Featured Image Credit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images, Jon Furniss via Getty
Topics: Celebrity, Daniel Radcliffe, JK Rowling, Emma Watson
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Celebrity, Daniel Radcliffe, JK Rowling, Emma Watson
Daniel Radcliffe has given his thoughts on the row between JK Rowling and his fellow Harry Potter stars over the author's controversial views on the transgender community.
JK Rowling shaped the childhood of millions of people worldwide with the creation of her Harry Potter books and subsequent films.
However, her comments regarding the trans community in 2020 lead to accusations of transphobia on social media when the author shared a link to an article including the phrase 'people who menstruate'.
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Her comments were firmly criticized by Radcliffe and Emma Watson.
The pair - among other actors from the franchise - showed unwavering support for the trans community, with Radcliffe writing in an essay for the LGBTQ+ organization, The Trevor Project: "Transgender women are women.
"Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I."
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He also apologized for the 'pain' her comments had caused for the trans community.
While The Little Woman star told her trans followers that she and 'so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are'.
And earlier this month, in a post shared on X on April 10, Rowling spoke about the Cass Review, which examines gender services for young people in the UK, in particular the use of puberty blockers.
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A social media user then questioned whether Rowling was waiting for a public apology from some members of the Harry Potter cast - namely Radcliffe and Watson.
But the author made it clear that she wasn't looking to bury the hatchet.
"Not safe, I'm afraid," she wrote. "Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces."
In a new interview, Radcliffe addressed the spat between them and said that while she is responsible for his fame, that doesn’t mean he should automatically agree with her stances on things.
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Beyond that, he also revealed the pair haven’t spoken in years.
Speaking to The Atlantic, he said: “It makes me really sad, ultimately.
“Because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.”
He added: “Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person,”
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“But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.”
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The Ron actor said in a statement in 2020: "I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers. Trans women are women. Trans men are men."
In an interview with the Times two years later, he added, "I liken JK Rowling to an auntie. I don't necessarily agree with everything my auntie says, but she's still my auntie. It's a tricky one."
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The Voldemort actor told The New York Times in 2022: "The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, it's appalling.
"I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women. But it's not some obscene, uber-right-wing fascist. It's just a woman saying, 'I'm a woman and I feel I'm a woman and I want to be able to say that I'm a woman.'"
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Melling, who played Dudley Dursley, told the Independent in 2022: "I can only speak for myself, and what I feel, to me, is very simple, which is that transgender women are women and transgender men are men."
Lynch played Luna Lovegood in the films and told the Telegraph: "I just felt that her character has always been to advocate for the most vulnerable members of society. The problem is that there's a disagreement over who's the most vulnerable.
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"I do wish people would just give her more grace and listen to her."