‘Potter’ star tries to shed image along with clothes
Associated Press

Peter Thompson Associates
“Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe poses with Joanna Christie for a promotional photo for the London stage performance of “Equus.”

NEW YORK – “Harry Potter” star Daniel Radcliffe, who strips for his new role in London’s West End revival of the play “Equus,” has ignited a bit of a media firestorm by posing for racy promotional photos for the production.

The Tony Award-winning drama tells the story of a stable-hand who has an erotic fixation with horses. In one photo, Radcliffe, 17, dares to bare it all alongside a white horse; in another, he is pictured with a naked Joanna Christie, the actress who portrays his girlfriend.

“Equus,” directed by Thea Sharrock, opens at London’s Gielgud Theater on Feb. 27. Tony Award-winning actor Richard Griffiths plays a pyschiatrist who treats Radcliffe’s character.

“Part of me wants to shake up people’s perception of me, just shove me in a blender,” Radcliffe said in a recent interview with Newsweek magazine.

“It’s a really challenging play, and if I can pull it off – we don’t know if I can yet – I hope people will stop and think, ‘Maybe he can do something other than Harry,’ ” he said.

Radcliffe, who was discovered seven years ago in the audience of a London theater, reprises his role as the bespectacled boy wizard in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” scheduled for release July 13.