HARRY Potter star Daniel Radcliffe revealed this week that acting had driven him to drink.
And I know exactly how he feels.
His acting's often driven me to drink too. Particularly during that difficult Half-Blood Prince "k.d. Lang lookalike" phase.
Yes, the Harry Potter film series has had more unsightly wobbles than Hagrid doing squat thrusts on a Power Plate.
Not just for Daniel - who, let's be clear, is brilliant in this final chapter. But in terms of looks, script, pacing, casting and everything else to boot.
When things clicked, boy did they click. Philosopher's Stone, Prisoner Of Azkaban and Deathly Hallows Part One all had an awesome, heart-swelling and uniquely British power that no other family fantasy film series could touch. (I'm looking right at you, Aslan old son.)
But when they didn't (all the others) the films were fiddly scene-by-scene replicas of books that really needed to be kicked into a movie-like shape before being put on the big screen.
The good news - the frickin' brilliant news, in fact - is that Deathly Hallows Part Two is a better ending than the saga probably deserves. Because not only is it the perfect companion piece to last year's brooding, suspenseful and frostily beautiful Part One, it's pure blockbuster cinema done right (not counting 10 minutes of unavoidable straight-from- the-book plot clunkery at the start).
The story kicks off with the same kind of brief, wordless scenes that set up Part One so well.
Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes doing a Brian Sewell impression) has just pinched the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's concrete death bunker.
Snape (Alan Rickman, looking more and more like the lead singer in a Cure tribute act) is overseeing the Death Eaters taking charge of the remaining Hogwarts students, including Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) and Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis, who finally gets a chance to shine and NAILS it).
And Harry, Ron and Hermione (Daniel, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) have regrouped at Shell Cottage, before they continue on their quest to destroy the remaining horcruxes.
While the film doesn't make any efforts to explain this set-up to newcomers, there's unlikely to be any of them in the audience anyway.

Though countryside skies and childhood fairytales promise a notion of their proximity and generosity, the truth is, stars rest in space at a distance beyond the mind's capacity to fully conceive. Steady fireballs burning lightyears away, it's more than their glow that make them the perfect metaphor for Hollywood's fame hierarchy: the sheer will it takes over so many thankless years to reach star status parallels the space flight required.

With that grit and patience and understanding of greatness required to reach that star level, conversely, the meteoritic rise and atmospheric flameouts of Hollywood one-hit wonders mimics the dangers of untethered space travel. So often, it's the child actor, shot from a rocket into show business at an age far earlier than is truly advisable, that assumes that arc of the solar flare, or the imploding dwarf that never shone bright enough. The stories of troubled adulthoods following childhood flame are legion, with a certain extra mettle required to avoid the fate.

Perhaps appropriately, given his character's legendary magical powers and storyline of simmering bravery and valor, it seemed that Daniel Radcliffe, the big screen's Harry Potter, would defy those pitfalls and reach that star status, so calm and collected and level-headed, he. And as his final Hogwarts adventure rushes toward worldwide release, it does indeed look as if he will be the exception to the rule, a star in his adult years akin to a Ron Howard or Michael J. Fox. But as he reveals, it wasn't always so written in stone that he would make that transition.

Speaking to GQ UK about a mid-Potter lapse in self-control and appreciation, Radcliffe revealed that for a while, "I became so reliant on alcohol to enjoy stuff. There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person's lifestyle that really isn't suited to me."

Now 21, Radcliffe largely escaped much paparazzi scrutiny for his hard-partying ways (though some photos were captured by the Daily Mirror), a stroke of luck rarely afforded a child star in the midst of growing pains. And though any photos that would catch him drinking would now only reveal a partier, not a law breaker, Radcliffe says he's moved past that point.