“There’s something that’s really beautiful and really lovely about being with someone who just innately understands that about you," said Darke, of her relationship with Radcliffe.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on July 12, 2021. It has since been updated.
Daniel Radcliffe met Erin Darke when they both worked in the 2013 movie Kill Your Darlings. Since then, they have been together, and Radcliffe delved into details of the movie that helped him find his better half, telling PeopleTV in 2019, “Our characters are meeting and flirting with each other, so there is this kind of sweet record of us just meeting for the first time and flirting.” He also joked that “it’ll be a hell of a story to tell our kids one day because of what our characters do with each other.”
In 2015, the Harry Potter actor opened up about how he was immediately attracted to Darke while they did their first scene together, according to ELLE. "There's no acting going on—not from my end, anyway," he said. "There's a moment when she makes me laugh, and I'm laughing as me and not as my character. She was incredibly funny and smart. I knew I was in trouble."
Once they started dating, they were very supportive of each other and their respective careers, per PEOPLE. “One of the first things we bonded over was how much we really love what we do and there’s something that’s really beautiful and really lovely about being with someone who just innately understands that about you,” Darke gushes. “He helps me make self-tapes sometimes. He’s a great reader, by the way. We’re both incredibly supportive of the other person’s career.”
For Radcliffe, it's definitely an added bonus that his girlfriend is also his best friend. "I think that's the kind of relationship I always aspire to have with someone I'm in a relationship with. You want that person to be your best friend," he said, per Us Weekly. "In the case of Erin, we definitely are," the What If alum added.
The actor then went on to talk about his take on relationships, versus what others think about it. "I don't think you can ever control how anything starts. It's not like I seek out that way of meeting people or think I have to be their friend first but I think it's often a very natural thing to progress from into a relationship. The whole modern idea of 'friend zone' and all that stuff—that's a word I don't like very much."
He also admitted that nothing makes him happier than spending time with his other half, given how they have to be apart a lot due to work. “There’s always an element of long-distance with two actors in a relationship,” which is why he’s “very grateful for Skype and FaceTime.” But when they are together, they have a very simple routine. “We play a lot of games […] we watch a lot of TV. We go and see movies. We hang out and eat. We read.” During the pandemic, the two decided to quarantine in New York in Radcliffe’s apartment, and the actor told Vulture they “have a little Post-It on the wall that we’re keeping a tally on."
"There was something about it that just made me laugh, immediately treating it like a prison film,” he joked, adding, “We’re both in the situation where we’ve never been more grateful not to have a kid, or more annoyed that we don’t have a dog. But generally speaking, compared to a lot of people, we are very, very much okay.” Radcliffe and Darke are in a place where even the most boring things seem to be fun. “A day on my own with nothing to do is kind of like, I’ll go crazy by the end of that day,” he said. “But doing the most mundane stuff, like going shopping, with her, it’s just a joy. It’s fun. I never thought I would find going to the supermarket a genuinely fun experience,” he laughed, adding that you know you’ve found the right person when you realize that “if they weren’t there, you could be doing the exact same thing and it would suck, but them being there just makes it awesome.” No one knows what the future has in store for any of us, so the best thing to do would be to make each day count, like Radcliffe and Darke.
References:
https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a32318441/who-is-erin-darke-daniel-radcliffe-girlfriend/
https://people.com/tv/dietland-erin-darke-boyfriend-daniel-radcliffe/
https://www.vulture.com/2020/03/daniel-radcliffe-erin-darke-on-being-the-first-corona-hoax.html
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris
