Daniel Radcliffe is in Utah for the premiere of Kill Your Darlings at the Sundance Film Festival, in which he plays gay poet Allan Ginsberg. TheImproper was at last night’s screening and managed to catch what the former Harry Potter had to say about his gay sex scenes in the film, which includes ‘oral sex, making out and getting naked for sex, all with men.’
“It was something new,” Radcliffe said. “But you know what, we shot that whole scene in maybe an hour and a half so it was incredibly fast-paced. I didn’t really have time to stop to think and worry about it.”
He also thinks getting to know his scene-mate helped. “We were able to hang out a little bit on set and get to know each other a little bit, which I think is important when you’re doing a scene so intimate. “You have to feel like you’re both in it together.”
The movie charts how a murder helped shape the lives of a group of young men who went on to become the beat generation. Chronicle star DeHaan plays Lucien Carr, the man who introduced Howl writer Allen Ginsberg to the likes of William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster) and Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston). Indeed, Ginsberg later said that “Lou was the glue” that brought the beat poets and writers together.
During these early, hedonistic days, a man called David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall) fell for Carr, with his infatuation becoming increasingly obsessive and unhinged – Ginsberg once discovered Kammerer trying to murder Jack Kerouac’s cat. It eventually resulted in Carr stabbing Kammerer to death him and going to prison for his murder. The violent event is said to have indelibly changed all the people involved and etched its way into the published works of the Beat writers.
Although Carr said the killing took place after he rejected Kammerer’s sexual advances and was assaulted as a result, many have suggested that Lucien wasn’t as heterosexual as he made out, and that he and Ginsberg had been lovers. The full truth of what happened may never be known. Whatever happened, it was a pivotal moment for Ginsberg, who had been exceptionally close to Carr whether they’d been lovers or not.
The film is said to look at all this, with many giving it good notices from its Sundance premiere.
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