Featured Image Credit: Alamy/theodore liasi/Stills Press
Topics: YouTube, Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe, Celebrity, Film and TV, JK Rowling
Katherine Sidnell
Topics: YouTube, Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe, Celebrity, Film and TV, JK Rowling
Daniel Radcliffe has seemingly made a dig at JK Rowling as the actor announces that he will star in a new YouTube series about trans youth.
The Harry Potter star has supported the community with several projects after Rowling's deeply transphobic comments in 2020.
In a statement about the upcoming project, he said that it was time to ‘hear from these youth directly’.
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It’s not the first time the actor has spoken up as an ally.
After the author’s hateful comment went viral, the 33-year-old wrote a touching essay about how many queer fans had identified with Harry Potter.
He wrote: "The reason I was felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was because, particularly since finishing Potter, I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter.”
Continuing, he expressed his sorrow after seeing so many trans fans hurt by Rowling’s tweet.
"Seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way. And that was really important," he added.
The piece was published by charity the Trevor Project, which provides 24/7 support and trained counsellors for LGBT+ youth in crisis.
Radcliffe has now partnered with the charity again, with a new YouTube series.
Called Sharing Space, the series will see a group of trans and non-binary youth discuss various issues affecting them currently.
Airing on the Trevor Project’s YouTube channel, the first episode will see the Harry Potter actor be a moderator during the series premiere.
The episode is set to air on March 31, which is International Transgender Day of Visibility and this was not lost on the actor who seemingly took a swipe at Rowling in his announcement.
Referring to her infamous tweet, he said: "We listen to so many people talk about trans youth and hear them talked about so often in the news, but very rarely do we actually hear from these youth directly.”
Though he never mentioned the best-selling author directly, he did say it would be useful for some to ‘actually listen’ to trans kids.
Later in the statement, he also thanked his co-stars and said: “It was an absolute privilege to get to meet and listen to this incredible group of young people. At the end of the day, if you’re going to talk about trans kids, it might be useful to actually listen to trans kids.”
Not even protego horribilis would save Rowling from that comment.