Susie Figgis

The casting director who discovered Daniel Radcliffe used her instinct to pick lesser-known actors

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When Susie Figgis first cast her eyes on an 11-year-old Daniel Radcliffe, she felt that she had found The Boy Who Lived. “I looked at him and thought: ‘God, he'd be good’” the casting director said.

There were two problems: Radcliffe’s parents didn’t want him to audition to play Harry Potter if it meant moving to Los Angeles, and Warner Bros was more interested in using a young American actor.

Steven Spielberg, the first choice as director, had reportedly wanted Haley Joel Osment, the star of The Sixth Sense, while Chris Columbus, his replacement, was keen on Jake Lloyd, who played Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars reboot, or Liam Aiken, who was Susan Sarandon’s son in Stepmom.

Having cast most of the other parts but sifted fruitlessly through 40,000 applications for the part of JK Rowling’s boy wizard, Figgis resigned from the film, telling the Daily Mail: “I have done my absolute best. We've met some great kids. Ultimately, it’s the director's point of view and vision.”

Warner Bros then decided to make the films in Britain and Radcliffe, who had impressed Columbus when he saw him in the BBC's David Copperfield, was allowed to go for the part. The rest was magical.

Figgis could appreciate his parents’ reluctance. (They had already stopped him from auditioning for Oliver Twist.) She often cast child actors and put their welfare to the fore.