Daniel Radcliffe will one day face his biggest challenge – trying to convince people that he's a real actor and not just that Harry Potter kid; and he'll do this by taking his clothes off, riding a horse around and then blinding it with a metal stick.
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has just signed up to star the stageplay Equus, about a psychologically unstable naked boy who gets so aroused by horses that he jabs a metal spike into six of their eyes. Needless to say, Equus represents a major stylistic departure from the Harry Potter movies for Daniel Radcliffe; or at least it would have done, had JK Rowling not already completed a scene in the the seventh Harry Potter novel where Harry Potter does exactly the same thing to Hermione and Ron.
We've seen Daniel Radcliffe grow up through the work that he's done in the Harry Potter movies. In Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, Daniel Radcliffe was an annoying, slightly too earnest 11-year-old boy. And by the time of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, Daniel Radcliffe had blossomed into an annoying, slightly too earnest 15-year-old boy. And it's that sort of emotional range which has earned Daniel Radcliffe all the plaudits he's gained, from having more money than you'll ever see so long as you live to letting some bloke draw a picture of him.
But a boy can't be Harry Potter forever – especially since JK Rowling's going to kill him anyway – so Daniel Radcliffe is going off to learn his craft some more on the stage. Ah, the theatre! The smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowds, the sensation of standing naked in front of hundreds of strangers night after night as you blind six horses with a metal spike. There's really nothing like like, and Daniel Radcliffe will experience this for himself when his new play Equus opens. You've probably guessed what the plot of Equus is, but here's the official line, from Reuters:
Radcliffe will play Alan Strang, a stable boy who is interviewed by a psychiatrist after he blinds six horses with a metal spike. In Peter Shaffer's controversial play, the role requires the actor to ride naked on his horse.
There are plenty of things that we're pretty happy not seeing in our lives, and Harry Potter's pubeless balls flapping around while he over-emotes to a fucking horse, strangely enough, is one of them. But that hasn't stopped Daniel Radcliffe's slave Vanessa Davies from doing the whole 'yeah, he's naked, get over it' eye-rolling thing about it:
"This is an extraordinary play and, yes, there is a scene of nudity in it, but that's not what the play is about. He finishes shooting 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' in October or November and rehearsals are starting in January."
Equus is expected to open in March 2006. You sick bastards.
Read more:
Harry Potter Actor To Star In Equus On The London Stage – Reuters
[story by Stuart Heritage]
Dom Corrado says
Having produced a production of this play in commuity theatre over twenty years ago, I suggest that people read the play Equus. The first thing they will realize is that all the horses are played by actors with wire framed horse’s heads mounted on their shoulders. There are no REAL horses in this play. However, there is horsing around! What people might really be interested in is the sex scene with the young girl that takes place in the stable. That’s the nude scene that people really should take note of. My production did it in simulation as not to hurt the sensitive natures of our mostly senior citizen audience. It can be done with body stockings and lighting so don’t get your hopes up.
ochibi says
i think its just one step to the stars that he wanted. at least he just cant suck in that caracter anyway.
Annie Sara says
Daniel Radcliffe is one of the best and most famous child actors ever. He has the right to decide which film he’s going to do after he finishes filming in one film. So therefore, I believe that he’s not making any mistake in acting in this particular one. It is another important step in his acting career, so therefore, GOOD LUCK DANIEL,THE BEST TEEN ACTOR EVER!!!!!!!
Dom Corrado says
He will not be making a film version. He is going to perform on stage. This is far more difficult than acting in a film. An error in a film ends up on a blooper reel. An error on stage is in front of a live audience. This whole endeavor is far greater an effort on his part than any film he has ever done and IS a major step in his career. So don’t hang waiting around the local multiplex for Equus starring Daniel Radcliffe. The film version of Equus was made years ago.
acie says
Oh really now? HAHAHA.
Toby Brown says
So, Daniel Radcliffe was worried about his “topless” scene in Goblet of Fire? Now, he has a bottomless scene or 2 in Equus. And every teen age girl that can get a ticket will be in that theater. I can only hope that it will be a major embarrassment for him. He is a role model to millions of children around the world. He represents some of the most worthy charities. Regardless of whether it’s a play where”nudity is not the issue” the fact is, that he is going to be stark naked in front of hundreds of people every night. Nude is nude. And whether or not his name in the play is Alan Strang, he’s still Daniel Radcliffe. And what he is doing is immoral. If he were naked on the street in front of hundreds of people, he’d be arrested. So what makes this any different. He can do what he wants when he’s 21. But he’s only 17. Where are his parents. Where are his morals. Where are his values. There must be other plays for him to grow as an actor without flopping around his 17 year old sex organs in front of everyone. You’ve lost my respect, Mr. Radcliffe. Not that you really care aabout your fans, or for those who look up to you.
You’re creating the impresstion that it’s ok to be naked in public as long as it’s artistic. That’s just plain ignorant [email protected]!!!
Dom Corrado says
Toby, check the last line in my posting of July 29th.
Fred Arminston says
i sincerely disagree with daniel’s decision to play this role. It’s just nasty to romp a horse on stage – disgusting! Stick as harry potter and save your reputation! I do encourage you to expand your career, just don’t play roles that require you to romp a horse on stage!!! Also read toby brown’s statement, he makes a great point – this is complete plain ignorant [email protected]!!!!!!!!!
Dom Corrado says
There are no horses in Equus. Only actors wearing metal fram horses’ heads. See my
earlier posting of July 29th. Anyway, there is something you should know.
Horses are notoriously bad actors on stage and are known to express themselves
in most nasty ways. Those of you who are worried about [email protected]!!!!!!! should step warily
when on stage with a real horse. Horse apples, anyone?
jasmine says
I am amazed at the prophetic vision of the writer of this article. The seventh HP book is not even finished and you already know what’s gonna happen! Harry’s death is still speculation at this point and for you to presume that that this Dan Radcliffe’s reason for accepting this play is nothing short of malicious. And what do you mean by
” Needless to say, Equus represents a major stylistic departure from the Harry Potter movies for Daniel Radcliffe; or at least it would have done, had JK Rowling not already completed a scene in the the seventh Harry Potter novel where Harry Potter does exactly the same thing to Hermione and Ron.”
Are you implying that Harry will do some horrific thing to Hermione and Ron? You have implied that Equus is a nothing but a baudy play particularly emphasizing the naked Alan Strang, and yet you say that the same situation happened in the 7th HP book which you also implied to be for children. If you say that the shock value of bestiality and nudity in Equus is reduced because JKR already wrote it, then I am wondering why you are bothering to write this article if not fopr the reason that Equus has a bigger shock value than anything that the HP books could offer.
And lastly, I am not a slave of Davies who is a slave of Racliffe but I can understand why she would be rolliing her eyes. She expected people to focus on the nudity thing and talk about little else. I’d say that’s more of a fed up reaction than anything else. People can get so moralistic sometimes and I don’t know if you’ll have the same reaction to Dakota Fanning’s rape scene in her new movie. These two young actors are not desperate for recognition. They are already successes on their right but you can never be too old nor too young to learn more about your craft.
The only “positive” thing I can see in your article is the emotional range that Dan has shown in the HP movies. Stop and think that it maybe because that’s how the sriptwriter wrote the role. In the latest HP movie, Dan was reduced to an action starwith a lot less dialogue than you could have expected from a lead. Maybe that’s the reason why he wants to branch out into something more challenging.
Jody says
I totally agree with Toby Brown. A week after the announcement, it was stated that he WILL perform this in the nude. Amazing how this story is being totally ignored by the media. An underage “role model” gets on stage starkers, and no one in the media objects, or comments about it. There are so many other roles, on film or in theatre, he could have chosen to show he’s a “big boy now”. By the way, I did see the Equus movie. It stunk. It raises quesions that never get answered. Belive me when I say the nudity IS the only good part to this dog.
Ben Gray says
I’m really amazed at some of the comments on this site regarding Daniel’s decision to be in Equus. I’m from the UK and I guess there are many cultural differences between our countries, but really, what’s the problem here??? Daniel is a very accomplished young actor, I think from reading the comments here that we all agree on this. Understandably he wants to build on his success from the HP films. Many successful actors in Hollywood would shy away from a role as difficult and demanding as that of Alan Strang. The fact that Daniel wants to take on this challenge, I consider to be very brave.
Instead of getting our knickers in a twist about him being naked on stage or being immoral, why not have some respect for Daniel for wanting to take on what will be a very demanding role. I think its also worth remembering that Alan Strang’s character is aged around 17 so why is it so morally repugnant to have a 17 year old play him?
The bottom line is Equus is an extremely challenging play, not just to act in but also to watch. It deals with some very uncomfortable issues and situations. If someone makes the decision to watch this play, I think Daniel’s bottom will be the least of their concerns. Isn’t it time we grew up a little bit and stop throwing mud at people for wanting to reach their potential with childish and simplistic accusations of moral treachery? Yes of course he could play many other roles that don’t involve such difficult issues. But this is not the point. Why are you so scared of a little nudity anyway?
If you consider yourselves to be self-appointed guardians of society, there are far more sinister issues to be concerned with such as the HUGE mess both the US and UK are making with their ‘crusades’ type foreign policy which is threatening to divide two of the most powerful and ancient civilisations of the world and plunge us all into misery and fear. Sorry to go off the topic but I really feel it had to be said! Daniel’s bottom is not our biggest problem right now!
L. A. Albert says
Are we allowed to take pictures?
Jody says
It takes a special type of person to do ANY type of on stage performance. I have a deep respect for anyone that can.
The last play Mr. Radcliffe was in, he kept forgetting his lines. He was embarassed to do a shirtless scene in the last movie. I don’t know where he got the original idea for this play, but I think everyone on set has been sucking up to him, and feeding him B.S that he’s a great stage actor. This kid ain’t even an actor. You’ll need the nudity to distract from his performance.
This story gets weirder by the week. Then they said some of the seats were going to be in a circle ON THE STAGE!! Oh, don’t forget the part where this play won’t be age restricted. Why isn’t paying an underage performer to take their clothes of f for the public condidered porno? What’s wrong with his parents for letting him do this?
Imagine putting any “teen idol” naked on a stage for all the screaming fans. This is going to be a disaster.
Gibble says
“Daniel is a very accomplished young actor, I think from reading the comments here that we all agree on this” – Is this some sort of satirical comment – the cretin finds it difficult to walk and talk at the same time, never mind emote in any realistic way. Ben Gray, I suggest you are a mong, am I right?
monika-elma says
I love Dan, so I don’t care, BUT!!!! Still very small kids are watching so if you have kids, be careful!!!
Robert says
Okay- No one in their right mind would give up their time to work on a peice of highly-siruis drama. Equus is a play on a man and a boy. In many productions the boy is naked. Many things could go wrong as their have been pointed out but Dan isn’t stupid and he knows he will be nude in front of everyone- look at the media- they’ve gone CRAZY and I swear YouTube Videos will be all over EVERYWHERE showing Dan nude- the media is turning the play into something it’s not and I agree with monika- there are small kids.
Jody says
Maybe they’ve gone nuts in the UK, but here in the US, it wasn’t even a blip on the radar.
Very Mad X-fan says
That is the dumbest thing i’ve ever heard!!! DANIEL stick to reality if you were supposed to do this clothes wouldnt have been invented! I dont see how can u do this! Think of all the fans you’ll loose for just gaining a few!!! DONT AND I REPEAT DONT DO THIS! Your are harry potter gain more fame doing something else. You will loose a lot of respect and fans DONT!
Gina says
I’m a huge fan of the books and a moderate fan of the movies. Prisoner of Azkaban was the only good one, in my opinion. Dan Radcliffe may be a mediocre actor, but I imagine most of us are mediocre at nearly everything when we are 17. If he was looking for recognition alone, then doing an action movie or something like that would be a far easier method of getting it. I think it’s great that he wants to do a 180 and choose something with complexity for his next project. How in the world do we know whether the crew on the play is feeding him a line of crap about his acting? Maybe one of you are working on that play as well, I guess that’s possible.
I just think most 17 year olds are far from their potential. Maybe he’ll be good, maybe not. But I hope we’re not all expected to exhibit our life’s best work at that age. Radcliffe seems very unstuffy and genuine in interviews, as far as that goes. He should have his chance and be judged on his work, not predictions of it. As far as the nudity is concerned, it seems to fit the context. And I really doubt there will be parents taking their 8 year olds to this because of Harry Potter. The people who scream the loudest about immorality are usually the ones staring the hardest. No accusation here, just an observation. The HP movies are fun. At least they’re not nearly as bad as ‘Eragon’. Christopher Paolini should sue!
Keith says
But isn’t the whole point of art simply to provoke people out of complacency, so they can realign themselves examining their own values and hypocrisies? One is hardly an artist if there isn’t some great degree of risk involved, anyway. I say don’t tell this kid how to do his job.
Marshall says
I’ve never respected Daniel Raddcliffe as an actor, mainly because I saw him as that kid who played Harry Potter and assumed thats all his work would ever amount to. But I’m a great fan of Shaffer’s ‘Equus’ and was quite impressed when I heard he was taking the part. Playing Alan Strang is an incredibally complex role, and I’ve seen a few actors do it badly in the past, but done well or not the role does involve nudity. There’s no moral decay here, no corrupted youth, only the impotent whining of a few morons who have probably never heard of Shaffer’s work before “OMG HARRY POTTERZ IN IT N00D” started popping up in forums and the like. I’m not sure if I will be able to see the play, but all the same I wish him the best of luck. I just hope he does it well because I’m sure alot of people will come and see it for only for him, and it would be a shame for them to miss out on a good play due to bad acting.
I also find it funny that everyones so shocked at seeing a millionaire’s cock, but not that the same boy supposedly stabbed the eyes out of six horses. Get some fucking perspective for fucks sake.
Also to
Very Mad X-fan
Jody
Fred Arminston
Toby Brown
You all fail.
asdf says
Rant:
“fans fans fans” blah blah blah. Obviously Radcliffe doesn’t care what the fans think. He’s growing old and maturing. I don’t think little kids looking up to him as a role model would appeal to him at this time anyway (and on the topic of role models….ACTORS as role models? what kind of role model is that??? children need to find REAL people to look up to, not fictionalized movie characters).
Being that this play is for mature people, I highly doubt Radcliffe is doing this to ‘corrupt’ the innocence of little children either. Besides, being children, and being that this play has nudity in it, I don’t see how they’d even be allowed into theatres without a consenting adult.
People are just selfish and want to keep Radcliffe as a little boy. He obviously isn’t, and this play proves that.
Reading some of these comments, a lot of them are not open minded. If you can’t get past the idea of a naked boy on a horse being sexual, then don’t watch the play- because you’ll obviously get nothing out of it but ideas of perversion. You won’t get any meaning out from the tormented/twisted themes of the play.
I find it funny how one person asked “Where are his morals. Where are his values.” Well, would you say the same thing about all those violent murder plot movies out there? Where the antagonists gleefully murder innocent people? Are you going to get as passionate about the wrongness of actors portarying murderers, as you are about actors portraying horse mutilators? Which is worse?
“You’re creating the impresstion that it’s ok to be naked in public as long as it’s artistic. That’s just plain ignorant [email protected]!!! “- in some areas of the world nudity is a common thing (mostly in rural places in africa). YOU’RE the one being ignorant. Radcliffe is not dancing in the PUBLIC streets naked for entertainment, he’s an ACTOR in a THEATRE in which people have to PAY to get ACCESS to the artistic wonders/enjoyments of a PLAY. Dumbass.
Jody says
Putting an underage actor in a play nude is pedophillia
LIZ says
I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE HARRY POTTER NAKED!!!!!! YUMMY
Brayden says
Who REALLY cares? It’s his choice – and besides – he’s hot. So have a bex & a lie down all you people. ;)
Alice says
It just figures that the boy who plays Harry Potter is fucking horses. JUST TYPICAL! But really, who gives a shit about nudity? This is supposedly one of the greatest plays of the past 30 years or some shit and it’s about a guy who wants to jack off on his horse and then stab it in the eyes. Yeah. That’s GENIOUS stuff right there. …. I’m sorry… can you or can you not sense my words dripping with sarcasm? Sarcasm, yeah, dripping, more like, POURING it out. Okay? Radcliffe I am disappointed. But after all, he’s an actor. Actors play roles. And sometimes, they play sick fucks who are sexually aroused by horses and then stab their eyes out BECAUSE… they are so sexually excited…. hmm… sense is made, fellow, sense IS MADE.
James says
Ahhh Alice you make me laugh. One of the few people to have left a good comment on here. Brilliant. Keep it up.
Marshall says
Alice from the first of Febuary. You’re an idiot. See or read the play before you comment on its artistic merit.
Jody says
Maybe next time they’ll ask a 16 year old to be nude in a project. Then a 15 year old, etc. Where do you draw the line? The line is SUPPOSED to be 18. This is about setting a legal precedent for allowing underage performers to be nude in a project. But we all know Golden Boy will get away with it. Probably get a friggin award, too. You people are pigs.
Mike says
Jody, the play is being performed in the United Kingdom where the “line” as you put it is 16, not 18.
There is nothing altogether unusual or groundbreaking about a 17 year old actor being nude on the London stage. The only unusual aspect is that IT’S HARRY POTTER! OMFG! etc etc.
Marshall says
SPOILERS: THE AGE OF CONSENT IN BRITAIN IS 16.
Kevin says
uhmm Daniel Radcliffe [Harry Potter] is an amazing actor and whoever thinks it’s horrid for him to be naked in the new movie. Equus. Then I do not care. Because he is quite charming and very attractive. tell me if you find that pic, lol.
spesh says
well it’s not bad but if you really wanna see an impresive cleb penis check out pete wentz it is amazing just type in “pete wentz’s penis” (.com optional) and go to jossip it is way better than tinny harry up there check it out
breanna says
fuck you you fucken bitch daniel radcliffe you stabbed a horse in the eye and got naked in publick that is so cheating on your girlfriend you fucken dick