Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has got some parents steaming over his racy new stage play role.
One of the publicity photos for the play shows a topless and buffed Radcliffe being hugged by a naked woman. Another shows him leaning against bales of hay as he stares up at the topless woman. A third has him posing in front of a white horse.
The pictures have been released ahead of the opening of Equus, a controversial Peter Shaffer play showing at London’s Gielgud Theatre from next month.
Radcliffe,17, plays a troubled stablehand who one night blinds six horses with a hoofpick.
He features in numerous nude scenes with co-star Joanna Christie, the woman in the publicity shots.
The UK’s Daily Mail reports that Harry Potter fan sites have received emails from concerned parents…
…The play’s producer, David Pugh, told the Daily Mail that Radcliffe had been rehearsing the nude scenes with Christie for more than a week and had overcome his initial shyness.
The young actor’s spokeswoman, Vanessa Davies, said: “Daniel does not want to step away from Harry Potter but he does want to show he is a rounded actor capable of very different and diverse roles.”
“He has tremendous support from Harry Potter fans,” she said.
Jano Gibson
Sunday Morning Herald
Analysis:
It is shameful that the young actor who plays Harry Potter feels that to prove his ability as an actor he must appear in nude scenes on stage, and scenes depicting sexuality. In fact, it is sad that any 17 year old would do so, and likewise a sad commentary that such a move is lauded as “brave” and “daring.”
While it is a bit presumptuous for Radcliffe’s publicist to claim that he has “tremendous support from Harry Potter fans” (many are shocked and dismayed at what he is doing), nevertheless it is true that others are taken with his lewd turn. In fact, many fans admire the publicity photographs released for the play. One female fan said, “When I saw it I couldn’t breathe for a moment … I like it … They’re awesome!”
This is just another example that in the midst of our ungodly society, sex sells. Of course, the Bible has something to say about such ungodliness. “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
While the world is characterized by such ungodliness, the Christian should be clear of it. Both in his personal life and conduct, and in his approval of the same. Remember the apostle Paul’s condemnation of the ungodly in Romans 1, “Who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them” (vs. 31). We must be sure not to approve of that which God clearly and forcefully condemns. Think about it!
