Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe will be getting a very different kind of birthday present to his teenage contemporaries when he turns 18 on July 23 this year. He's due to receive access to the income from his outings as the boy wizard, which is estimated to stand at £20 million.
Te young thespian won't be blowing it on a glitzy party, though. "I'm not really a party person," he admits in an interview with The Sunday Times. "I really don't know what to do with myself when I'm standing there."
Parties aside, he does have some ideas of how to spend his millions. Despite not having his driving licence yet he is thinking of splashing out on a Toyota Prius, or buying his own place - he currently lives with his parents in a terraced house in Fulham - and will be certainly be heading to the pub for a pint.
He has no concerns as to whether girls will be after him for the wrong reasons, however. "Generally I'd rather take the chance if I really like someone," says Daniel, who is currently single. "I've got quite a good instinct for people. Somebody said to me the other day, 'Do you ever worry that girls are just giving you attention because of who you are?'. I was like, 'I'm 17, I don't care! It's wonderful.' "
Daniel's birthday month is significant for a another reason. It marks the release of the fifth film in the famous series, Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, as well as the publication of JK Rowling's seventh and final book Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.
While adulthood certainly has its perks, Daniel says he'll be sad to see the back of not only his teen years but the orphaned boy wizard he has played for nine years. "When I've shoot the last scene of the last movie, I will be devastated," he admits. "Harry Potter has provided my friends, seen me though my exams. I've had my first girlfriend, my first kiss. It's been my life." He doesn't know what end is in store for Harry but reveals he hopes he'll die, "I have a melodramatic yearning for a death scene," he says.
There's no doubt Dan, as he likes to be called, is growing up fast. This month he appears in his first stage role at London's Gielgud Theatre in the Peter Shaffer play Equus, and in August he will shoot his first major TV role in My Boy Jack, a drama about the son of writer Rudyard Kipling.
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