To promote the new Harry Potter film, Daniel Radcliffe gave another one of his charming interviews to Moviefone. I’m all over this kid – his interviews crack me up, and I’m finding him to be rather deliciously funny and intelligent. In previous interviews, we’ve heard how Daniel is an atheist, and how he prefers the company of cougars.

Most people are latching on to one of the first questions in the interview, where the Moviefone guy asks Daniel how he feels about Dumbledore being a gay icon. Daniel sort of goes off on the whole gay thing, but in a really funny way. He describes himself as “quite camp” and he thinks it’s “awesome” that people think he’s gay. I liked other parts of the interview too – it seems in addition to being an atheist, our Daniel is something of a budding, conscientious feminist too – he totally sticks up for his girl Emma Watson, and says that she’s got it a lot harder with the press and paparazzi because of her womanity. He also discusses Madonna (no-go on the cougar front), Robert Pattinson (“good luck to him”) and the bass guitar Gary Oldman gave him (“bass isn’t an instrument particularly that gets you laid”):

How do you feel about Dumbledore becoming somewhat of an icon for the gay rights movement?
It’s wonderful. I grew up around gay people my entire life, basically, that’s possibly why I’m quite camp, and some people think I’m gay when I meet them, which I think is awesome. It’s always good to keep them guessing [laughs]. I don’t go on any blogs or chats or anything, but my friends are demons for them, and apparently someone said “Daniel Radcliffe is gay. He’s got a gay face!” [Laughs] I really don’t know what a gay face is. But I think it’s wonderful that Dumbledore was outed as gay … Half of me thinks Jo Rowling just did that to see if she could piss off the right wing, but I’m not sure how true that is. I think she had it planned, I think she always knew he was gay.

What do you make of the ‘Harry Potter’- ’Twilight] rivalry that’s been brewing?
It’s very funny. It’s very much like the ‘Lord of the Rings’ rivalry, in that it was a rivalry mainly built up by the media, for the media. I met Elijah Wood once, I met Peter Jackson, I met Orlando Bloom, and they’re all really cool. Did we talk about the rivalry? Did we [ever]. Having Rob Pattinson be in both films is quite funny. I’ve never even seen ‘Twilight,’ to be perfectly honest with you, and it’s actually really interesting to me. Being such a central part of the ‘Potter’ thing, being so in the middle of it all, I have no idea how the rest of the world sees the ‘Potter’ franchise, which is why it’s quite interesting for me to watch the ‘Twilight’ franchise explode globally and have some sense of how people must view us.

So let’s fuel it – any trash you want to talk to Robert Pattinson?
[Laughs] No, I’ve nothing but good things to say at Rob. I’ve worked with him. I won’t pretend to know him really well or anything. It’s interesting because people assume that because I’m famous I know all famous people. And so people come up to me on the street and say “Do you know Rob Pattinson? What’s he like?” And I say, “Well, he’s very nice. I haven’t seen him in four years, but he’s doing very, very well for himself and good luck to him, I hope he’s doing alright.”

You were never worried about your junk being all over the Internet [from Equus]?
It was just going to happen, wasn’t it? Somebody was going to get a picture up. It’s not me looking my proudest, if I’m honest with you, it’s not me in my best [laughs]. But, hell, the pictures were always going to get out, and I knew that. And frankly, there’s not even one part of me that feels I shouldn’t have done it. It was the best thing for me, to get back to what I love doing, which is acting.

Has it been odd to watch not only yourself, but also Rupert and Emma go from child star to sex symbol?
It’s been funny with Emma. Yeah, it’s been very strange to watch that suddenly happen, because there was that weird time when she was like 15 or 16, and guys kind of knew they fancied her, but no one could say anything. She’s always been a very, very pretty girl, and now suddenly that she turned 18, everyone’s like “OK, now she’s fair game! Paparazzi!” It is kind of creepy, I did feel bad for her. Men will never know the kind of humiliation of having an upskirt done, which poor old Emma had. We talked a few days after her birthday, and she said, “It was awful, they were all over me. They were trying to shoot up my knickers!” It’s incredibly invasive. That’s why I do think it’s much, much harder for girls being famous than it is for guys.

You’ve said recently that you would like to date older women. You know who’s older, single now and likes British guys? Madonna.
Oh, Christ. I don’t think that I’d do my chances of working with Guy Ritchie any good. I don’t know which one I’d rather do … I’m not sure I’d be her cup of tea.

Gary Oldman reportedly taught you bass guitar on the set of ‘Potter.’ Have you ever considered starting a band?
No, he gave me one bass guitar lesson. He taught me how a bassline comes together [imitates sound of bassline]. Sounds better on a bass. But I’ve never considered it. I’m not nearly good enough. I haven’t played bass in years, I gave it up because I wasn’t getting any better. You have the realization of going, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with this.” And also bass isn’t an instrument particularly that gets you laid. On its own, cool, but not like guitar, you can’t really be a flash bastard with bass.

[From Moviefone]

Sigh. I love this kid. Isn’t he charming? I really like the idea of being a “flash bastard”. That’s such a cool way of saying it. I also enjoyed the Madonna bit – he wouldn’t date Madge because he wants to work with Guy Ritchie. Who knows, Guy might hire him for something. Here’s a question – do you think Radcliffe is jealous of Pattz? I don’t think he is – perhaps Daniel feels competitive, but not jealous. But what young guy isn’t jealous of Pattz these days? Sigh… wizard sparkles.

Daniel Radcliffe is shown at that NY premiere of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince on 7/9/09. Credit: Janet Mayer/PRPhotos