"I'm very new, yes. Very new and very shit."
July 17, 2015 6:37 PM   Subscribe

 
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posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 6:37 PM on July 17, 2015


This is like me at my job but I've been there for two years.
posted by coolxcool=rad at 6:47 PM on July 17, 2015 [38 favorites]


I don't really know who he is besides "Harry Potter" (which I've never seen) but that was cute.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 6:47 PM on July 17, 2015


More celebrities doing "normal" work but for longer times, like hidden cameras show George Clooney as an office manager but for five years. You could get a lot of surprising footage.
posted by user92371 at 6:51 PM on July 17, 2015 [54 favorites]


daniel radcliffe is fully awesome
posted by FirstMateKate at 6:57 PM on July 17, 2015 [14 favorites]


I so love that dude. His turn on Extras was the best
posted by echocollate at 7:03 PM on July 17, 2015 [15 favorites]


Aww, another person who can set off a lens flare with their skin. I don't feel so alone.
posted by Anonymous at 7:04 PM on July 17, 2015


I don't really know who he is besides "Harry Potter" (which I've never seen) but that was cute.

You know... he was in that horse play.

(I didn't see it..)
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:11 PM on July 17, 2015 [23 favorites]


If you haven't seen anything other than Harry Potter, then you must watch:
Horns (Movie)
A Young Doctor's Notebook (TV Series)
Both on Netflix.

I really like him in his recent stuff too. He's goofy and down-to-earth and this little thing shows that too. It's funny to see celebrities all flustered in normal jobs.
posted by Crystalinne at 7:16 PM on July 17, 2015 [5 favorites]


Wow, he's shockingly bad at that. I think literally 99% of people in the industrialized world would do a better job. Still fun video, though.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:17 PM on July 17, 2015


I think everyone sucks at being a receptionist at first. It's a job that requires you to know everybody and everything in the building.

And worse, how to use the phone system.
posted by randomkeystrike at 7:20 PM on July 17, 2015 [46 favorites]


He is precious and too pure for this world and I want to marry him even though I'm a foot taller than he is

No, not really, more like 5 inches taller but still
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:38 PM on July 17, 2015 [80 favorites]


He is precious and too pure for this world and I want to marry him even though I'm a foot taller than he is

posted by Hermione Granger


What would Ron say?
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 7:44 PM on July 17, 2015 [55 favorites]


posted by Hermione Granger at 7:38 PM on July 17
posted by rifflesby at 7:45 PM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Wow, he's shockingly bad at that.

His dyspraxia is (for a dyspraxic person, at least) hearteningly obvious. He's a nice man and he's on my stumbling and organisationally confused team.
posted by howfar at 7:45 PM on July 17, 2015 [6 favorites]


harmony shipper for lyf here okay
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:46 PM on July 17, 2015 [22 favorites]


howfar: "His dyspraxia is (for a dyspraxic person, at least) hearteningly obvious. He's a nice man and he's on my stumbling and organisationally confused team."

Wow, I had never heard of that, nor did I know he had it. Thanks for teaching me something new. It does sound like something that would make someone particularly unsuitable for that kind of job.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:54 PM on July 17, 2015 [3 favorites]


I love him! So impressed by what a charming, hard-working fellow he turned out to be.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:09 PM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


And LOL Joe Jonas.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:14 PM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Nice vid, and I don't want to be That Person, but I guess i do really.

Does that place normally have multiple camera-peeps behind video cameras in reception?

Perhaps it does. In which case, carry on.
posted by Devonian at 8:19 PM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Nthing Young Doctor's Notebook as worth a viewer's time.
I also enjoyed The F Word , a Canadian film (re-titled What If for the US audience). I went and saw it as it was adapted from a local-to-me author's play (T. J. Dawe's Toothpaste and Cigars), and quite enjoyed it.
posted by chapps at 8:33 PM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]


Jeez, what a relentlessly charming young man. I always get the feeling that humility and being nice to people are both very important to him. Somebody raised that kid right.

As funny as it was, I can see how it could be a genuinely stressful experience for him. First, he's doing a new job, and that's always rough. Second, he's never had a job even remotely like this before, and it doesn't seem like they gave him much training to speak of before he got behind the desk. He's grown up in a Hollywood bubble, and has probably never even had occasion to glance in the direction of admin stuff. Third, there are cameras filming him as he fumbles. And finally, he never knew if any of these random people would flip out and make a big awkward scene about meeting Harry Potter. (And indeed, a few people did!)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:01 PM on July 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


oh come on the correct ship is harry/neville/luna. everyone knows that.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:05 PM on July 17, 2015 [7 favorites]


Jeez, what a relentlessly charming young man. I always get the feeling that humility and being nice to people are both very important to him. Somebody raised that kid right.

I think we have the entire British film and stage star community to thank for their mentorship and guidance during the 10 years that the Harry Potter film series was in production. Radcliffe seems to have managed to avoid Child Star Syndrome, and I think it's largely because he was surrounded by the mid-age and elder statesmen of British theater and screen for the deeply formative years of his life. Same with the other two main kids, and many of their peers. Even the actor playing Draco seems to have emerged as a healthy person even if his career has a steep mountain to climb.

Makes you wonder what the fuck is wrong with Hollywood.
posted by hippybear at 9:10 PM on July 17, 2015 [54 favorites]


Radcliffe seems like a really lovely person, but he didn't go through life unscathed. He drank heavily during the filming of the later Potter films and went through a really reclusive period, but he seems to have pulled himself out of it.

He probably would have been a lot worse off if he had lived in the typical child actor environment, but he seems to still carry a lot of anxiety about doing the right thing and not disappointing people, so this gig was probably genuinely stressful for him.
posted by maudlin at 9:24 PM on July 17, 2015 [12 favorites]


I always get the feeling that humility and being nice to people are both very important to him. Somebody raised that kid right.

Well I mean geez, stash a kid under the freakin' stairs for most of his young life and it's bound to have an effect on his development, is all I'm sayin'.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:56 PM on July 17, 2015 [9 favorites]


Harry and Hermione should have been together, dammit. Why the heck would you want to be with someone who you argue all the time with?

Because JKR insisted that everyone marry a Weasley, that's why.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:58 PM on July 17, 2015 [7 favorites]


I don't know what Nylon is but every person who came into that reception area did appear entirely suited to work at or consult with a business called Nylon.
posted by Flashman at 10:01 PM on July 17, 2015 [14 favorites]


When we look back on this era from the vantage point of decades, we'll all realize that casting Radcliffe/Watson/Grint was the single greatest achievement of mankind.

Going to the moon? Yeah, that was pretty tough. That's adorable. Now, find three British kids that will stand up to a dozen years of worldwide scrutiny.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:06 PM on July 17, 2015 [15 favorites]


Wow, he's shockingly bad at that.

Bad at what? Being Daniel Radcliffe? He's just sitting there waiting for people to recognize him. Whatever real business anyone had with the real receptionist isn't really a factor. Radcliffe is great, he seems like a really genuine guy, but this premise was just dumb to begin with.
posted by zardoz at 10:09 PM on July 17, 2015 [2 favorites]


jenfullmoon: Because JKR insisted that everyone marry a Weasley, that's why.

OH MY GOD!! she did, didn't she. How did I not notice that?
posted by Xere at 10:19 PM on July 17, 2015 [10 favorites]


He's got a very likeable public persona that you hope isn't just an act. He reminds me of a millennial's version of Michael J Fox. You could, in fact, imagine them playing the father son roles in a film together. Eventually there will be a BTTF remake, and it's a pity that Radcliffe will be too old to play the lead.
posted by Beholder at 10:41 PM on July 17, 2015 [9 favorites]


This was completely charming!
posted by MissySedai at 10:43 PM on July 17, 2015


OH MY GOD!! she did, didn't she. How did I not notice that?

Tonks married Lupin.

And then they both died.
posted by howfar at 11:16 PM on July 17, 2015 [13 favorites]


"Thomas Mann wrote an interesting paper called "Goethe and Tolstoy," based on this idea of Schiller's: He compared Dostoevsky to the sentimental artist, as Schiller had described himself, and Tolstoy to the naive artist. Tolstoy was a property owner, who used to put on a nice silk shirt, go out, and harvest the grain with his peasants. He would make believe he was a peasant, but that was all part of the game too." (Joseph Campbell: A Joseph Campbell Companion, 2011)
posted by Auden at 12:48 AM on July 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


Harry and Hermione's platonic friendship is wonderful. She is definitely too good for Ron. My OTP is Hermione/Getting Shit Done.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 1:18 AM on July 18, 2015 [25 favorites]


Aw I loved this! He always seems like such a top bloke when I read interviews with him. I've also been a receptionist many times and especially if you're temping this is pretty much true to life: sit here and immediately know All The Things which you can't so prepare for a day of faffing and bumbling and apologising and asking "who's that what do I do with this where's that's now?" He actually did really well!
posted by billiebee at 2:31 AM on July 18, 2015 [5 favorites]


I think we have the entire British film and stage star community to thank for their mentorship and guidance during the 10 years that the Harry Potter film series was in production....

Makes you wonder what the fuck is wrong with Hollywood.


It was a decade-long, eight-film megaproject that had its pick of any top-tier talent it wanted ("top-tier" both in terms of sheer talent and in terms of getting along with people, *cough*DanielDay-Lewis*cough*). It's less "what the fuck is wrong with Hollywood" and more "extreme outlier".
posted by Etrigan at 5:06 AM on July 18, 2015 [1 favorite]


He's a Tom Lehrer fan, so he's a good egg in my book.
posted by beowulf573 at 6:01 AM on July 18, 2015 [9 favorites]


This is so uncomfortable and exactly how I would handle being a receptionist, only without the benefits of being charming, British, or a world-famous actor.
posted by Gordafarin at 6:19 AM on July 18, 2015 [5 favorites]


It was a decade-long, eight-film megaproject that had its pick of any top-tier talent it wanted ("top-tier" both in terms of sheer talent and in terms of getting along with people

You reckon they chose talent based on pleasantness and sociability? Sounds terribly nice, also terribly unlikely. I will go for the "UK film industry and people are, in general, less fucked up and full of themselves than you might expect" explanation.
posted by epo at 8:28 AM on July 18, 2015 [3 favorites]


Because JKR insisted that everyone marry a Weasley

Producing the Kwisatz Haderach just keeps getting more complicated.
posted by Panjandrum at 8:42 AM on July 18, 2015 [12 favorites]


I've had to cover for receptionists a few times. The first thing you always do is put the phone on "DND".
posted by Brocktoon at 8:47 AM on July 18, 2015 [5 favorites]


Molly and Arthur have a secret plan to take over the entire wizarding world through judiciously marrying off their kids. The Weasleys are best understood as a Game of Thrones-style great house, rather than as a family per se.

Their greatest success to date was in somehow confunding the future Minister for Magic into marrying one of their most useless children.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 9:06 AM on July 18, 2015 [16 favorites]


You reckon they chose talent based on pleasantness and sociability? Sounds terribly nice, also terribly unlikely. I will go for the "UK film industry and people are, in general, less fucked up and full of themselves than you might expect" explanation.

I'm sure that people get passed over for acting jobs all the time on the basis of people not liking them, just like in any other business. But I also suspect that the UK's combined theatre/TV/film industries are sufficiently small and close-knit for there to be have been a lot of preexisting enduring relationships outside of the making of the film, both among cast and crew. Throw in the fact that there were lots of roles for actors in their 50s and over, and the environment probably approximated the dynamics of an extended family better than most film sets, particularly because it went on with many of the same on and offscreen personnel for years. So while the production being British probably had something to do with it, I'm not sure it shows much about us being intrinsically nicer.

But yeah. As far as former child actors go, the young cast of the Potter films do seem to have been extraordinarily lucky in their experiences, and, for the most part, to have recognised and capitalised upon that with extraordinary grace and good sense.
posted by howfar at 9:16 AM on July 18, 2015 [2 favorites]


My reaction would be:

"OMG--IT'S--YOU'RE--HOLY SH--

ahem. Um, this will be only time in my life I will get to say this: could you fetch me a coffee, Daniel? Thanks."
posted by Kitteh at 9:47 AM on July 18, 2015 [6 favorites]


I always thought the HP movie series was so interesting for how they dealt with the child actors, with the main cast basically being looked after by the entire UK theatre and movie world, with more then a little self-interest cause these movies are going to made, they can't really recast them, and if it goes wrong it'll go wrong in front of literally the entire world so let's Not Fuck These Kids Up For Life Okay? like that's what you have to do if you say ...sign children to ten year contracts.

Weirdly, it's like they did go to a strange school to grow up in.
posted by The Whelk at 11:06 AM on July 18, 2015 [16 favorites]


ahem. Um, this will be only time in my life I will get to say this: could you fetch me a coffee, Daniel? Thanks.

"Accio Caffeum."
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:12 PM on July 18, 2015 [7 favorites]


Ursula Hitler: Somebody raised that kid right.

Hippybear: I think we have the entire British film and stage star community to thank for their mentorship and guidance during the 10 years that the Harry Potter film series was in production.

It takes a Hogsmeade.
posted by tzikeh at 12:57 PM on July 18, 2015 [17 favorites]


I don't think he's bad a being a receptionist, it's just that he hasn't been given any training, and also there's nobody around for him to ask. On any normal job, if it was your first day, you would usually have an experienced person hanging round near you who would show you how to do things. You wouldn't just be left to figure it all out for yourself. I don't think anyone else would have done any better than Radcliffe in that situation, considering he didn't know who all the staff were, or what the procedures were. It can take weeks or months to get competent in a particular job of that kind (and years to get really good). It's just a matter of learning what to do in each of the various situation which might crop up. Once you know the procedures, you can do the job fine.
posted by rubber duck at 1:35 AM on July 19, 2015


Here's a lovely article from JK Rowling where she admits that Harry and Hermoine should have been together.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 2:33 AM on July 19, 2015


I can't get behind Harry/Hermione because they are both so miserable whenever Ron's not around. Harry/Ron/Hermione, however...

(Also, thanks to whoever mentioned Harmonians. Oh, the memories!)
posted by chaiminda at 4:20 AM on July 19, 2015 [2 favorites]


Harry cannot marry Hermione because she is Guinevere, who loves Lancelot (Ron.). The one true king must be alone like Christ. (Except for that tacked-on apology for a relationship with Ginny)
posted by jfwlucy at 5:26 AM on July 19, 2015


well yeah but she can't marry Ron, because he's Dumbledore, who loves Wizard Hitler.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 7:40 AM on July 19, 2015 [5 favorites]


More celebrities doing "normal" work but for longer times, like hidden cameras show George Clooney as an office manager but for five years. You could get a lot of surprising footage.

Relevant Armando Iannucci . Like Stewart Lee and Mitchell and Webb, there is an Armando Iannucci for all situations.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:07 PM on July 19, 2015


He's also the guy that rapped quite well on Jimmy Fallon.
posted by adamms222 at 2:36 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


I can't believe they got Elijah Wood from the Harry Potter movies to be their receptionist.
posted by gucci mane at 4:40 PM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]


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