Wallace is a hopeless deadpan dropout, a loser in love and a bumbling muddle. He is also, said Daniel Radcliffe, the character he's played who's closest to himself. "I think this is definitely the first time I've been allowed to let more of my own personality come though. It's not that I feel awkward, it's that I look awkward."

Radcliffe was speaking to promote The F Word, a romantic comedy set in Toronto and the third film he has playing at the festival, along with Kill Your Darlings, in which he plays Allen Ginsberg and Horns, in which he plays a man accused of rape and murder who starts turning into a demon. The F Word is a hipster romcom in which Wallace finds a connection with a kooky animator played by Zoe Kazan. Rafe Spall plays her boyfriend; Adam Driver is Wallace's libidinous friend.

At the press conference for the film, Radcliffe gamely fielded questions about his own thoughts on love and sex. "Have I got female friends?" he said, in response to an enquiry about whether men and women could ever be pals. "Yes. Have I slept with all of them? No." Radcliffe then added a "Yet" at the prompting of his director, Michael Dowse.

Radcliffe went on to mount a defense of monogomy. "Hooking up is not fun. Sex is a lot more fun if you're actually enjoying the company of the person you're with." He also expressed surprise at being asked whether love had changed over the years. Kazan felt sex tapes had added something different, but Radcliffe pooh-poohed the theory. "There were probably sex etchings at one point. Really hard on the artist's wrist."

Dowse sold the film as the "perfect romcom … girls will come see it and boys won't throw up in their own mouths". The film has been warmly received by north American critics, although the Guardian's Henry Barnes was less successfully wooed. Radcliffe downplayed any cultural gap, saying "I don't think Canadian humour is that different to English."

Radcliffe told reporters he didn't look back at his previous work, but remained conscious of its leverage. "I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you it wasn't for Harry Potter. I'm under no illusions."