We chat to Daniel Radcliffe about jailbreaks… and his South African accent

It’s a good job our manicure services are reopening just as Escape From Pretoria hits our screens: This pulsating true story of Tim Jenkin’s masterful jailbreak from an apartheid-era prison in 1979 will be responsible for many chewed nails in the weeks to come. The activist – played by Daniel Radcliffe – defied the cruelty of the regime with a painstaking plot to humble their most fearsome lock-up.

How to watch Escape From Pretoria

This July, TNT Africa will launch its first TNT Original production from the brand-new movies slate. Viewers can now expect a fresh, original movie premiere on the first Saturday of every month, starting from 4 July. First up, we’ve got a flick that takes us back to the heart of the liberation struggle.

“Tim has a methodical mind that very few people possess”, Radcliffe tells us. The A-lister has taken on a number of challenging projects and complex characters since his Harry Potter days. He says that he has “never played a prisoner before”, and it took a lot of willpower for us not to mention his affiliation with Azkaban.

“I had the perfect opportunity” – we speak with Daniel Radcliffe

But during a decade where Radcliffe has broadened his horizons in tremendous fashion, it feels like his portrayal of Jenkin may be one of his most compelling characters. The Englishman is calm, measured and magnanimous in a film fraught with dread and tension, matching the incredible mental fortitude shown by the renowned activist and his fellow inmates.

We were fascinated by Radcliffe’s chameleon-like performance… and his lockdown beard, actually, but let’s not veer off course. He explained to us how he ‘found the keys’ to unlock Jenkin’s enigmatic mind.

“Look, this is his life. He did the time, and he wrote the book. It’s impossible for an actor to have a better opportunity than what I had, in terms of spending time with the hero behind the story. I spoke with Tim at length before filming. You get the impression he’s not a very grandiose person, and that’s incredible…”

“Had I achieved what he did, I doubt I’d be so level-headed. And I found his modesty really helpful when it came to forming the character I wanted to portray. It helped me understand how this man would have reacted to his imprisonment and opened me up to his methodical mindset.”

Daniel Radcliffe

What Escape From Pretoria gets so right

Escape From Pretoria follows Jenkin’s story from the day he was jailed. Sent down for distributing leaflets that promoted the ANC and their armed wing throughout the 1970s, the activist was slapped with a 12-year sentence. By making a series of elaborate ‘wooden keys’ to undo dozens of locks within the prison, Jenkin and two fellow inmates bust their way out of jail – after more than 400 days of meticulous plotting.

We stay with the prisoners from minute one, right up until their daring escape is complete. The film is triumphant in recreating the sheer terror involved in trying to dupe one of the most sadistic regimes in history. You are, essentially, in the cells with them, as the cinematic experience quickly turns claustrophobic. Radcliffe himself, however, comically admits he would not have followed in Jenkin’s footsteps.

“I know if I’d have been in a prison with a sentence like that, I’d have accepted in my fate and said ‘okay, I’m here for a very long time’. That’s what sets Tim apart from many others.”

Daniel Radcliffe

Daniel Radcliffe opens up about ‘lack of apartheid education’

Well, we suppose it’s nice to know that if any of us ever end up sharing a cell with Daniel, he won’t be the guy to turn to for some ‘prison break inspiration’. You learn something new every day.

Speaking of which, we ended up picking Radcliffe’s brains on the subject of education. Because, at this moment in time, history is now the most compelling topic of the lot.

The 30-year-old shares his bemusement about the lack of education he received over the horrors of apartheid growing up. It wasn’t a big fixture on the British school curriculum, and Radcliffe admits he was ‘in the dark’ about many aspects of South Africa’s troubled history during his younger years.

“I think everyone should learn more history, all the time. That’s my belief. But we’re in an interesting moment right now, where those in appropriate positions must start considering what history we should be teaching.”

“I don’t remember particular moments of learning about apartheid. I was only brought up with a rudimentary understanding of the system, knowing there was a big racial divide. You become aware of these things later in life – horrifying factors like ‘segregated graveyards’. That’s something I learned about recently, which still weighs heavily on my mind.” 

Daniel Radcliffe

Can Daniel Radcliffe do a good South African accent?

We finished our discussion on a lighter note. Whenever an actor from outside of Mzansi is asked to play a South African, one thing immediately comes to mind – how are they going to get the accent right? We still have shivers thinking about Di Caprio’s aggressively Afrikaans attempt in Blood Diamond, and a few years back, we comprehensively decided that Val Kilmer was responsible for the worst one ever in The Saint.

Whether it’s our unique tones, or the impact of having 11 official languages to choose from, the South African dialect is a hard one to replicate. So how does Daniel Radcliffe do in Escape From Pretoria?

Pretty damn good.

And that’s not coming from us. Jenkin himself said that the man playing him on-screen “had done really well” – even if he did admit that there are a few dodgy attempts within the film. Look out for the judge at the start, by the way. It’s painfully over the top – and crucially, this is what Daniel Radcliffe managed to avoid. His soft, scaled back tones ensure that there’s no ‘accent-distraction’ in a film that’s fluid, frenetic, and ultimately fun.

“I have a very specific way of doing accents. If you saw my notes, they’d look stupid… But I go through the script and write my lines out phonetically. Then I get someone with a South African accent to read those lines back to me while we go through the dialogue. I then have to work out how that sounds for me, and how I can recreate that noise.”

“Then it’s a matter of time and practice. Plus, Tim’s accent is quite Anglican so it wasn’t a big transition. But I would still rather do South African over Israeli any day. Now that was tough… But for Escape From Pretoria, I did have to rely on my accent coach [Jenny], because I would not have been able to do this film otherwise!”

Daniel Radcliffe

Escape From Pretoria to hit our screens in July

Sounds like we all owe Jenny a big thank you – because this picture is certainly richer for having Radcliffe in it. And, in an odd way, a film about a prison break provides the perfect ‘escape’ from our current lockdown restrictions. Ultimately, this is a tale of hope and resolve – something which we all need in abundance right now.

• You can watch the premiere of Escape from Pretoria on Saturday 4 July, at 20:00 CAT on TNT Africa, DStv channel 137.
• We will also be publishing interviews with Tim Jenkin and director Francis Annan before the showing.