Radcliffe now into indies, but 'Potter' trails

San Diego: J.K. Rowling published a new Harry Potter short story last month. And Daniel Radcliffe braced himself once again.

The 25-year-old British star faces consistent and persistent questions from fans and the press about whether he'll return to the character that he spent much of his childhood playing. Rowling's story of a 34-year-old Potter posted online was not going to help matters.

"I go, `OK, thank you Jo. I'll be answering questions about this,'" Radcliffe said in a recent interview. "She can't help it. She wrote me 10 years older and people are still asking me if I'm going to be doing it. He's 10 years older than I am in this story so it's really not even a hypothetical at the moment. I would obviously never say never because that's a foolish thing to say, but I would have to think long and hard before I ever went back to anything."

Radcliffe was at Comic-Con International in San Diego promoting one of his two upcoming films, the darkly comic horror tale "Horns." In it, he plays a man accused of killing his girlfriend who grows horns that prompt people around him to reveal their darkest secrets.

The actor is used to hearing unexpectedly personal stories from strangers. Fans tend to overshare some of their troubles when they get a chance to meet the man who played the famously scarred boy wizard in eight movies from 2001 to 2011.

"Being a celebrity who is associated with something that was very much part of people's childhoods and very close to a lot of peoples' hearts, yeah, you get people who do come up to you," he said. "And I'm always happy to talk to people. I never mind hearing something deeply personal, but I always do think, `Should you be telling me this?"

Radcliffe notes that soap opera actors face a similar phenomenon, since they're in the homes of audiences so regularly. Still, he doesn't want to be the sole person hearing about tough times.

"I often say, you should talk to somebody else who you can have regular conversations with about this," Radcliffe said.

"Horns," directed by Alexandre Aja, is set for release Oct. 31. Radcliffe's other new film, the romantic comedy "What If," opened this weekend.