Daniel Radcliffe defends gun violence in Guns Akimbo

Daniel Radcliffe isn't worried about the impact of gun violence in his new film Guns Akimbo, insisting it is unlikely to incite "copycat" shootings.

The Harry Potter star appears alongside Samara Weaving in the Jason Lei Howden-directed film, about a video game developer who becomes a participant in a real-life deathmatch that streams online.

Yet, Radcliffe has now insisted he didn't worry about the production's violent themes because outside of the U.S., mass shootings are uncommon.

"I didn't think about it until I was on set, which is maybe slightly a bad thing to say," he told Entertainment Weekly. "This film is made by Jason; he's from New Zealand. Samara's from Australia. I'm from the U.K., and this was before the mosque shooting in New Zealand as well."

The Christchurch, New Zealand shooting in March 2019 left 51 dead after a gunman opened fire on a mosque.
But Radcliffe insists that since gun violence isn't as prevalent in Britain, or Weaving and Howden's native countries, the project is unlikely to inspire shooting incidents.

"All of us are from countries where it was not present enough in any of our minds," the 30-year-old commented. "Nobody's going to copycat this in England."

Radcliffe also noted that many of the key scenes do not feature guns.

"Look, there are some incredibly cool action sequences in it and fight sequences, some of which involve guns, but actually not all of them do," he added. "I very much want to emphasise that nobody should be taking their moral compass from this film. It's just a fun, crazy action movie.

"Maybe I should have thought about it more, but then you can get into a larger conversation about culture informing art and all that stuff."