One of the most unique things about Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is that we literally watched him grow up in front of our eyes over the course of the eight films released between 2001 and 2011. Since then, he’s done a lot of varied work both on the big screen and the stage (he’s currently co-starring in the Broadway drama The Lifespan of a Fact). There is, of course, a never-ending demand for a continuation of the Potter saga from the fans, and the closest they’ve come is the Broadway show that doesn’t feature Daniel, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Which the actor hasn’t — and probably won’t — see.

Now for anyone who thinks that it’s because he couldn’t handle the fact being an audience member and watching someone else playing his cinematic alter ego — now in middle age — on stage  in front of him, that has nothing to do with it. Appearing on Late Night With Seth Meyers he explained, “I’ve been asked this a lot and I always give a boring, charitable answer, but I’m probably not going to see it. It wouldn’t be a relaxing evening at the theater; I’d feel like I was being watched for my reaction. And maybe that is completely conceited and egotistical, and people wouldn’t care, but I do feel if I was just surrounded by Harry Potter fans, it would be a little odd.”

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(Photo by Walter McBride/Getty Images)

When it was suggested that he could attend a performance in disguise, Daniel retorted, “The thing about a disguise is that if it stops working, then you’re just a dude who wore a disguise.”

While he doesn’t see it happening in the forceable future, he also hasn’t completely ruled out the idea of playing Harry Potter again some day. “I’m never going to close the door; that would be a stupid thing to do,” he explained to The Hollywood Reporter some time ago. “But I think I’ll be happy enough and secure enough to let someone else play it. At the moment, it’s not even a concern, because I’m too young to play the character [in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child], but even in 10 years’ time I would still feel strange about going back to it. There’s a part of me that’s, like, some things are better left untouched. If we went back to Potter, there’s a chance we’d make what Star Wars: The Force Awakens was to the original Star Wars, but there’s also the chance that we’d make The Phantom Menace. So I don’t want to go back to anything like that and maybe sour what people have already loved.”