Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe has begun filming a new movie about acclaimed gay poet Allen Ginsberg.

The film, entitled Kill Your Darlings, sees 22 year-old Radcliffe play the American poet – who was one of the leading members of the Beat Generation in the 1950s.

Based on And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks – a novel by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, who were friends with Ginsberg – the film also stars Dexter’s star Michael C. Hall and Elizabeth Olsen.

Scheduled for release in 2013, the film is being filmed on location in New York and is the first time Radcliffe has played a gay character.

In 2007, the actor told the Daily Star: “I’d never play a gay character just for the sake of it.

“But if the script was good and it was a good character, it wouldn’t bother me. Playing characters exploring their sexuality is a challenge.”

In recent years he has personally supported U.S. lesbian and gay helpline The Trevor Project.

PinkPaper.com