Harry Potter Star Admits to Brain Disorder
August 18, 2008 by Amber
Filed under Daniel Radcliffe
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has admitted he suffers from a mild form of dyspraxia, a brain disorder that if often associated with clumsiness and learning difficulties.
The star of J.K. Rowling’s epic series said that while he’s not as affected by the disorder as some sufferers, he still has trouble with simple tasks, like tying his shoelaces and writing.
“I sometimes think, ‘Why, oh why, has Velcro not taken off?’” he joked in a recent interview to promote his Broadway debut in the play Equus.
But it’s not so bad, Radcliffe said, as the dyspraxia was the reason he got into acting – and subsequently won him the role that made him a millionaire before he was 18 – in the first place.
Radcliffe explained that because he wasn’t doing so well at school, he turned his sights to the world of acting, a decision his mother wasn’t originally pleased with.
“My mother said, ‘Oh no you don’t,’” when he first voiced his desire to act at the tender age of five.
However, she finally allowed him to audition for the role of David Copperfield in a BBC version of the Dickens classic to boost his confidence, and the rest, they say, is history.
“I was having a hard time at school in terms of being c**p at everything, with no discernible talent,” Radcliffe said.
Dr. David Younger, a leading authority on dyspraxia from the New York University Medical School, said it was a testiment to Radcliffe’s acting that he has been able to hide his condition until now.
“I’m a big fan of the whole Harry Potter series and I am surprised Daniel Radcliffe suffers from dyspraxia,” the neurologist said.
“He clearly suffers from a mild form, but the fact he shows no sign of it at all is a great tribute to his acting skills and makes him a role model for other people with this condition.”
Dr. Younger added: “In the majority of children and young people with dyspraxia, we cannot find the cause so the basic treatment is occupational therapy – teaching them to make a plan for their actions and rehearse their movements.”
Radcliffe’s spokeswoman confirmed that the 19-year-old was suffering from the brain disorder, highlighting that he was only mildly affected by it.
“Yes, Dan Radcliffe does have dyspraxia,” the spokeswoman said. “This is something he has never hidden. Thankfully his condition is very mild and at worst manifests itself in an inability to ties his shoe laces and bad handwriting.”
Radcliffe’s new movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, won’t be released until July 2009, after Warner Bros. pushed back the release date eight months, citing the writer’s strike and monetary gain as the reason for the shift.
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