Topics: Harry Potter, JK Rowling, LGBTQ, Transgender, UK News, Film and TV
Amid JK Rowling’s new Harry Potter TV show, one of the actors has been open about what he thinks about the author’s opinions on the transgender community.
HBO officially confirmed the first six cast members of the new TV adaptation of the Harry Potter franchise, which will see everyone’s favorite characters come to life in a different way. Based on JK Rowling's novels, it is set to run for eight years, with one year per season taking on the stories of each of her books.
So far, it's been confirmed that Nick Frost will play Hagrid, Janet McTeer will be Professor Minerva McGonagall, and John Lithgow has been cast as Albus Dumbledore.
While the series has been embroiled in controversy due to public responses to Rowling’s controversial opinions throughout the year, the cast of this project have been largely quiet about the writer.
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Until now.
Lithgow has thrown his two cents into the mix and spilled the tea on what he thinks about his role, Rowling, and people’s reaction to him accepting the part.
The 80-year-old, who is known for his work on projects like How I Met Your Mother, and Daddy’s Home 2, shared he was ‘upset’ that people close to him wanted him to walk away from the role of Dumbledore, he claimed during the Rotterdam film festival screening.
The actor was there for his latest flick, Jimpa, a queer family film, where he said he takes 'the subject extremely seriously’ reports the Hollywood Reporter. He went on to reveal that someone he knows, who has a trans child, sent him a letter titled ‘An open letter to John Lithgow: Please walk away from Harry Potter'.
“It was a hard decision,” Lithgow told the audience. “It made me uncomfortable and unhappy that people insisted I walk away from the job. I chose not to do that.”
He explained his thoughts on the author, who has been slated for denying trans-affirming pronouns, and has regularly posted about her stance online.
He said: “JK Rowling has created this amazing canon for young people, young kids’ literature that has jumped into the consciousness of society. Young and old people love Harry Potter and the Harry Potter stories. It’s so much about acceptance. It’s about good versus evil. It’s about kindness versus cruelty. It’s deeply felt.
“I find it ironic and somewhat inexplicable that Rowling has expressed such views,” he added. “I’ve read about them, and I’ve never met her. She’s not really involved in this production at all. The people who are re-adapting Harry Potter and turning it into an eight-year-long TV series are remarkable. … These are people I really want to work with.
“It upsets me when people are vehemently opposed to me having anything to do with this,” he went on to share. “But in Potter canon you see no trace of transphobic sensitivity. She has written this meditation of kindness and acceptance. And Dumbledore is a beautiful role.”
