Daniel Radcliffe, the 16-year-old actor who reprises the title role in the upcoming movie adaptation of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," has earned quite a reputation as an actor who takes his work seriously. But according to SciFi Wire, this time around, the young actor has become a bit of a daredevil on set.

Radcliffe revealed that his performance "really was the result of a lot of quite hard work done under extremely challenging conditions. There are some scenes in the Black Lake, when Harry has to swim underwater. I trained for about six months beforehand."

In "The Goblet of Fire," based on the fourth book in J.K. Rowlings best selling series, Harry Potter is forced through a series of deadly trials in the Triwizard Tournament. In reality, Radcliffe went through his own trials in preparation for filming, including scuba diving in his local swimming pool before he moved onto Leavesden Studios' specially designed water tank for filming.

"For the scenes I was sharing someone else's air from their scuba-diving tank," he said. "We both had regulators, and my buddy would say, 'Three, two, one,' and on the 'three,' I would blow out all the air in my lungs, and then on 'one,' I'd take in a very big gulp of air. Then it's down to how much action you can do with that amount of breath in your body."

Director Mike Newell has nothing but praise for the young actor, and confessed he has come a long way since he began his journey as the legendary wizard.

"Radcliffe really is a brave boy," Newell said. "He's a rotten swimmer, or he was when this began. He had great trepidation and came to me about the swimming, but there was no way 'round it. He had to spend huge amounts of time underwater, and apart from anything else he was by no means sure that he had the physical resources to do that. Nonetheless, he knuckled down and did what he had to do."

Radcliffe said that part of the films production required him to literally jump into the void in the dragon chase sequence which makes up part of the Triwizard Tournament.

"That really was scary," he said. "There's a scene where Harry gets knocked off his broom, and I have to fall about 30 feet. Though I was suspended on a wire, and knew we have the best stunt and safety professionals in the business, the first time I had to free-fall was absolutely terrifying."

In a related story, the flying car from the Harry Potter series of movies recentlly was stolen from a Cornwall, England, film studio, according to contactmusic.com.

The 1962 Ford Anglia is not in drivable condition, yet disappeared from South West Film Studios in St Agnes on Wednesday night, October 26.

"The thieves may not have known its connection with the films and just thought it was a classic car, or it may have been a Harry Potter freak," said a local police officer. "It is believed that the vehicle could not have been driven, therefore it is suspected that it would have to have been towed or lifted from the scene."

"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" opens Nov 18.