Harry Potter wants to work magic in other film genres

For all the looking ahead, however, Radcliffe's stint as Harry Potter is far from over. The sixth adventure, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," will open Wednesday nationwide, and filming is under way on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the final tale, which will be split in two and released in 2010 and 2011.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" picks up with longtime friends Harry, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) in their sixth year as students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They're maturing, engaged in romances and tests and the like, but the walls of Hogwarts and the protective instincts of headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) may not be enough to protect Harry — or the Muggle and wizard worlds — from Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and his Death Eaters.

Pretty much the franchise's entire ensemble cast returns for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," including Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy, Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape, Maggie Smith as Professor Minerva McGonagall and Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley. Newcomers include Jim Broadbent as potions master Horace Slughorn, Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown, Helen McCrory as Mrs. Malfoy and Hero Fiennes Tiffin as the youthful Tom Riddle.

"To me the main story in this one is the change in Dumbledore and Harry's relationship," Radcliffe says, speaking by telephone from London. "Before it was very much pupil and teacher, and what it is now is very much a general and a foot soldier.

"While all the stuff with Harry and Ginny is wonderful and touching, that's not the drive of the story," he continues. "It's very much the relationship with Dumbledore that really carries the center. ... It's very poignant, the relationship they have."

Not surprisingly Radcliffe, as usual a playful and charming interview subject, found the Harry-Dumbledore scenes the toughest to shoot — but not for the reasons one might expect.

"It was a challenge, but not an unpleasant one," Radcliffe says. "The thing, in terms of the scenes with Dumbledore, was trying to cope with Michael Gambon's total and utter lack of any kind of professionalism at all times. ... "

The young actor breaks off, laughing.

"No, he is wonderful and I love him and he's one of the greatest actors I've ever worked with," Radcliffe says. "But it is amazing, because he will be trying to actively make you laugh right up until the point when the director says 'Action.' "

Radcliffe and company started to shoot "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" a couple of months after the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The actor read the book immediately, but insists that its revelations about Harry's future in no way influenced his performance in the sixth film.

"For me it was never really a massive issue," Radcliffe says. "For me, knowing Harry's fate, that didn't really affect [anything]. It was a conscious effort to not let that influence how I played him in the film.

"Possibly it would affect Alan Rickman and his performance," the young actor adds, referring to some major character developments for Snape this time around, "but I know that Alan for a long time has known things about Snape which nobody else did other than Jo [Rowling]. So I think he's probably been playing them all along."

Meanwhile, production hurtles forward on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." Though he would have been finished by now if the story were being told as a single film, Radcliffe says that he happily agreed to extend his stay at Hogwarts when the decision was made to spread the final novel across two pictures.

"There was a lot of talk, 'Can we do it in one?' " he says, "and I was always of the mind-set that in the seventh [book] there is so little that you can cut. So I'm thrilled that we're doing it in two parts. I don't think we would have done it justice otherwise."

Even so, the day will come soon enough when David Yates — who directed "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007) and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," and is behind the camera again for both halves of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" — will call "Cut!" for the final time.

"To finally finish them will be bizarre," Radcliffe says, "but also exciting, because I'll then be out in the big wide world. I'll be very, very sad to leave it behind. The films, particularly the last ones, will stand the test of time. I'd love them to be remembered."