'Potter' stars Radcliffe and Hinds reunite for 'Woman in Black'

NEW YORK, June 7 (UPI) -- British movie star Daniel Radcliffe says he was happy to work with Northern Irish actor Ciaran Hinds again in "The Woman in Black" after the pair shared the screen in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II."

In James Watkins' gripping film adaptation of Susan Hill's 1983 supernatural suspense novel, "The Woman in Black," Radcliffe portrays Arthur Kipps, a young Victorian-era London lawyer sent to the English countryside to settle the affairs of a deceased client. He travels to her derelict home on the outskirts of a small village and finds the house is not as empty as he expected. As he speaks to some of the terrified townspeople, he learns their children die shortly after a woman clad in black is spotted by someone at the house at the focus of Kipps' investigation.

Hinds, an accomplished stage actor who has also appeared in the movies "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," "The Debt," "Eclipse," "There Will Be Blood," "Veronica Guerin" and "Road to Perdition," plays Sam Daily, one of the less superstitious neighbors in "The Woman in Black," a low-tech, old-fashioned ghost story. Daily tries to help Kipps unravel the mystery, even though he and his wife, played by Janet McTeer, have lost a son of their own under questionable circumstances. The tragedy has left Daily heart-broken and his spouse slightly insane.

Radcliffe told United Press International in New York recently he was thrilled to act again opposite Hinds after having worked with him briefly on "Harry Potter."

"It was an amazing cast, particularly Ciaran," Radcliffe said of "The Woman in Black." "Janet is amazing, but I only got to work with her for four days total, but she's great. Ciaran. I've seen loads of amazing actors, but nobody makes it look quite as easy as Ciaran Hinds. Ciaran just has an ease about him and a natural instinct. He's just amazing. Most actors, you can sort of see a shift or something when they hear the word 'action' and Ciaran sort of slides into it and you never see a shift. Suddenly, he's just acting. It's just wonderful."

Even though the stars had previously met when Radcliffe was playing the titular wizard and Hinds portrayed Aberforth Dumbledore in the last "Harry Potter" film, the younger actor said they didn't really get to know each other well until they reunited for "The Woman in Black."

"We worked together on that brief scene [in 'Potter'] and got on really well," Radcliffe recalled. "I really liked him, but it was three days we were filming on that. I've filmed with so many actors for that brief scene where they come in, you get to meet him, get to work with him and then they go and you see them at the premiere. And if you got on, then you chat with them. But, with Ciaran, it was actually wonderful because we did that brief scene, then went off and made 'Woman in Black,' and then had to re-shoot the scene between me and Ciaran for the 'Potter' movie. It was one of the scenes we had to re-shoot. So, that was actually helped a huge amount by the fact that by the time we got back to re-shooting it, we had worked together another 6 1/2 weeks. It was great."

Radcliffe also joked about the one downfall of working with actors of Hinds' and McTeer's stature on "The Woman in Black."

"The combined tallest height in film history of a couple," Radcliffe groaned. "That was pretty intimidating for little ol' me, which is why every time I watch the scene -- particularly if I'm watching it with someone I know -- where I'm talking to Janet outside the mausoleum, I say, 'I step onto the box; step off of the box.' Because you can really see the moment where I'm like, 'Right, I'm tall now.'"

"The Woman in Black" is on DVD now.