'The F Word': How Daniel Radcliffe made a Toronto-set romantic comedy possible

“The F Word” features something that most Toronto-shot, Toronto-set movies don’t have: a major international star in the form of “Harry Potter” actor Daniel Radcliffe.

Radcliffe plays Wallace, a young Brit living in T.O. who befriends a girl named Chantry (Zoe Kazan). Wallace and Chantry get along extremely well, but the two quickly have their friendship complicated -- he may have romantic feelings for her and she’s in a already in a relationship. It's a familiar movie scenario, but one that hasn't really been done well in a long while.

Directed by Michael Dowse (“Fubar,” “Goon”), “The F Word” is to Toronto what seminal rom-com “When Harry Met Sally” was to Manhattan. But despite the film being both extremely funny and a fantastic showcase for the city, Dowse and screenwriter Elan Mastai admitted that getting the movie seen outside of Canada was only really possible because of its star.

“You need big, big star actors or else,” Dowse told Yahoo Movies Canada. “Occasionally there’s a chance that you hit pay dirt and a film finds its own momentum, but yeah, that’s the only way to do it. I did it before without, but with Seann [William Scott] in 'Goon' and now Dan in this, you get a sense of what it brings to the table. It’s great because more people can see your film.”

Dowse’s sentiments about Radcliffe’s star power were echoed by Mastai.

“If you want to set your sights beyond Canada, getting major international stars in any movie is the only way to get it seen,” Mastai reiterated. “The vast majority of people decide what movie they’re going to see based on who’s in it. That’s the game you have to play not just in Canada or Hollywood, but literally everywhere.”

However, both Dowse and Mastai were quick to stress that Radcliffe wouldn’t have been cast in “The F Word” if he hadn’t been right for the part.

“Dan was right for the role because he’s funny,” Dowse said. “The big thing that people will take away from this movie is just how funny Dan is. He’s great on his feet. It’s so rare to find an actor who can handle things both dramatically and comedically.”

“Sometimes an actor doesn’t have an opportunity to show what they can do until someone takes a chance on them,” Mastai said of the decision to cast Radcliffe. “Daniel hadn’t done a romantic comedy before, so of course our first question was ‘Is he actually funny?’ But when you meet him, he’s so dry and witty and self-effacing and just a deeply funny person in regular life. We realized if we could capture that and put it in the movie, we’d have something really special.”

But casting Radcliffe was only half the battle for the filmmakers. “The F Word” is a romantic comedy, after all. Finding someone who would have the right on-screen chemistry with Radcliffe was key. That’s where “Ruby Sparks” actress Zoe Kazan came in.

“A romantic comedy like this lives or dies on whether the audience actually feels the chemistry between your two leads,” Mastai said. “One of the strokes of genius of the casting process was seeing that the two of them together would have that spark. The chemistry they have off screen is just as palpable on screen.”

As for the film’s setting, Dowse and Mastai make no bones about calling Toronto the next most important star of “The F Word” after Radcliffe and Kazan.

“It was originally set in Vancouver, and then there was an American version of it where it was set in Chicago and Buenos Aires, but I thought it was important that the setting was specific and was almost like a character in the film,” the director said. “Once we set it in Toronto and we started location scouting, I really liked the east end of the city. I liked the water, it had a very romantic feel, it was less gentrified, and had a nice character that hadn’t really been focused much on in films.”

Mastai's own love life is closely tied to the city. The Vancouver native actually moved to Toronto for a relationship more than a decade ago, and he said that many of "The F Word's" more autobiographical elements were drawn from that experience.

"My personal, emotional life was bound up in the iconography of the city," Mastai said. “I was thrilled we got to shoot it in Toronto. I feel like Toronto is often treated very coldly in the movies when it’s being treated at all... I always prefer to have the movie set where we shoot it, so that you’re not hiding anything or trying to pawn it off as some kind of Anytown, U.S.A. If you make a movie more specific, it actually makes it more universal… Whether you’re setting your movie in Manhattan, or Los Angeles, or Paris, or Kuala Lumpur, or Toronto, it’s always going to make the movie better, more textured, and more rounded because it’s a real place.”

The youthful and vibrant Toronto seen in "The F Word" is certainly a refreshing take on the city, but how does the proudly Canadian backdrop for the film play outside of Canada?

“When we show the movie in the U.S., they think it’s cool,” Mastai revealed. “They like that it’s not another by-the-numbers rom com set in Manhattan. It takes place somewhere real and interesting that they haven’t seen shot this way. The intention of the movie is to be funny and romantic, but our little asterisk is that it shows off the Toronto that I know and love.”

"The F Word" hits theatres on August 22. Watch the trailer: