It’s been three years since he shot “Imperium,” but Daniel Radcliffe still shudders when he thinks of his temporary transformation into a neo-Nazi white supremacist.

    “I’m not religious, but my mum’s Jewish; I’m technically Jewish,” said the 27-year-old “Harry Potter” star.

    The actor is almost unrecognizable in his latest role as Nate Foster, an FBI agent who goes undercover to join a white-power, neo-Nazi group. It’s not the buzzed haircut or the tattoos. The hardest reconciliation is between the real-life Radcliffe — personable and polite — and the pretended intolerance of Foster, who spits out horrifying slurs as he attempts to convince the white supremacists he’s one of their own.

    “Imperium” will be released in limited theaters in the United States on August 19.

    It’s a film that will make viewers uncomfortable, angry, and even frightened. That, Radcliffe said, is a good thing — we need to experience that discomfort and figure out what to do with it.

    “There seemed something to me of immense value in that [the film] reminds people that there are other types of terrorists,” Radcliffe said. “It’s easier to deny their humanity. But the more aggressively dismissive we are of them, the more that plays into their worldview.”

    The movie required Radcliffe to familiarize himself with some of the most twisted minds in America.

    “The scary thing about it is they’re not all skinheads tattooed with swastikas,” Radcliffe said. “There is a pseudo-scientific intellectual strain to it which is arguably much more dangerous and is how they justify their behavior.”

    “Here is an otherwise good person who has had his mind somehow poisoned,” Radcliffe said. “No one comes out of the womb believing this stuff. You have to be taught it somewhere along the line. And if we lose our ability to believe in people’s power to change, then we might as well all just go home.”

    The core of the film can clearly apply more broadly to worldwide extremism, a topic currently headlining the global news cycle.

    “I did not anticipate how many of things we talked about in the film would have really bled into a much more mainstream political dialogue by now,” Radcliffe said. “If one skinhead sees this movie and has his mind changed, or is even just made to question something, then it has been entirely worth it.” (SD-Agencies)