“Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe has never seen “The Sopranos” or “Breaking Bad,” saying that he rather prefers to watch cartoons or reality TV.
In a new interview with Comic Book Resources, Radcliffe — who has had voice roles on animated series including “The Simpsons,” “Robot Chicken,” “BoJack Horseman” and “Rick and Morty” — said he can’t sit through “all the sort of heavy, hour-long stuff.”
“Honestly, I watch cartoons, and I watch reality TV,” Radcliffe told CBR. “I’ve never seen ‘Breaking Bad.’ I’ve never watched ‘The Sopranos’ or ‘The Wire.’ All the sort of heavy, hour-long stuff — just, I can’t.”
Radcliffe added, “I think it does probably in part stem from growing up on ‘The Simpsons’ … I was watching ‘Jeopardy!’ the other night, and one of the contestants credited a ton of his trivia knowledge to ‘The Simpsons.’ That’s absolutely true of me as well. There are so many weird facts and things, from my general knowledge of the world to my sense of humor, [that] were formed in some ways by ‘The Simpsons.’”
He went on to say that shows like “The Simpsons” and “BoJack Horseman” just wouldn’t be the same if they were presented in live-action.
“I think a lot of ‘BoJack Horseman’ would be just too fucking bleak and sad if it wasn’t a talking horse,” Radcliffe said. “The classic example is Homer strangling Bart in ‘The Simpsons.’ In a live-action [series], that’s just like a horrendous act of child abuse that there’s nothing funny about, whereas it’s a running gag in ‘The Simpsons,’ and it’s funny because of what Bart’s neck does.”
He continued, “It makes sense that our generation of people that have grown up on ‘The Simpsons’ would want to continue watching more adult-themed cartoons when they get older.”
Radcliffe is currently in the voice cast of the Netflix animated series “Mulligan,” which released new episodes on May 24. He is also starring in the Broadway revival of “Merrily We Roll Along,” for which he earned his first Tony nomination for best featured actor in a musical.
