Daniel Radcliffe, the British actor who plays boy wizard Harry Potter, laughed off suggestions he has become a heartthrob on the eve of Tuesday's premiere of the sixth film of the series.

Radcliffe, 19, who won the role of Harry as a cherubic 11-year-old, has updated his image by appearing naked on stage in the play "Equus" between filming recent adaptations of J.K. Rowling's phenomenally successful books.

But he said most fans still think of him as the bespectacled Harry.

"If girls like me, it has not been proven yet," Radcliffe told journalists ahead of the London premiere of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".

"OK, I go to the red carpet in Tokyo and thousands of girls scream at me... but the me that sits in a darkened room watching cricket for eight hours with a bowl of pasta in his underwear and socks is not quite so attractive to girls."

Radcliffe admitted in an interview that the male actors on the Potter set had felt male hormones kick as they grew into adolescence on the set, telling Esquire magazine: "We were all unbelievably horny from about the third film to probably about the end of the fifth; then it all settled down."

But Emma Watson, who plays the geeky Hermione Granger in the films, said fans should forget any hopes of her, Radcliffe and Rupert Grint -- who plays the gawky Ron Weasley in the films -- pairing off with each other in real life.

"When we were younger, we were always going back and forth to school so it is not as if Rupert and Dan were the only boys I saw," the 19-year-old said at the news conference.

"I know it would be of huge interest to the media if we were hooking up. But we grew up together and we are just like siblings.

"There have not been any pairings like that (among the cast), I'm afraid."

Watson admitted that her decision to attend a university in the United States from August was motivated by her desire to "just be a teenager".

"I am just looking forward to meeting people my own age and having a normal life for once. But that does not mean that I'll never be acting again.

"It was always my dream (to go to university) before I did the films and so I don't see why I should change it," she said.

Just like her character, Watson has excelled at school, despite squeezing in lessons between gruelling days of filming.

"My way of dealing with all this is to read a book," she admitted. "Oh dear, this is so geeky, but it has got me through it."

The six Potter films so far have earned 4.5 billion dollars (3.2 billion euros), making them one of the most successful film franchises in history.

Source: AFP