He shed a stone after deliberately starving himself to play an adventurer lost in the Amazon rainforest in his gritty new film Jungle.
And Daniel Radcliffe confessed his dramatic weight loss left his girlfriend of four years Erin Darke deeply ‘worried’ for his health.
The 28-year-old actor, who ate just a chicken breast and fish fillet for two weeks before eating nothing for the last two days of filming, admitted his extreme dieting ‘messed with his head’.
Supportive: Daniel Radcliffe admitted his girlfriend of four years Erin Darke deeply ‘worried’ for his health after he lose a stone for his survival film Jungle
Radcliffe plays Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg in Jungle – which follows the real-life story of how Yossi survived alone in the rainforest for three weeks.
The Harry Potter star lost 14 pounds over the course of the shoot to reflect his character’s physical emaciation and hunger as he survived on bird fetuses and berries.
‘I had a fillet of white fish and a chicken breast and a protein bar for a two weeks before the scene,’ he said during an appearance on ITV’s Lorraine on Thursday.
He then admitted shockingly: ‘For scenes where I was supposed to be thin, I didn’t eat for two days.
Mental struggle: The 28-year-old actor, who ate just a chicken breast and fish fillet for two weeks before eating nothing for the last two days of filming, admitted his extreme dieting ‘messed with his head’
Relieved: He said Erin (pictured last January) was ‘very happy’ when he finally stopped dieting and added his friends were ‘slightly concerned’ for him
‘It is not a healthy thing to do, I don’t recommend it. I did it for a very short period of time, it was kind of okay. It was worth it though for the meal I had afterwards, it was really great.’
Daniel added that his actress partner Erin was worried for him – and pleased when he finally stopped the diet.
‘She was very happy, she was a little worried before,’ he confessed. ‘A lot of people were slightly concerned for me.’
Tough role: Radcliffe plays Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg in Jungle – which follows the real-life story of how Yossi survived alone in the rainforest for three weeks
Dedicated: The Harry Potter star lost 14 pounds over the course of the shoot to reflect his character’s physical emaciation and hunger as he survived on bird fetuses and berries
Challenging: ‘It took me a while to get back to eating properly. It does mess with your head a little bit,’ he admitted
The couple, who met on the set of the 2013 movie Kill Your Darlings, have been together ever since.
Erin, 33, plays a librarian who seduces Daniel’s character in the critically acclaimed film.
The actor admitted that the attraction was instant for him, and that their chemistry in one of their sexy scenes was genuine on his part.
‘That’s a wonderful record of us flirting for the first time. There’s no acting going on, not from my end, anyway,’ he told Playboy.
Hard: Describing why he chose to starve himself, he said: ‘I’m not a method actor at all.
Self-inflicted: ‘But it felt like I would be making my job harder if I was going home and having a massive steak dinner every night and looking well fed at the end of the movie. Nobody asked me to do it, it was kind of self-inflicted!’ he said
He continued: ‘There’s a moment when she makes me laugh, and I’m laughing as me and not as my character. She was incredibly funny and smart. I knew I was in trouble.’
Meanwhile, Daniel admitted that his extreme diet on Jungle ‘messed’ with his mindset and he found it hard to revert back to a normal eating pattern.
‘It took me a while to get back to eating properly. It does mess with your head a little bit,’ he admitted.
Describing why he chose to starve himself, he said: ‘I’m not a method actor at all.
‘But it felt like I would be making my job harder if I was going home and having a massive steak dinner every night and looking well fed at the end of the movie. Nobody asked me to do it, it was kind of self-inflicted!’
Cheeky: Scottish host Lorraine remarked: ‘You looked really terrible at the end, it was heart-breaking!’
Transformation: Daniel quipped back: ‘Thank you! I’ll take it as a compliment. You have to embrace how hard it’s going to be’
Scottish host Lorraine remarked: ‘You looked really terrible at the end, it was heart-breaking!’
Daniel quipped back: ‘Thank you! I’ll take it as a compliment. You have to embrace how hard its going to be. There’s not a great deal of acting, I was just shouting, clinging on for dear life, trying to remember my lines.’
Revealing he almost drowned while filming a scene in the river in the rainforest in Colombia and on Australia’s Gold Coast, he admitted: ‘It’s an amazing story.
‘There’s some things we had to pull back from showing, there’s some things he does to survive like cut parasites out of his skin – we show only some of that.’
Real story: Asked if adventurer Yossi (pictured top left) was happy with the adaptation, Radcliffe said: He was really excited we were making the film, he was on set for most of it’
Asked if adventurer Yossi was happy with the adaptation, Radcliffe said: ‘He was really supportive of the whole process and understood it’s a movie and we’re going to have to cut things out and make things slightly different.
‘It’s a very faithful adaption to the true story. He was really excited we were making the film, he was on set for most of it. And he helped me with the Israeli accent and pronunciation which was good!’
The London-born star, who shot to fame in the hugely popular Harry Potter franchise, added that he hoped he wasn’t a ‘diva’.
‘I feel lucky every day that I get to do the job I get to do, I don’t think I’ll ever lose that. I see people on set sometimes who aren’t appreciating it and I think “you are so lucky”.
‘I hope I’m not a diva. I’ve got a group of people around me who would slap that out of me very quickly – not literally.’
Grounded: The London-born star, who shot to fame in the hugely popular Harry Potter franchise, added that he hoped he wasn’t a ‘diva’