"Harry Potter" actor takes stage

The world knows him as boy wizard Harry Potter. Now, Daniel Radcliffe wants the world to see him differently.

Next summer, the 17-year-old will take to a London stage in the Tony Award-winning drama "Equus" and will perform nude during one scene, according Newsweek magazine in editions that hit newsstands yesterday.

"Part of me wants to shake up people's perception of me, just shove me in a blender," he told the magazine in an exclusive interview on the set of the fifth Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

"It's a really challenging play, and if I can pull it off — we don't know if I can yet — I hope people will stop and think, 'Maybe he can do something other than Harry,'" he said.

In "Equus," Radcliffe will play a "troubled young man with a religious-erotic obsession with horses," the magazine reported.

Radcliffe was discovered seven years ago in the audience of a London theater and is known for playing Potter in the blockbuster film series based on J.K. Rowling's books.