“I feel like I should be educated,” the actor, who formerly played J.K. Rowling’s “Boy Who Lived,” said of his role in popular memes.
Daniel Radcliffe during an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Sept. 12, 2018.Andrew Lipovsky/NBC
Jimmy Fallon offered Daniel Radcliffe a primer on the world of memes he has inspired since starring in the Harry Potter films on The Tonight Show Wednesday night.
“I don’t seek them out,” Radcliffe responded when Fallon asked him whether he had ever thought a meme of himself was pretty funny. “I feel like I should be educated.”
In response, Fallon presented him with a few placards of notable Harry Potter memes, starting with “Harry Pugger,” showing a pug in the wizard character’s signature round glasses and Gryffindor robes. “What’s not to like?” It’s got a pun, a cute dog, it’s great,” Radcliffe said.
The next showed Radcliffe’s Potter holding a “Golden Snitch” from the fictional game of Quidditch with the caption, “If you’re havin’ Quidditch problems I feel bad for you son / I got 99 problems but a snitch ain’t one.” The meme prompted Radcliffe to reflect on how he feels differently about his role in the Harry Potter movies today as opposed to when he was acting in them: “As a kid, I never felt cool at any point playing that character, and these things go like, ‘No, people thought that was pretty cool.’”
Radcliffe was on the show to promote The Lifespan of a Fact, a play depicting the troubled publication of John D’Agata’s essay of the same name, about a teen suicide. The Lifespan of a Fact, which also stars Cherry Jones and Bobby Cannavale, opens Oct. 18 at New York’s Studio 54.
Watch more of Radcliffe’s reactions on The Tonight Show below.