Daniel Radcliffe Reveals Message for Tom Felton Before Broadway Debut (Excl)

Daniel Radcliffe had a very specific piece of advice for Harry Potter costar Tom Felton ahead of his Broadway debut.

“The only thing I said to him — because it’s a thing we don’t have in the U.K., so I was not sure if he was going to have experienced it — is entrance applause,” Radcliffe, 36, told Us Weekly exclusively on Monday, December 1, of his advice for Felton, 38, who made his debut in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child last month. “I was like, ‘They are going to go insane when you get out on that stage for the first time.’”

Radcliffe continued: “We’ve been trying to meet up for a little while, and we haven’t been able to do it. So I was like, I’m just going to send him a voice note to be like, ‘Dude, in case no one has mentioned this — because I could also see it being the kind of thing that people hadn’t thought to tell him — just so you know, don’t let it throw you when the audience erupts when you go out there for the first time.’”

While they didn’t get a chance to meet up in person before Felton’s run on Broadway, the former costars had a chance to link up at the Cinema Society screening of Sony Pictures Classics’ Merrily We Roll Along — in which Radcliffe stars with Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez — at the Hudson Theatre & The Skylark.

Radcliffe and Felton’s heartfelt reunion occurred 24 years after their first film together, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. They would go on to costar in eight films of the fantasy series from 2001 to 2011.

“It’s very much a pinch me situation. I keep thinking I’m dreaming,” Felton told Today’s Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin when announcing his new role in June. “So, I let go of that character 16 years ago, and now getting a chance to step back in his shoes as a father this time, in a new story. I get to meet Draco as an adult, which is very exciting.”

While The Cursed Child is the first time Felton is gracing the Broadway stage, Radcliffe has a long history in the theatre, including memorable roles in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Merrily We Roll Along, the latter of which earned him a Tony Award.

“It’s lovely. It’s always nice to be here and to come here and to feel so welcome here,” Radcliffe told Us of returning to the Hudson Theatre — where Merrily lived from October 2023 to July 2024, and where he’ll return for his new show, Every Brilliant Thing, next year. “When we were looking at places to do the next show that I’m doing, we obviously visited here, and it was just so lovely to feel at home somewhere so quickly.”

While theater audiences fell in love with Radcliffe as Charley Kringas last year, the whole world will get to see his performance when the Merrily We Roll Along film hits theaters on Friday, December 5.

“It’s a mixed thing to record a play,” Radcliffe told Us. “[It’s] thrilling for people who haven’t been able to see it, but I think there’s always something bittersweet about it for me, because to us Merrily is this thing we did three, 400 times, and it’s sort of the accumulation of all of those.”

He continued: “And now there is one version where I’m like, I’m sure if I watch it again, there’ll be line readings that I’m like, ‘Oh man, why is that the version of that line that I said that night that will now be immortalized?’”

Yet, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m very excited for people who didn’t get to see it, or people who loved it and want to rewatch it lots,” Radcliffe added. “I’m very excited that it exists for all of them.”

Merrily We Roll Along hits theaters December 5