Daniel Radcliffe Quotes Louis XIV to Put End of 'Harry Potter' in Perspective (VIDEO)

In between balancing an unrelenting media junket for 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2' and his eight shows a week on Broadway for 'How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying,' Daniel Radcliffe has shown himself to be a thoughtful, engaging young man. His intellectual prowess was on full display Wednesday on 'The Early Show' (weekdays, 7AM on CBS), when he used a historical quotation from Louis XIV to put the end of the Potter series into perspective.

Radcliffe offered a paraphrased version of King Louis XIV's dying words to explain his feelings on the end of the franchise: "Why are you crying? Did you imagine I was immortal?"

"It's that same thing of, it had to end sometime," he said. "And we may as well just celebrate it rather than getting too sad."

The interview was casual and relaxed, away from the live studio, and featured clips of an 11-year-old Radcliffe doing one of his first screen tests with co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. Now 21, Radcliffe said he doesn't regard himself as having grown up on-camera. "I mean, I regard myself as having grown up on sets and then at home," he said. "I still did all my embarrassing teenage moments behind closed doors, thankfully. The world wasn't privy to them, luckily."

For those who weren't among the millions to see the film when it opened over the weekend, Radcliffe offered a bit of a spoiler. And if you haven't seen the movie, read ahead at your own peril. He's not revealing as much as you may think here, but it still might telegraph elements of the ending.

"I was quite keen for Harry to die," said Radcliffe, then mentioning author J.K. Rowling. "I think I couldn't see another way of the series ending. But of course, that's why I don't write them and she does. Because she's a lot more imaginative than I am."

We won't reveal any more of what her imagination came up with. But remember, no one in immortal. Not even a famous boy wizard.