Daniel Radcliffe Recounts Near-Drowning Incident While Filming “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”

Virginia ChamleeThu, February 19, 2026 at 8:30 PM UTC

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Daniel Radcliffe

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Daniel Radcliffe is sharing his memories of filming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The 2005 film required six weeks of underwater scenes

Radcliffe said that during training, he had a moment of panic when he "didn't breathe" after taking his diving regulator out

Daniel Radcliffe is recounting the arduous process of filming six weeks of underwater scenes for the 2005 film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The 36-year-old actor was asked about "close calls" during the filming of the movie while appearing on a recent episode of Hot Ones.

“There was a time when we were training for it where I— we were doing like mask-clearing exercises, a very basic thing for learning to dive and you take a deep breath, and you take the regulator out and then when you put it back in, you gotta keep that breath because you go to blow the air out," he explained to host Sean Evans.

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Radcliffe continued: "And I remember I took the thing out once and I was like, didn’t breathe. Don’t have any breath to clear this when I get it back on. And I put it back in and I was like [motioning upward] which is 'Get me out of here,' that’s my drowning signal. And I got up and the stunt coordinator looked at me in the way that only he could — lovely man called Greg Powell — and he goes, ‘Well, you won’t make that mistake again!’ "

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"And I was like 'Oh, absolutely right," he said. "But yeah so, we filmed for six weeks. I’ve heard it quoted that we averaged five seconds of usable footage per day. That was one of the things that you go like yeah, I’ll never, never do something like this again.”

Daniel Radcliffe on Hot Ones

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Radcliffe originated the role of Harry Potter in the original eight-film series, playing the young wizard from 2001 until 2011. He recently spoke to PEOPLE about the all-new HBO TV show centered on Potter's Wizarding World.

The series, which began production in July, sees a new trio of young actors — Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton — portray Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger as they matriculate at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Radcliffe — who stars with Tracy Morgan in an all-new NBC comedy, The Fall & Rise of Reggie Dinkins — told PEOPLE that he has been in touch with fellow Harry Potter alums Rupert Grint and Emma Watson amid the news of the new adaptation, and they have all been reflecting on "how surreal [it is] to watch people starting off on that journey, all those years later."

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