If you have also asked – why was Daniel Radcliffe walking dogs, the answer can be found in Radcliffe’s cameo role as a dog walker in Judd Apatow’s film titled Trainwreck.
For most people in the world today, the name Daniel Radcliffe will forever resonate and be easily identified with the iconic character of Harry Potter. The actor who achieved legendary status with his role as Harry Potter in the Harry Potter film series will always be a subject of interest to the media and fans alike. It doesn’t matter what he does, be it making a new movie or walking dogs, Radcliffe is always bound to draw attention to his daily activities as long as it’s within the scope of the public’s view.
It was therefore no wonder that images of him walking a bunch of dogs and leisurely smoking a cigarette in the summer of 2014 sparked questions as to what he was doing and why he was walking so many dogs. The summary of it all connects to his job as an actor to be reckoned with.
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Daniel Radcliffe Is Known To Be A Lover Of Pets
It’s no secret, at least to those close to the actor, that Daniel Radcliffe, like many other celebrities, of course, loves animals. His love for animals is manifested in the fact that he actually owns two border terriers which are addressed as Binka and Nugget. The actor’s tight grasp on his privacy and lack of social media accounts invariably means that there are no public images of his canine pets on social media.
Radcliffe’s preference for dogs as pets was further reflected in the way he responded to a question during an interview with Reddit. The person asking the questions had quizzed Daniel on which pet he preferred to the other, cats or dogs. Radcliffe had answered, and with a lot of strong conviction too, that he absolutely preferred dogs to cats.
Armed with this information about his love for dogs, many people who saw the summer 2014 images of the actor walking dogs and smoking a cigarette theorized the actor was probably making a career change. That theory couldn’t have been farther from the truth as closer scrutiny of the events that led to the pictures being taken revealed that those were taken on the set of the movie Trainwreck. Trainwreck, a 2015 romantic comedy, was written by Amy Schumer and directed by Judd Apatow.
Schumer was the lead actress, but she starred alongside some big names such as John Cena, Colin Quinn, Ezra Miller, LeBron James, Tilda Swinton, Vanessa Bayer, Mike Birbiglia, Norman Lloyd, and Bill Hader as the lead male actor. The movie was also actor Norman Lloyd’s last movie prior to his death in 2021. The fact that those pictures of Radcliffe with dogs were taken on the set of the Trainwreck movie didn’t do much to assuage the public’s curiosity. Director Judd Apatow even compounded matters further when he came out to tell fans that Radcliffe was simply walking his dogs and had nothing to do with the movie.
The truth behind Daniel Radcliffe walking dogs
Moviemakers are notorious for trying to keep things under wraps whenever they are trying to spring a surprise on fans and viewers and the makers of Trainwreck were hoping to achieve the same feat with Daniel Radcliffe. This piece of information makes it easier to understand why director Judd Apatow was insistent on keeping Radcliffe’s role in the movie a secret.
It turned out however to be a big and seemingly impossible task for the filmmakers to undertake as Daniel was spotted many times on the set of the movie during production that it became increasingly clear that Radcliffe had some role to play in the movie, though at the time, no one was quite sure what the role would be.
When Trainwreck was released in 2015, fans’ suspicions were well and truly confirmed as they learned that Daniel Radcliffe made a brief cameo as the dog walker in the short movie titled The Dogwalker that Amy Schumer’s character watched with her on-screen boyfriend John Cena.
Radcliffe played the lead character in the movie-within-movie about a dog walker who was deeply enchanted by a dog owner portrayed by Marisa Tomei. Radcliffe’s character goes out of his way to catch the attention of the dog owner. The pair of Radcliffe and Tomei in a cameo role made it quite remarkable that such big names got bit-part roles in Trainwreck. It didn’t matter however as fans were now certain of the Role Radcliffe played in the movie.
During a question and answer session with Glamour later that year, Amy Schumer revealed that the role of the dog walker had actually been written by her with another actor in mind. The actor she had wanted for the part was Joaquin Phoenix although she stated that she wasn’t sure if he got any information about her wishes. Most people think Joaquin would have grabbed the opportunity to work with Schumer with both hands as the actor had previously told Jimmy Kimmel on one of his shows that he had a massive crush on Schumer.
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Joaquin’s missed opportunity happened as a result of the fact that Amy Schumer made the decision to go with the film producers after they had suggested Daniel Radcliffe for the part. Schumer also stated in the same question and answer gig with Glamour that The Dogwalker was the worst movie she had ever seen. It is worth noting that Radcliffe took on the dog walker role with gusto and although his role in the movie featured very little dialogue, it allowed him the opportunity to sport the then much-talked-about dog walking belt.
During an interview with Seth Meyers, the actor revealed that his role was completely improvised and that the dog belt was entirely his idea after he had witnessed a man walking his own dogs down West Side Highway in the same manner.
Radcliffe’s iconic dog walking images are sure to stay glued to the minds of a lot of fans for a long while even after more than 7 years since their first appearance. It is also possible that the first question people would ask would be why is Daniel Radcliffe walking dogs? This article answers the question emphatically.
Quick Facts
Does Daniel Radcliffe have a lot of dogs?
The Harry Potter alum is known to be the owner of two border terriers named Binka and Nugget but they hardly make public appearances with him due to his inclination to privacy.
What is Daniel Radcliffe’s favorite pet?
He likes wolves but since you can’t really keep those as pets, Daniel Radcliffe’s favorite pet is dogs.
Is the dog walker a real movie?
There is a 2001 movie titled Dog Walker, starring Diane Gaidry (Ellie Moore) and Pamela Gordon (Betsy Wright)