HBO is currently on the search for the next Harry Potter, but a lot of fans thought that WB had already caught lightning in a bottle when they found Daniel Radcliffe to play the part.
What’s interesting about Radcliffe getting cast though, was that the choice to have him came from the most unlikely place—Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin.
How Macaulay Culkin Indirectly Got Daniel Radcliffe to Play Harry Potter
In an interview on Demi Lovato’s show Child Star (via Entertainment Weekly), Harry Potter director Chris Columbus talked about his experience working with Culkin and how it influenced him to pick the boy who would be Harry Potter.
It all really boiled down to the experience of child stars, and how their lives dramatically change when they become celebrities. Columbus explains, "I came from a working-class family, and I've seen it a couple of times with kids when you see someone who comes from a working-class family, and suddenly they're thrown into — the kid becomes the breadwinner for the family.”
Columbus then recalls how they cast Culkin in the part that shot him to stardom, but they didn’t particularly do the research on his home life—which resulted in a lot of family drama for Culkin and his other family members who were also part of show business. Columbus continues:
"Once we wrapped, I didn't know what was going on [with Culkin]… We didn’t know that much about the [Culkin] family at the beginning; as we were shooting, we learned a little more. The stories are hair-raising. I was casting a kid who truly had a troubled family life."
This led to Columbus realizing that when they cast Harry, they had to make sure that the parents had to also be taken into account. “It was as important to cast the parents as it was to cast the kids."
The World of Child Actors Explored
Only recently has there been a huge expose on the world of child actors and how they usually grow into dysfunctional adults because the Hollywood system didn’t take care of them properly. Besides Lovato’s Child Star documentary which featured child actors like Drew Barrymore and Kenan Thompson, this year also saw the release of Quiet on the Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV which put the spotlight on Nickelodeon and child predators who were responsible for everyone’s favorite kids’ shows.
For now though, there are multiple laws protecting child actors from otherwise irresponsible parents. That being said, some of them still have their horror stories when it comes to their experiences. Modern Family’s Ariel Winter had to be emancipated from her mother while she was doing the show, and Shia LaBeouf had explored his complicated relationship with his father in his movie Honey Boy.
The Search for the Next Boy Who Lived
As for now, HBO and WB are bent on rebooting the Harry Potter books for the small screen, and the search is on for a new Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Just like with the original trio, this new show is going to be a huge commitment, and the producers will have to make sure that they can keep these kids safe psychologically and emotionally for the next ten or so years.
The Harry Potter reboot has no release date but is aiming for a production start next year.