The Real Life Invisibility Cloak Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe Owns
There are plenty of fantastical objects in the Harry Potter universe, and as it turns out, the franchise's leading man has a real-life version of it.
From magic wands to Time-Turners to the Patronus — a magical vessel in which a witch or wizard can store thoughts and memories they don't want to forget — the world of Harry Potter is jam-packed with mystical, magical artifacts that would definitely come in handy in any given person's everyday life. One of the most useful objects in the Harry Potter series, however, is definitely the Invisibility Cloak, which renders the user completely invisible whenever they use it, and never seems to lose its power.
During his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry — played by Daniel Radcliffe — receives the Cloak, which once belonged to his father, from the school headmaster Albus Dumbledore (played in the first film by the late Richard Harris) as a Christmas present. For the remainder of the series, the Cloak proves utterly invaluable, getting Harry out of scrapes and keeping him out of danger time and time again — and later, Harry learns that it's one of the mythical Deathly Hallows, and is one third of a holy trinity of magical objects. As it turns out, Radcliffe has something just like it in real life... kind of. Here's the story behind the real life Invisibility Cloak that Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe actually owns.
Daniel Radcliffe's Invisibility Cloak protects him from the prying eyes of the paparazzi
During the year's final episode of the YouTube series Hot Ones — an interview show led by Sean Evans of First We Feast where Evans interviews celebrities as they chow down on hot wings, increasing the spice level with every sauce — Daniel Radcliffe revealed that he has a real life take on an Invisibility Cloak, which helps him hide from the paparazzi.
Apparently, one of Radcliffe's clever friends gifted the star with an "anti-paparazzi jacket," which reacts to camera flashes and keeps him hidden — a product that first popped up in 2015. "It's one of those jackets that only works at night — I think," Radcliffe told Evans. "But if you wear it with the hood up and it's at night and you take a photo with a flash, it wipes out everything on the camera except for the hoodie. So you just get a photo of a floating ghost hoodie." Radcliffe did admit that he's only tried it out once, but as he never saw any photos of a rogue, ghostly hoodie making the rounds, it must have worked.
Radcliffe is no stranger to dodging paparazzi, a topic he also discussed on Hot Ones. During his onstage run in Equus in 2007, Radcliffe came up with the brilliant tactic of wearing the same clothes every day when he left the theater, which prevented paparazzi from selling any photos, since they all looked the same.
You can catch Radcliffe joking and sweating through his Hot Ones appearance now, and you can also see the magical Invisibility Cloak in the Harry Potter films, which are available to rent or buy on major streaming platforms now.