It's rare nowadays to find a movie that's like nothing you've ever seen before, but Daniel Radcliffe's newest film manages it. Swiss Army Man is a buddy movie with a difference – Dan's character, Manny, is a dead guy.
The movie opens on Hank (played by Paul Dano), who has been stranded on a desert island and can only make it home with Manny's assistance. So when BuzzFeed met up with Dan recently to promote the movie, we decided to ask him what he'd take with him on a desert island. If he was allowed to pack in advance, obviously.
What three books would you take with you?
Daniel Radcliffe: The Master and Margarita, because it’s my favourite book, and I feel like I could reread it a lot more times. Probably then also some sort of survival guide, so I could, y’know, find out how to make a fire, because I definitely can’t. And what about…a dictionary, or an encyclopaedia, there we go, so I can look stuff up, like, “Is this berry going to kill me?”
What three types of snack would you take with you?
DR: The three types of snack I’d take with me on a desert island would be…some sort of bottomless bucket of ice cream that never runs out. Some sort of meat. Like, I don’t know, bacon. Is that a snack? Do you just have bowls of bacon at parties? Yeah, bacon. Ice cream, bacon, and something else that’s super healthy. Cheese. Some nice cheese.
I’m on a desert island, who am I trying to impress?
OK, this is a stretch. If you could take a phone or tablet with you that had enough battery life to watch one film, but you weren’t allowed to call anyone because you don’t have any service, what movie would it be?
DR: For similar reasons to Master and Margarita, there’s a film called Matters of Life and Death, with David Niven. It was made in the late forties, and if you haven’t seen it, you have an incredible treat ahead of you. It’s one of the most magical and beautiful, amazing films ever made.
You also have enough battery life to listen to one album. What would it be?
DR: One album?! Oh, my god. That’s really hard. There’s part of me that just wants to pick my favourite album, but then there’s a part of me that wants to be like, “What’s good on a beach?”
I’ll go with the Pixies and Doolittle, because there’s a good mix of stuff on there.
Would you rather have to hunt or forage for your food?
DR: I guess I’d have to hunt, rather than forage, because the things I’d be foraging would be, like, fruit and nuts, and that’s going to get really boring really quickly. So if I wanted actual meat – which, as you can tell, is a theme for me – then I would have to hunt.
If you could choose one famous person to be stuck on a desert island with, who would it be?
DR: Somebody very strong. The Rock! So, you know, he could carry stuff and help me survive. He seems like he’d be very capable in that kind of environment. I’m not really built for that sort of environment. And, you know, if I needed stuff from the tops of trees I could stand on his shoulders and climb, I’m quite agile. I could also get into small places that he couldn’t. I feel like it would work well.
