Daniel Radcliffe on Self-Isolating with His Girlfriend, False Reports About Coronavirus Diagnosis
Daniel Radcliffe is staying healthy — and inside.
As the coronavirus (COVID-19) first began to spread rapidly around the world, an internet rumor spread claiming Daniel Radcliffe was the “first famous person” to test positive for the potentially deadly virus.
Speaking to Vulture, the Harry Potter star and his longtime girlfriend Erin Darke opened up about the experience, and how they’ve spent their time social distancing together.
“I was doing a play in London, which obviously had to finish a little early, but at the time we were still doing it,” Radcliffe, 30, recalled of when he first heard about the rumor that he had the virus. “We’d done the matinee and I went into hair and makeup for the evening show, and the hair and makeup artist, a lovely guy called Rob, turned around with a sort of knowing smile, and he was like, ‘You’ve got coronavirus.’ I was like, ‘What?! I’m sure I don’t. I just did a play.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, my niece just texted me.’ ”
In mid-March, a fake Twitter account with the handle @BBCNewsTonight reported that the actor had contracted coronavirus. It quickly circulated around the internet before people began to realize it was a hoax.
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“So I was immediately like, quite amused by it. It’s not the first time I’ve had something crazy written about me. I don’t ever think there’s been a rumor about me that was so topical, that was pivoting off the news,” Radcliffe said.
“The original tweet was something like, ‘Daniel Radcliffe becomes the first famous person to get coronavirus.’ And I was like, that’s such a weird distinction. Surely the first person to get coronavirus is the first famous person to get coronavirus,” he added.
Meanwhile, Darke, 35, was on a plane when the rumor broke, telling the outlet that when she got off the flight she was greeted by an onslaught of text messages.
Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic Daniel Radcliffe; Erin Darke
“As soon as the plane landed, I turned my phone on and I had all these texts like, ‘Tell me the internet’s wrong!’ ‘Is Daniel okay?’ I was like, ‘What the f— is happening?’ And finally a couple people texted me, ‘Oh, it was a hoax, never mind,’ ” she explained to the outlet. “But I also had a text from Dan asking what he should do with the Invisalign that I accidentally left in the retainer when I left. I was like, I think he’s okay?”
The actress went on to add that she never felt worried for Radcliffe. “I’d just seen him that morning. I was just very confused,” she joked.
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Radcliffe, in fact, didn’t address the rumor with Darke until the next day, after a series of journalists during his pre-scheduled press calls asked him about it.
“I think I was like, filing it under — Erin and I have been together long enough that she also knows weird stuff gets written about me occasionally,” he explained to Vulture.
Now, the British star wonders if someone would still start a hoax after understanding the gravity of the pandemic.
“Even in the relatively short time since that happened, the gravity of the situation has sunken in a bit more,” he said. “I don’t think people would be so quick to make something up. Erin saw the article about the people who’d done the hoax, and they said they wanted to make a point in how easy it is to get people to believe things that aren’t true. I feel like we’ve got that point. Everyone is all too aware of that.”
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“Also, at some point, I might get it!” he added, which is why he and Good Girls Revolt star have been staying inside and socially distancing in Radcliffe’s New York City apartment.
“We have a little Post-It on the wall that we’re keeping a tally on. There was something about it that just made me laugh, immediately treating it like a prison film. We’re both in the situation where we’ve never been more grateful not to have a kid, or more annoyed that we don’t have a dog,” Radcliffe said. “But generally speaking, compared to a lot of people, we are very, very much okay.”
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