Actors Portray Real Beat Poets in 'Kill Your Darlings'

28 Feb, 2014 By: Chris Tribbey

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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Since wrapping up the “Harry Potter” franchise that made him a household name, Daniel Radcliffe has worked on several films and TV shows, but it was the Sony Pictures thriller Kill Your Darlings that really came as a breath of fresh air.

“It was huge for me because I got to work with so many new people,” the 24-year-old actor said. “It was a big period of transition for me, the different locations, the different crew.”

In Kill Your Darlings, Radcliffe takes on the role of poet Allen Ginsberg, who gets accepted to Columbia University and becomes involved in the hard-living circle of Lucien Carr (played by Dane DeHaan of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Chronicle), to the dismay of Carr’s older hanger-on, David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall). While Carr and Ginsberg start the anti-authority “Libertine Circle” with fellow writers Jack Kerouac and William S. Boroughs, Kammerer is left on the outside. And when Carr is accused of murder, Ginsberg’s left to pick up the pieces.

Based on actual events, Kill Your Darlings comes to Blu-ray Disc combo pack and digital March 18 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

“They’re the original hipsters,” DeHaan said of the writers the film depicts. “Their books had a huge impact, but especially what they stood for still resonates.”

“We’re still feeling the ripple effects of the cultural phenomenon they started,” Hall agreed, adding that he saw his role as Kammerer as a challenge, giving the tragic figure a new voice. “I was excited by the opportunity to humanize this guy who was, if anything, characterized as a two-dimensional stalker.”

Radcliffe was especially intrigued with the opportunity to take on the role of Ginsberg, even though the actor was in the middle of doing seven shows a week on Broadway.

“I’ve been reading Allen’s diaries since I was a teen, and I found him very likeable,” he said. “They reveal him as an interesting mix, immense confidence, but still quite reserved and shy. It’s an interesting split.”

The Blu-ray combo pack features an exclusive “On the Red Carpet” featurette, following the film’s talent at the Toronto Film Festival. There are also deleted scenes, the featurette “In Conversation with Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan,” a Q&A session with director and co-writer John Krokidas and co-writer Austin Bunn, and a commentary featuring Radcliffe, DeHaan, Krokidas and Bunn.

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