Daniel Radcliffe continues to fill his acting résumé with interesting choices, distancing himself further and further from his Harry Potter persona. Kill Your Darlings is no exception, in which he plays beat poet Allen Ginsberg. But it's not just the fact that Radcliffe is playing a real-life literary figure in the 1940s that's so intriguing; rather, it's all the things that Radcliffe does in the role that's eyebrow-raising. This isn't the first time Radcliffe has pushed the envelope (remember when he went full-frontal for stage play Equus?), but in Kill Your Darlings, he goes so far that it's easy to forget that he was once just a sweet boy wizard with a very important task. Curious? Here are a few things that Radcliffe does in character that would shock Ron and Hermione.
1-Mind-altering drugs.
In the movie, we see Allen enter Columbia as a freshman, where he meets the influential Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), who introduces him to men who would also go on to be great writers, like Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster). Lucien also introduces Allen to nitrous oxide, marijuana, and LSD, so we get to see Radcliffe high, drunk, and tripping. Acid: quite a bit stronger than butterbeer.
2-Choke himself.
Allen and Lucien are into thrills like near-death experiences, and they both have an inexplicable amount of fun while deliberately hanging themselves. Kids those days!
3-Have sex with a man.
Ginsberg was gay, his sexuality explored in his most famous poem "Howl," but we meet him as a shy college freshman in Kill Your Darlings, before he had come out. On screen, he has his first same-sex encounter with a stranger, and while we don't get full frontal from Radcliffe, we see just about everything else as he gets vulnerable in the intimate scene.
4-Kiss Dane DeHaan.
Allen and Lucien become fast friends, and it's clear that Allen's feelings are more than platonic. Though Lucien and Allen's friendship is full of sexual tension, things don't get romantic between them — except for one passionate kiss.
5-Use an American accent.
Kill Your Darlings is one of the first movies in which the British Radcliffe has used an American accent. There's room for improvement with the accent, but it doesn't impede Radcliffe's ability to give an excellent performance.
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