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masterofmystery · #1 (**permalink**) 05-31-2012, 03:58 PM

Kill Your Darlings cinematographer Reed Morano released a few behind-the-scenes photos from the Daniel Radcliffe Beats-era crime drama, featuring the former Harry Potter actor as Allen Ginsberg and costars between takes at various locations throughout New York City this past spring, including Columbia University. Those can be found below. The film is set for a 2013 release.

Dan recently chatted with The Advocate as part of promotion for the DVD/Blu-ray release of The Woman in Black, and further discussed his reasons for taking on the Ginsberg role for the independent feature, and his passion towards The Trevor Project and what it has meant to him.

The Woman in Blackis the first film you made since the Potter franchise ended. Did you have any hesitation about making another movie within the horror-fantasy genre?
Daniel Radcliffe: I said to myself, if I rule out any script that had remotely any fantasy element, I’d be cutting myself off from a huge amount of amazing work. If you’re talking about films made years ago, it would exclude me from films like The Shining or A Matter of Life and Death or who knows what else.

There are so many films that could be deemed as having heightened paranormal elements to them, which could just be magical realism or a ghost story, which isn’t really the same feeling as Potter. I decided not to let that impinge on my decision-making.

What specifically appealed to you about the film?
Radcliffe: For me it was a chance to do something that’s genuinely different and that I thought people wouldn’t be expecting and that I wasn’t expecting. If you’d said to me that the first film I’d do after finishing the last Potter would be a horror film, I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s never been something I’ve particularly gravitated towards. But one of the only horror films that made an impression on me while I was growing up was The Others. I saw it when I was about 13 and absolutely loved it.

You portray Allen Ginsberg in your next film, Kill Your Darlings.
Radcliffe: I feel I am incredibly lucky to be playing him. Despite the damage from his upbringing and his mother and what he went through, he really emerged into the most fully formed open, compassionate human being out of all of the Beats. He’s certainly the one you’d be most comfortable spending time around, I think. When you watch footage of him and William Burroughs together and see how much they care about each other and how close they were and the love between all those guys and the incredible sadness that brought them all together that they were all carrying in some degree. It’s great.

Last year you received the Trevor Project’s Hero Award. The founder of Trevor Project said that you actually reached out to them to become involved with the organization. Why was this important to you?
Radcliffe: I think it started when I was doing an interview a few years ago and I was being asked about gay rights and I realized I was speaking much more passionately about gay rights than anything else I’d been asked about. It’s because while growing up a lot of my mum and dad’s best friends were gay, so there were always a lot of gay men in my life.

When I went to school, suddenly there was something weird about that for a lot of kids. That’s still very odd to me. I’m still like, What’s new about it? It’s been going on for ages. I couldn’t understand why people are freaked out about it. I find it incredibly frustrating that people are still being brought up in ways that encourage homophobia and allow it to affect the lives of millions of people across the country and the world. Finding out about Trevor Project through friends at that time just seemed perfect.

I wanted to be of service and help, and I’m just incredibly proud that I’m able to. I do get people coming up to me and saying – I’d say at least five or six times each week someone will come up to me and say, "Thank you for what you do for the Trevor Project." It’s amazing that you’re able to effect a positive change just by being you and talking about things that you feel strongly about. I’m just very proud to be a part of it.

Marriage equality is a hot button issue in the States. Earlier this year British prime minister David Cameron stated his support. Is it safe to presume you support it as well?
Radcliffe: Yes, absolutely. Obviously. [Laughs] It shouldn’t even be a thing. It shouldn’t even be a discussion. That doesn’t sound right. Everything should be discussed. Anyone should be able to get married. One of the most amazing things I’ve seen was during the Republican thing earlier when Michele Bachmann was still around and some young girl asked her why gay men can’t get married. Michele Bachmann said they can but not to each other. I thought, That’s the problem. They don’t even understand the question. It’s so frustrating to me and bizarre. Hopefully progress will come.