The disappointment was fairly crushing as a kid. But I wouldn’t swap Daniel Radcliffe’s £95m fortune for my happily anonymous teenage years

In hindsight, the quiff was probably a bad idea. It was the morning of my final audition to play Harry Potter in 2000. I should have been rehearsing the scene I’d be performing later that day at Leavesden Studios, in front of a panel that included director Chris Columbus. Instead, I spent half an hour papier-macheing my fringe with fistfuls of wet-look hair gel, intent on giving these Hollywood bigwigs some of the old razzle dazzle.

Needless to say, securing the lead role in one of the biggest film franchises of all time requires more than a hairstyle. Mid-audition, as I anxiously fumbled through my lines, I locked eyes with one of the producers. He gave me a smile that I’m sure was meant to be encouraging, but it was clear he’d already made up his mind.