'Keep acting' is the plan for teenage Harry Potter stars (Roundup)

Jul 6, 2009, 17:08 GMT

London - Britain's teenage Harry Potter stars have caught the stage bug and are set on an acting career after the release of the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the penultimate adventure in the seven-book series.

   'Keep acting is the plan, as long as I can,' Daniel Radcliffe, who has played Harry Potter throughout, told a news conference in London Monday.

   The handsome 19-year-old, whose estimated fortune of 30 million pounds (48.6 million dollars) makes him the 12th richest young person in Britain, also revealed that he is learning to dance ballet to equip himself for a 'future without Potter.'

   'I need to make myself as viable a choice for any part as I possibly can,' he said about his future.

'I'm not saying I was Oscar Wilde at 14, but I had a line for anything they could throw at me,' said Radcliffe, who has already appeared naked on stage in Peter Shaffer's play Equus in London.

Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the world-famous series of British writer JK Rowling, is equally sure about her plans.

   'I'm off to university in August, but that does not mean that I'll never be acting again. I hope I can continue to act,' the 19-year-old said.

   Watson, who had an offer to study English Literature at Britain's Cambridge University, has chosen to go to a top US university to further her education.

   'I just want to be more of a teenager and be more normal again,' she said at a news conference in London Monday, hinting at the 'celebrity' status the Potter stars have achieved in Britain.

   'Probably we grew up quicker than other children,' said Watson, now a beautiful and much-courted teenager on London's celebrity social scene.

   'Sometimes I have to bring myself back because she (Hermione) is so innocent and vulnerable,' she said about growing up. Watson is estimated to have made a fortune of 12 million pounds from the Potter series.

   Radcliffe, who admits that kissing scenes for him are now 'just normal,' said about his star attraction among female fans: 'There is that side, the red carpet and the shrieking fans.'

   But there was also another side, the Daniel Radcliffe who could sit for hours in his underpants in a darkened room to watch cricket on TV.

   Radcliffe rejected as 'really incestuous' the idea that he should have had a fling with Watson.

   'There was never anybody I fancied that much in the cast, though conspiracy theorists always like to say that Emma and I are dating. Sorry guys, it's not happening, it's just not,' he said.

   Watson added that it would have been a 'nice story for the media' which, however, 'we could not provide.'

   Rupert Grint, who plays Harry's friend Ron, also said he would like to stay with film. 'If it works out, I would like to stay with film. Let's wait and see.'

   Grint, 20, said it was 'strange' to look at the old films when they were children. 'It's just not us.'

'The film was a key step along the way and a transition point,' said producer David Yates about the stars' change from child to adult actors.

   Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is to be premiered in London Tuesday, to be followed by the film release in 2011 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - which comes in two instalments.