Rupert Grint plays a Viagra-popping aspiring porn star in a new film starring Evan Rachel Wood and Shia LeBeouf, The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman. Collider provides this synopsis of the film:
"Traveling abroad, Charlie Countryman falls for Gabi, a Romanian beauty whose unreachable heart has its origins in Nigel, her violent, charismatic ex. As the darkness of Gabi's past increasingly envelops him, Charlie resolves to win her heart, or die trying."
Grint plays Charlie's slightly peculiar friend Carl, a young man with an unusual pill problem and dreams of becoming a porn actor. In a phone interview with fan website Rupert Grint Press, Grint described his character as "quite strange," and added, "I think it's gonna be quite a weird, surreal, quite twisted film. Should be cool."
Like his former Harry Potter co-star Daniel Radcliffe, Grint seems to be distancing himself from his wizarding days and taking on edgier roles. He recently finished shooting CBGB, a biopic based on the famed New York night club, with another Harry Potter veteran, Alan Rickman. In CBGB, Grint plays legendary punk rocker Cheetah Chrome.
"The whole punk thing has always inspired me," Grint told fan website Snitch Seeker, "I love the music, the clothes and just the whole style of it." He added that he felt a lot of pressure playing someone who is still living. "You want to get it right and do him justice," he said.
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman premiered at Sundance to largely negative reviews. Variety called the film "profoundly unnecessary" and a "charisma-free trip into a world of gratuitous violence, contrivances and tedium." USA Today, on the other hand, praised Grint's supporting performance in the film, saying, "Grint, 24, has the charm that has always endeared him to his fans."