Question of the Day

Last week, Daniel Radcliffe was on Inside the Actors' Studio with the disturbingly pervacious James Lipson, and during the Q&A session that comes at the end of every show, Radcliffe did something that I find just eight thousand shades of endearing in a person: Told an embarrassing story about himself saying something utterly stupid.

It starts just at the 6:40 mark:

Audience Member: My name is R.J.; I'm a third-year actor at the MFA program, and I was just wondering about roles and you saying that—because of your physique, you should, or, I think— Have you ever thought about playing Napoleon, eventually?

Radcliffe: That would be awesome, man. [laughter] Okay, I'm sharing this with you because I feel like we've grown to like one another, [laughter] and this is probably the stupidest thing I have ever said. [laughter] And it is embarrassing.

I was in a night shoot once, and it was very cold, and Will Stegl (ph.)—who is my best mate, and has been my best friend for seven years, and he's in his 40s, and he's an amazing guy—and he put this, 'cause it was very cold, he put this dressing gown 'round me between shots, and I sort of held it like that [mimics holding it over his shoulders], and Will said, "God, you look like Napoleon!"

And I said, "Yeah," you know, "Great." [inaudible] And I said to him, "Will? [pause; scrunches face bemusedly] What was Napoleon's first name?" [laughter]

And he said, and he, and he looked at me, and he said, "It was Napoleon." [laughter] To which I replied, "What—Napoleon Napoleon?!" [laughter]

I will have to do some research if I do play him.

Brilliant.

I've totally had moments just like that one, of saying something staggeringly daft with the gormless demeanor of the criminally naïve—which are only slightly better than moments in which I realize halfway through saying something record-breakingly dumb that I'm saying it and have to let the hideous thing pour out my mouth as I'm already cringing with the fervent desire for a life rewind button.

"Yoo-ick Pavilion" was the former. The worst case of the latter I've ever had was at a friend's flat in college, while lying around his living room, totally hung over on a Saturday afternoon, watching some infotainment news show that we used to love to mock in an MST3K sort of way every weekend while eating Chicken McNuggets. (It was a tradition; what can I say?) So this one week, they had a piece about how George Foreman named all his kids George, and, before I could stop myself, I went on a mindless tear about how it was bad enough to give all your kids the same name, but even worse to give them all a terrible name like—I looked at my friend's roommate, George, and felt my face go crimson as I choked out the name—George.

The thing is, I don't even think George is a terrible name. I was just blathering.

Luckily, they'd known me awhile, so they were already well aware that I am an idiot.

What embarrassingly stupid thing have you said that you'd like to share with us today?