Daniel Radcliff: Harry Potter star bares all…

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.

“We as parents feel Daniel should not appear nude. Our nine-year-old son looks up to him as a role model. We are very disappointed and will avoid the future movies he makes,” one parent wrote.

Another said: “I am curious as to how and why his parents said this was okay.” Some of his younger fans, however, are impressed with Radcliffe's tough new look.

The publicity shots were taken between filming of the fifth and sixth Harry Potter movies.

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.”