Daniel Radcliffe Said He Was Only Ever Starstruck by One of His 'Harry Potter' Co-Stars

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Daniel Radcliffe was just 12 when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone premiered back in 2001, and because he was so young, he really had no idea how impressive of a cast he had joined. Now, looking back 20 years after the first of the eight-film franchise premiered, Radcliffe realizes just how lucky he was to work with such big names while playing the role of Harry Potter—but admits he was really only starstruck by one person.

"Well, now, I'm aware of who they are in a much more significant way than I was when I was 9 or 10," Radcliffe told Stephen Colbert during an August 19th visit to The Late Show of Harry Potter alumni Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall), Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore), Alan Rickman (Professor Snape), and more.

"At the time I wasn't starstruck by any of those people," Radcliffe continued. "But the first person I remember being starstruck by was Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) because that was the age when I was aware of who he was and his work and was also getting more serious about acting, myself. But before that, when you meet someone as a 9-year-old, it's sort of hard to gain starstruckness of them later on."

For example, Radcliffe recalled the first time he met Dame Maggie Smith while filming a David Copperfield adaptation for BBC. "Maggie was the person that recommended me for Potter, so she's the reason I ended up doing that," he said, adding, "I didn't know who she was. My parents were like, 'Oh my god, you're working with Maggie Smith. That's huge.' But I was not a Prime of Miss Jean Brodie fan at 9."

He admitted that the only thing he knew about Smith was that she is a dame. So the first words out of his mouth were, "Do you want me to call you Dame?"

"And she was just immediately charmed," Radcliffe told Colbert. "She was like, 'No, don't be ridiculous. Call me Maggie.'"

Imagine being on a first-name basis with Dame Maggie Smith—now that's something to be starstruck about.