This Daniel Radcliffe Crime Thriller Will Completely Change How You Look At The Harry Potter Actor

A lot of people probably think about the "Harry Potter" film franchise when they hear actor Daniel Radcliffe's name, but in my opinion, that's sort of unfair. Sure, it's one of the highest-grossing film franchises in cinematic history and, despite the fact that a new young actor will start playing Harry Potter in a new HBO series set to air in 2027, most people still think of Radcliffe in the distinctive round glasses whenever they think about the character, known in the books and films as "the Boy Who Lived." 

Still, if you'd like to watch Radcliffe in a very different kind of role, you actually have a lot of options, and one is his 2018 movie "Beast of Burden." Though the film, written by Adam Hoelzel and directed by Jesper Ganslandt, only received a limited release and mostly went to VOD, it features a dark and excellent lead performance from Radcliffe as Sean Haggerty, a pilot whose job is to carry illegal drugs across the United States border. Alongside Radcliffe, the film's cast includes Grace Gummer, Pablo Schreiber, and Robert Wisdom, but unfortunately, it didn't exactly earn rave reviews from critics (as of this writing, the movie only has a 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes).

"Beast of Burden" is worth watching if you're doing a super deep dive into Radcliffe's entire oeuvre, but I have good news for you: Radcliffe has done a frankly incredible job throughout his career of separating himself from the image of Harry Potter, and he's been in a ton of really great and very different projects since he stopped playing Harry in 2011.

On both the stage and screen, Daniel Radcliffe has proven, time and time again, that he's one of the entertainment industry's most audacious and daring actors — to the point where, even though "Harry Potter" is a defining series for him, he's quite well known for a wide variety of projects. During his run as Harry, Radcliffe appeared in both London's West End and on Broadway in New York in "Equus," a play that requires some pretty tough acting and full nudity; I was fortunate enough to see him and his late "Harry Potter" co-star Richard Griffiths perform the play in 2008, and Radcliffe's daring, fearless performance absolutely blew me away. Radcliffe has also shown off his musical talents on the Great White Way in musicals like "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," and in 2024, Radcliffe won a Tony Award for featured actor in a musical for a revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along." (A professionally shot film of Radcliffe's performance will come to movie theaters this December, in fact.)

On screen, Radcliffe has dabbled in romantic comedies ("What If?"), absurdism ("Swiss Army Man"), an anthology series ("Miracle Workers"), a biopic ("Kill Your Darlings"), and even flat-out slapstick comedy like "The Lost City" and "Weird: The Weird Al Yankovic Story." Radcliffe's post-"Potter" years have been marked by the actor's extremely fun and always entertaining choices, so if you want to check out "Beast of Burden," it's available to stream on Starz now — and you won't be disappointed by any of Radcliffe's deeply fun performances, either.