Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman In Black
A few weeks ago it was revealed that Daniel Radcliffe was set to play gay poet Allen Ginsberg in a movie called Kill Your Darlings. The film about a murder case that united three of the most important figures of the beat era – Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S Burroughs – before any of them made their name.
Ginsberg, famed for his poem Howl, is best known from images of him when he was in his 30s. At that point he had a huge bushy beard and receding hairline, leading to accusations that Radcliffe is the wrong person to play him. This is despite the fact the rather dashing and beardless James Franco played him only a couple of years ago in Howl.
The popular image of a slightly older Allen Ginsberg
Now Radcliffe has been defending his casting, telling the BBC, “Any criticism of me not looking right for the part – well, James Franco is way too good-looking to play Allen Ginsberg.”
Radcliffe added, “This is a 19-year old Ginsberg. I remember somebody saying to me, ‘Are you going to grow a beard?’ No, l’m not playing him at 40. That would be weird, they wouldn’t have cast me. He’s 19, clean shaven and has just got into Columbia University.”
Kill Your Darlings is about Columbia University student Lucien Carr, who was implicated in (and served time for) the murder of David Kammerer, who was found dead in Hudson River in 1944. The events surrounding the death are said to have had a massive impact on the beat circle – including Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs – who all became involved in the case, with it tempering the idealism they had felt beforehand.
Shooting is due to begin in March. Radcliffe will next be seen in The Woman In Black, which opens in the UK on February 10th.
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