying. I think he’s just the most amazing actor. And to work with him is such a privilege.”

Portraying Potter is a natural for Radcliffe, who says being close to his character’s age allowed him to do less acting. He says, “You start to focus very hard, obviously. But it’s a lot easier because you’re feeding the same emotions at the same time because you’re the same age as the character. I’m a bit older than Harry, a couple of months.”

The experience as a whole, turned out to be the way Radcliffe dreamed it would. He says, “It’s an amazing opportunity to play the most fantastic part, basically. It’s brilliant. What I love about playing Harry is that he’s a really real character because he’s really complicated. But he’s very accessible. In some films you get kind of quite broadly drawn characters, kind of one-dimensional. But in the ‘Harry Potter’ series, I think all of the characters there have so many different sides to all of them.”

“The Prisoner of Azkaban” is in Smith’s opinion, the best of all the films and Radcliffe agrees. “I really do think they kind of keep getting better and better with each film because the books keep getting better and better. I think the fourth will be even better than the third because the story progresses more and you get more into the characters,” he says.

Radcliffe is already shooting the fourth in which he says he has a love interest.