LONDON — He has starred in one of the most successful film franchises of all time and been critically acclaimed on stage, but actor Daniel Radcliffe has been told to stick to what he is known for — his English accent. The west London-born actor, who rose to fame as the boy wizard Harry Potter, was forced to abandon plans to speak with a Canadian twang in a film just two days before shooting began.

Radcliffe, 25, had been rehearsing with the accent for the romantic comedy What If when the producers decided at the last minute that his native brogue would be better. “It was basically, ‘You’re not marketable without your English accent’ which is bad news for all the other stuff I’ve done with American accents,” Radcliffe said.

“It was one of those ridiculous last-minute panics on their behalf, but I certainly wasn’t going to go, ‘Well, s**** you guys, I’m going to put 200 people out of work for the sake of an accent’.”

The actor, who has achieved success on stage and the big screen, was filming on location in Canada in what was to be his first foray into romcom. He told the Sunday Express’s S Magazine the decision to embrace the genre was not a conscious one.

“It certainly doesn’t factor into my thought process when I’m picking a role,” he said. “You’re not thinking, ‘I want to do a romantic comedy, so only show me romcoms from now on’. You’re just looking for a good script and when What If came along, I’d already read a few romcoms and it just stood out to me. I wanted to be part of it.”

Radcliffe will next appear as Igor in the film Victor Frankenstein, due for release later this year. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH