Daniel Radcliffe on 'Kill Your Darlings' gay sex scene, 'Frankenstein'

The more Daniel Radcliffe promotes his new movie Kill Your Darlings, in select theaters Oct. 16, the more questions he’ll be asked about the gay sex scene he performs playing a young Allen Ginsberg. Speaking with EW editor Jess Cagle during a recent SiriusXM Town Hall, Radcliffe said he knows ‘gay sex scene’ is an easy headline, and he’s okay with that. “It is slightly salacious, but if that gets people to buy a ticket, and they end up seeing a one and a half hour drama about the Beat Generation, then I’m happy with that.” He’s just surprised that more people have been shocked by his turn as a gay man than his performance in the 2007 stage revival of Equus, in which he played a stable boy who blinds six horses in a psychosexual frenzy: “I do feel like going back to all those people, and being like, ‘Why weren’t you more shocked about the sort of sexual religious worship of a horse that my character has in that?'” He’s confident Kill Your Darlings won’t affect his Harry Potter fanbase. “If they stuck with me through Equus, they’re not gonna find a problem with this. And if they are, they’re a really weird type of bigot,” he said, with a laugh. “If they’re like, ‘No, a horse is fine, but gay people I can’t stand.'” Watch the interview excerpt below.

Radcliffe also shared details about his upcoming turn as Igor in Chronicle screenwriter Max Landis’ adaptation of Frankenstein, which he recently started rehearsing with James McAvoy (Victor) and Jessica Brown Findlay (Lorelei). He said Landis has given Igor a backstory, and focuses on two young guys at the forefront of science at a time when people thought they could shape and change nature and be the masters of it. “It’s about two guys who teeter on that line constantly, and one of them, Igor, has to sort of pull Victor back and give him a dose of morality and be his conscience. The peril in the film is whether or not he will be successful in that or whether Victor will just go mad.” Watch that interview excerpt below to hear him describe the script as an adventure, a romp, and the most original one he’s read out a studio since Potter.

SiriusXM listeners can hear the full interview on Sirius On Demand. Jess Cagle’s Editor’s Hour airs on SiriusXM’s Entertainment Weekly channel 105 on Thursdays at 2 p.m. EST.