You've Come A Long Way, Baby

I'm sure you've already heard all the buzz about this new play that Daniel Radcliffe (aka. Harry Potter) is in. It's a play in London's West End Theatre called Equus, where he [Daniel] has an erotic fixation with this horse (real kinky, huh?) and he does a nude scene on stage.

This is quite different from the "cute" little boy we've gotten used to seeing in the movies ...although in the later movies, it's obvious that he's growing up and not a "little boy" anymore., as is also evidenced by the following visuals.

This is a still from the play:    (Click for a larger view)

This is a video clip (courtesy of YouTube) from the HBO series, "Extras". Here he plays a parody of himself portraying a boyscout in the production within the production scenario. The hi-jinx ensue off camera where he attempts to hit on a fellow actor, an older woman. Yes, that is Dame Diana Rigg.



I suspect this turnabout is his attempt to break out of the Harry Potter mold ...a character as whom he's most assuredly to be type-cast.

One other such radical attempt to break out of the mold comes to mind ...the Hugh Grant debacle. Everyone knew and loved [him] in period dramas and as the Cary Grant type romantic lead. Well, this was never discussed and I've never heard anyone else express this sentiment, but I suspect it was all a stunt. I'm talking about his being apprehended in flagrante delicto with the prostitute Divine Brown (real name Estella Marie Thompson).

Let's look at the facts. Hugh Grant is a tremendously good looking guy. He's got lots of money, Lot's of acting prospects, had (at the time) a really hot girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, and if he did want to go the hooker route, he surely wouldn't have been "doing it" in a car on a public street.

What I suspect is that the incident was staged to shatter his "lily-white" image ...to make him appear a bit sordid, dangerous, a bit of a scoundrel, a wolf beneath the sheepish exterior.

Also, consider that his "public apology" was itself a performance. And his paramour didn't seem to have any problem with the infidelity at all.

Oh yes, This all occurred prior to the release of his movie "Extreme Measures", in which he shifted gears and attempted to play someone way outside the realm of all of his previous characters. To make the character believable, you'd would have to be able to see [him] in a different light ...hence the reason for perpetrating the "scandal". Oh yes, did you also notice that Elizabeth Hurley was the producer of the film. Hmmmmm. Didn't anybody else pick up on that?

Anyway, good luck to Daniel in his new endeavors. I'm sure his efforts will offend many of his younger readers and their parents. I don't know what effect this all will have on the perception of "Harry" in the remaining (3) films, but I'm sure they won't seem so much like the kids' fare that were the previous releases.