Saturday Night Live cast member Bobby Moynihan was unprepared for Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe’s shocking on-set confession when he hosted the sketch comedy show.
“My first real incident with Harry Potter was when Daniel hosted SNL. I was Hagrid in a Harry Potter sketch," Moynihan, 49, recalled of his 2012 sketch with Radcliffe on Obsessed: The Podcast.
“I was in these two-foot-tall boots, so I was towering over him. I had this giant wig and this huge coat on, and we were rehearsing,” Moynihan continued.
Noticing that the actor was some mixture of “upset” and “in the zone,” he asked Radcliffe if he was alright.
“I think this might be the last time I’m dressed as Harry Potter, ever,” Radcliffe, 36, confessed to Moynihan.
In the sketch that aired just months after the final Harry Potter film debuted, Radcliffe was playing a burnt-out version of his iconic wizard 10 years in the future, sadly reliving his glory days like an ex-high school athlete.
Moynihan, who admitted that he had neither seen nor read Harry Potter at that point, realized that it became very real for the actor in that moment.
“He was done with the movies, and you could tell it hit him,” SNL‘s “Drunk Uncle” recalled.
Realizing he was dressed as one of Potter’s pseudo-father figures, Moynihan put his hand on Radcliffe’s shoulder and offered a word of encouragement.
“I feel that someone who was a fan would be dying right now if they saw this,” Moynihan said. “I felt very lucky that I was there, but also—I felt I should give him a moment."
More than a decade later, Moynihan and Radcliffe have reunited for a new NBC sitcom, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, with fellow SNL alums Tracy Morgan, who stars, and Tina Fey, who produces.
Moynihan recalled seeing Morgan, 57, in SNL creator Lorne Michaels’ office during his first hosting stint since leaving the show.
“He was just standing in the middle of the room with his arms up in the air, screaming, ‘The dark horse has returned!’” Moynihan recalled. “He delivers every time on being Tracy Morgan. He’s a force. He’s the best. He’s a big beating heart.”
The new show, which also reunites 30 Rock creators Fey and Robert Carlock, gives a pair of has-beens a chance to make a comeback. Morgan plays the namesake disgraced former NFL athlete who taps washed-up filmmaker Arthur Tobin, played by Radcliffe, to rebuild his public image.
Moynihan stars as Dinkins’ basement-dwelling best friend, Rusty, who would do anything for his former Jets teammate.
“I keep saying he would take a bullet for Reggie when it was unnecessary,” Moynihan joked. “He would gladly take a bullet to prove that he would take a bullet, but he doesn’t need to.”
Reggie Dinkins is shot as a mockumentary, which Moynihan said is equal measures effortless and difficult after so many years of reading cue cards on SNL.
“Another character on the show is the audience, and you get to acknowledge them, and it’s wonderful,” Moynihan said. “Although I’m on another show, NCIS Origins, also, and I keep looking in the camera, and have to tell myself to stop."
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is available to stream on Peacock with new episodes premiering every Monday.
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