Daniel Radcliffe’s latest role is a far cry away from Hogwarts as the 26-year-old Harry Potter star plays a flatulent corpse that becomes the best pal of a marooned man.
It’s the latest in a series of roles chosen by the former child-actor to prove to Hollywood and beyond that there is more to his repertoire than playing the ‘boy wizard’ and is one of his most unusual parts to date.
In Swiss Army Man he plays a corpse who is washed up on an island where Paul Dano, who recently starred as Pierre Bezukhov in the BBC’s six part adaptation of Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace, is suicidal and stranded.
The trailer shows Dano’s character using the British actor’s dead body as a friend he nicknames ‘Manny’ as he goes on adventures with the rotting, farting corpse.
Set to premier in the UK later this month, the movie was first screened at the trendy Sundance Film Festival where it divided critics but went on to win the Best Director award despite film magazine Variety reporting that a ‘continuous stream of audience members kept standing up and bolting for the door throughout the film’.
It’s not the first time he has taken risks with his acting roles as he won acclaim for performing nude scenes in the controversial play Equus, winning rave reviews and went onto star as the lead when it transferred from London to Broadway.
He last appeared in his career-defining role in ‘Harry Potter and the deathly Hallows – Part 2″ released in July 2011 and Radcliffe admitted that some people would never be able to separate him from the character, but added he was ‘proud to be associated with this film series forever’.
