As far as red carpet premieres go this was a low key event. The Woman In Black stars the now grown up wunderkind Daniel Radcliffe, who took to the event like the seasoned young gentlemen that he is. The ever accommodating and awfully polite star devoted equal time for not just the obligatory photo ops and press calls but to patiently sign as many autographs as he could. One could say it was the Daniel Radcliffe Show, a nice and breezy introduction to carrying a film on your own. He certainly looked dapper in a double breasted suit complemented by the slick side parting in his well combed hair.
But while Daniel looked the part of the young star, he wasn’t talking, or at least saying much apart from how scary the film actually is. Other people were talking and saying a lot on his behalf. Fellow actor Shaun Dooley told of Radcliffe’s generosity and patience in a story where the two were dining and an eager fan approached him for an autograph. Now the fan had brought over 30 Harry Potter books and posters. Shaun had to ask the young actor. “Does it get on your nerves?” To which Daniel replied, “Look I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Harry Potter and there is no way I could be angry at Harry Potter, it’s made me.”
If the night was to belong to anyone else it had to be the celebrated screenwriter Jane Goldman. Her fire engine trademark red hair was in full force as she worked the carpet with a strong sense of feminine grace. A welcome antidote to the identikit female arm candy on show. She spoke a about the challenges of adapting The Woman In Black, by “staying true to the story and the thing you loved originally, then telling it in the language of cinema” and of how “crucial the atmosphere and setting is to it”. The unstoppable Goldman will be tackling more film projects including a sci-fi action piece and a very quirky fantasy in the near future.
