Daniel Radcliffe: There's More To 'Kill Your Darlings' Than A Gay Sex Scene [Trailer + Pictures]

As Kill Your Darlings begins to open at film festivals across the world, the spotlight is once again cast upon Daniel Radcliffe, the young actor famous for playing Harry Potter. Though the boy wizard role will always cast a shadow upon Radcliffe's succeeding ventures, the 24 year-old has accepted some decidedly tough roles in his post-Potter career, to prove to the world that his acting is more magic than fantasy.

The Visually Superb Movie Sees Daniel Radcliffe & Dane DeHaan Cast As New York Poets.

Kill Your Darlings sees Radcliffe take the role of 40s Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsburg who heads to New York to study at Columbia University. There he meets Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), a wild yet intelligent party animal who hangs out with future literary heavyweights Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.

It emerges that former professor David Kammerer is obsessed with Lucien, therefore becomes jealous of Allen's friendship with Carr. Allen insists that they have to find a way of stopping Kammerer stalking them but when the professor's body is found in the Hudson river, all fingers point to Lucien.

Watch The 'Kill Your Darlings' Trailer:

Directed by John Krokidas in a feature film debut, the movie was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival and looks set to be a widespread success upon its November wider release.

All eyes were on Daniel to see what he would make of such a challenging and complex role. In The Wrap's review, it is remarked that Radcliffe "continues to flex new muscles as an actor, proving once again he's got a decent shot at not being defined as a certain boy wizard for the rest of his career."

Did Lucien Carr Kill His Stalker?

The movie's sex scene has certainly become one of the more magnetic talking points of the film, making sensationalist headlines over what the film handles in a fairly short shot. In an interview with the New York Daily News, Radcliffe addresses the scene and the hubbub surrounding it. "I certainly knew going in that the naked same-sex love scene in Kill Your Darlings would attract attention because it's slightly salacious and it's an easy headline," he said. "It's about 30 seconds in a two-hour movie, within an already intense montage with a lot of other stuff going on."

Even The Wrap admits that the sex isn't such a big deal compared "[Radcliffe] does have a fairly explicit sex scene with another man, but to make that the focal point of his audacious work here would be reductive, to say the least."

The Movie Explores Coming Of Age.

There are sex scenes in films all the time; is this one famous because we grapple with the idea of Harry Potter losing his virginity? Radcliffe agrees: "It's maybe more "shocking" because many people continue to look at me as Harry Potter. I accept the fact that I'm always going to be associated with the franchise and I'm fine with that."

The British-born actor adds: "When it comes to the character I play, one of the reasons I took this particular part is that there are parts of Allen Ginsberg that I can relate to [...] that we all can identify with. It's somebody finding out who he is, and everyone had some variant of that experience around the age that Allen is in the film. It's about young love and all that goes with it."

The True Story Has Some Serious Drama.

To focus on one slightly explicit scene would be to say that there was little else of interest in the rest of the movie and in this case that would certainly not be true. That the movie is based on such a dramatic story is its main selling point; love, jealousy, murder, and an exploration of a fascinating, pivotal mid-20th century literary scene - all wrapped up with memorable and captivating performances from the electric DeHaan and Radcliffe.

Daniel Radcliffe Proves Himself In One Of His Best Roles To Date.