Few actors have had to do their growing up so publicly, or managed it so well, without the help of drugs, drink or debauchery. Steve Pratt talks to Daniel Radcliffe about his first non-Potter screen role... and his first screen snog.

HE'S kissed a girl on screen. He's had sex with a girl on screen. He's stripped naked on stage. And, perhaps the worst "sin" of all, he smokes in his new movie. How much further can Daniel Radcliffe, the screen's Harry Potter, go?

"What's the next level?," a foreign journalist on our round table asks the 18-year-old.

He looks as surprised as the rest of us by the question but, being a very media-savvy actor, bats the question back. "What can you suggest?" he asks. "Where do I go from here?"

We rack our brains until another female journalist wonders if he'd do a gay love scene. Nothing fazes young Dan, who gives a perfect answer: yes, if the script warrants it.

Such confidence in the face of intense media prying is a joy to see. So, for those of us who've been interviewing Radcliffe since the first Potter movie seven years ago, is seeing him go from boy to man. Few people have to do their growing up so publicly, but he's done it with dignity and, fingers crossed, avoided the way of many a child star who've taken the path marked drink, drugs and debauchery.

He insists he is "very, very boring", at least, where birthday presents are concerned. Book vouchers are perfect for him, he says to inquiries about what he wanted for his 18th birthday last July.

You could point out that he doesn't need much as the Potter films have made him a rich young man. Then he adds that he asks people to donate to a hospice he supports rather than spend their money on him. He's very organised.

His birthday treat was going to Lord's to watch test cricket now that he's "an obsessive cricket fan", adding, "That was all the present I needed".

But he's not here to tell us what he got for his birthday. His task is to promote his first non-Potter movie since becoming the apprentice wizard.

He made December Boys in Australia two years ago. That film, not the recent Potter movie, gave him his first screen kiss, followed by losing his screen cherry in a not-very-explicit sex scene.

Maps, his character, is the eldest of four orphan boys being raised in a Catholic convent who are packed off to live with a retired naval man on the coast for the summer holidays.

Radcliffe feels more in common with Harry than Maps, acknowledging that may have something to do with spending so much time with the JK Rowling character in recent years. "The interesting thing about Maps is that he holds his cards very close to his chest, whereas Harry very much wears his heart on his sleeve. He is very vocal about how he feels, Maps barely speaks for the first quarter of the film," explains Radcliffe.

Finding non-Potter projects is fraught with dangers, but he follows advice from a director who told him to ensure that the next work he did was an ensemble piece rather than something that stood or fell solely on him.

His December Boys kiss was his first on-screen snog and took him by surprise. "I thought it would be cool and sexy, but it's not at all," he says.

"I mean, it was fine. Teresa is beautiful, so that was good. But you still have to hit your marks and get in the right place so the light hits your face properly. It's quite clinical, which is not the way I would describe a good kiss.

"So it was kind of odd. But there's never been an issue with me kissing a girl on screen - or off."

Radcliffe has the final say on what scripts he accepts, after reading those sent to him by his agent. If he's not comfortable doing something, he won't do it. And, though the script is good, he won't take it if he considers he's not right for the part or someone else could do it better.

"I've been sent scripts, quite good, for action movies and thought that's not what I'm looking for and don't think I'd be good at all that running, jumping stuff. I've done enough of that on Potter as well," he says.

Turning 18 made him reflect on growing up and whether he actually felt like an adult. "I looked in the mirror and thought 'now it's time to start growing up'. And I couldn't figure out any way to do it," he says.

"It's because I started acting so young. Normally, the only relationship you have with adults is your parents or teachers. Being on Potter, you work with adults and learn to communicate with them in a way that's more like peers than as people who are just older than me.

"Possibly I did grow up slightly faster, or I pretended to. I'm still waiting for something to change. One of my best friends is 41, but he might be 19 in terms of how he is and how he acts. He's quite young mentally."

Radcliffe is well able to deal with the paparazzi, despite his age. Some were hanging about Lord's hoping to catch him with a beer in his hand after turning 18. "Fortunately, I hadn't had a beer," he says.

He thinks he'll be left alone "as long as I don't court it and do what some people do and phone up to say where they're going to be".

He'd do his best to protect anyone he was going out with. "I've had girlfriends in the past and kept it fairly quiet because I don't think it's fair to them," he adds.

Radcliffe begins filming the next Harry Potter movie soon. Before the movie is released, he'll be seen on ITV in My Boy Jack, playing Rudyard Kipling's son who went missing in action during the First World War.

"I did a lot more research than for anything else I've done because you have to learn so much about that period," he says. "I read accounts of people in the trenches. It was the hardest shoot I've done."

* December Boys (12A) is now showing in cinemas.