Daniel Radcliffe Learns Clerical Tasks Are Terrifying As He Plays Receptionist For An Hour [Video]


In a hidden camera prank that’s bound to make receptionists and administrative assistants everywhere chuckle, Daniel Radcliffe manned a magazine’s front desk a few weeks ago and learned that clerical tasks are much harder than memorizing lines.

Radcliffe filled in for a Nylon magazine receptionist named Lauren for about an hour, and during that hour, one employee wrote “I received no phone calls… which was strange. And a package that was supposedly delivered to the office for me never made it to my desk.”

That’s because Daniel is “very sh*t,” as he put it, at being a receptionist, Mashable reported.

Radcliffe was given a list of his simple tasks — turn on neon’s Nylon sign, give out the bathroom key, answer the phone, and greet visitors with a constant smile. He was fantastic at the smiling part.

At first, the people passing through the Nylon lobby looked at the new, terrified receptionist behind the desk without recognition. Daniel did his job and greeted each with a polite smile. Then, one woman slowed as she passed the desk, her brain suddenly registering the fact that she was staring at Harry Potter. Soon, passersby were complimenting him on Harry Potter and that “horse play” and requesting selfies, which Daniel obliged.

When someone arrived asking for stamps, Daniel made a vain search but then told his visitor he’d have to wait for someone more experienced. Phone calls, deliveries, lunch orders, all proved difficult. Radcliffe couldn’t even master the bathroom key, giving a female staffer the key to the boy’s loo before she found the right one herself. Radcliffe quickly admitted he was a “much less efficient version” of the regular receptionist whose shoes he was failing to fill.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Radcliffe admitted, Entertainment Weekly reported. “Literally every person that passes through the door I’m thinking, don’t need to come in here, don’t need anything.”

The arrival of lunch orders widened his eyes with terror. Complicated instructions for a package pickup sent him into panic mode. And Daniel tried several times to dial extensions, never making the connection. He resorted instead to hollering their names old school.

One employee said Radcliffe’s hour at the magazine proved surreal, and was stunned herself after seeing the star.

“Staring at my computer screen, I thought: That was strange. Was I supposed to say something? Should I say something? Probably not. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed another sight. It was an intern, crying. They were tears of shock and, I think, joy. I looked around and I saw a lot of smiling, blushed faces. They had all ‘happened’ to walk by the lobby. And while some of them engaged with the actor, some of them chose to play it cool and freak out later.”

One person wasn’t amused — Joe Jonas. He arrived for a meeting and asked the new receptionist’s name (“Dan”), then whether he was from the England office. When Daniel failed to get the Nylon staffer Jonas was there to meet on the phone, he left to fetch her. That’s when Joe said what everyone was thinking — the new guy sucks.

[Photo via YouTube Screengrab]

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