Every Harry Potter Star Who Condemned J.K. Rowling’s Anti-Trans Comments

In the years following the end of “Harry Potter,” fans liked to joke that J.K. Rowling, the author of the massively best-selling book series, would not shut up about it. For years, Rowling would drop tidbits of extratextual lore via social media and interviews, expanding the magical world of the series in ways that were alternately interesting (Dumbledore was gay!) and off-putting (wizards used to poop their pants, I guess?). Aside from her philanthropy, this constant stream of suddenly canon “Harry Potter” factoids became what Rowling was most known for.

Advertisement

Then one day, the author did stop talking about “Harry Potter,” and started posting about something else: trans women. In 2018, Rowling liked a tweet that called trans women “men in dresses,” but her representative told Pink News it was an accident. By 2020, though, Rowling was penning an essay about the dangers of giving protections to “any man who believes or feels he’s a woman,” stating that “huge numbers of women are justifiably terrified by the trans activists.” Since then, the author has written novels that touch on these topics, been named in a harassment lawsuit by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, and recently claimed that “there are no trans kids.”

Since 2020, several original “Harry Potter” cast members (plus “Fantastic Beasts” star Eddie Redmayne) have spoken up about Rowling. Some have shown support for her or made waffling non-statements, while others have denounced her comments and affirmed their support for trans people. Some fans have called to boycott Potterverse projects, but with a star-studded “Harry Potter” reboot series on the way from HBO, it’s clear that the franchise isn’t going anywhere soon. Ahead of the new show, let’s look back at what some of the original cast members have said about Rowling’s comments.

Advertisement

Radcliffe played the eponymous hero of the “Harry Potter” franchise beginning at age 11, but he hasn’t let being the face of the series keep him from an interesting post-Potter career. As an adult, he’s played Weird Al in the zany satirical biopic “Weird,” starred as multiple characters in the historical comedy series “Miracle Workers,” and won a Tony for his turn on Broadway’s “Merrily We Roll Along.” He’s also acquired a reputation as a philanthropist and a total sweetie, and he even won an award for his work with LGBTQ+ care network The Trevor Project in 2011 – long before Rowling’s assessments of the trans community started grabbing headlines.

Advertisement

In June 2020, just days after Rowling’s comments on trans identity became mainstream news, Radcliffe penned an essay for The Trevor Project (per Variety) in which he confirmed his support for the trans community. “Transgender women are women,” Radcliffe wrote. “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 [Rowling] or I.” Radcliffe cited statistics about anti-trans discrimination and also shared some heartfelt words for Potter fans who felt alienated by Rowling’s rhetoric. He wrote:

“If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion nobody can touch that.”

Advertisement

In 2023, Radcliffe also hosted a roundtable discussion with trans and nonbinary young folks for The Trevor Project’s YouTube series “Sharing Space,” emphasizing in press statements the importance of actually hearing from the people at the center of these conversations.

Post-“Harry Potter,” Watson has used her global fame as a platform for intersectional feminism, working as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and co-founding initiatives for Time’s Up UK when she’s not appearing in movies like “Little Women” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” The actor who brought Hermione Granger to life has also been vocal about her support for transgender equality for years, appearing in a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase “Trans rights are human rights” on Instagram in 2018.

Advertisement

In a 2019 interview with Vogue UK, Watson said that discussions about trans folks that paint them as a danger to women in public restrooms (a frequent talking point for Rowling) make her “really mad.” As she put it, “Having spoken with, or having friends who are trans, there’s so many more important issues that are not being discussed. We’re dealing with life-and-death stuff.” Watson went on to theorize that most people who weigh in on issues related to trans people have never actually met one, saying, “I understand fearing what you don’t know, but go and learn. Making people feel not included is … is just such a painful, awful thing to do, and it has such big effects.”

Like Radcliffe, Watson also made a point to speak out in June 2020, around the time that Rowling penned an essay saying that she refused to “bow down” to “a movement that [she believes] is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it” (per Entertainment Weekly). “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are,” Watson wrote on X at the time. “I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you, and love you for who you are.”

Advertisement

Unlike his co-stars, Ron Weasley actor Grint has always been famously low-profile and has largely stayed out of the spotlight in the years since the original “Harry Potter” film series ended. He still acts in shows like M. Night Shyamalan’s “Servant” and the 2023 film “Knock at the Cabin,” but Grint has chosen to live a quieter life post-“Potter,” at one point driving an ice cream truck in his spare time and, in 2020, casually joining Instagram a decade late to announce his baby’s name.

Advertisement

His relative aloofness makes Grint’s rare public statement in the wake of Rowling’s 2020 essay stand out. “I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers,” Grint told The Sunday Times in a statement. “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.” He expanded on his response in an interview with Esquire the next year, saying that he’s grateful for Rowling’s impact on his life but that “to stay silent would have [spoken]. Sometimes silence is even louder.” Admitting he’s not “an authority on the subject,” Grint noted that his response came “just out of kindness, and just respecting people.” He concluded that the trans community is “a valuable group that I think needs standing up for.”

Advertisement

Since she wrapped up her role as Ginny Weasley in all eight “Harry Potter” films, Bonnie Wright has been forging a multi-faceted career path as a director, producer, writer, and occasional actor. She’s also a supporter of several environmental causes, and in 2023, she even penned the book “Go Gently: Actionable Steps to Nurture Yourself and the Planet.”

Advertisement

When Rowling’s mask came off in 2020, Wright spoke up quickly alongside several co-stars. On June 10, 2020, she posted a message of support for trans women and conflicted “Potter” fans alike, writing on X, “If Harry Potter was a source of love and belonging for you, that love is infinite and there to take without judgment or question. Transwomen are Women.” She signed off by saying, “I see and love you, Bonnie x.” Along with many fellow Hogwarts alumni, Wright appeared in HBO’s “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts” in 2022 – a special from which Rowling herself was noticeably absent, aside from archival footage.

While several “Harry Potter” cast members have tried to straddle both sides of the fence in response to Rowling’s prolific comments about trans people, the man who played one of the franchise’s least likeable characters shared an unequivocal response to the controversy. In 2022, Dudley Dursley actor Harry Melling told The Independent: “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.”

Advertisement

The actor, who since “Potter” ended has penned a critically acclaimed play and played memorable parts in “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” “The Devil All The Time,” “The Queen’s Gambit,” and more, laid out his perspective plainly. “Every single person has the right to choose who they are and to identify themselves as what’s true to themselves,” Melling told the outlet during an interview for “The Pale Blue Eye.” He continued: “I don’t want to join the debate of pointing fingers and saying, ‘That’s right, that’s wrong,’ because I don’t think I’m the correct spokesperson for that. But I do believe that everybody has the right to choose.”

It looks like most of the Weasley family is united when it comes to trans rights. Chris Rankin, who played snobby school prefect Percy Weasley in the “Harry Potter” films, responded to a question about Rowling’s ideologies in a 2021 interview with The Eastern Daily Press. Rankin noted that he raises money regularly for the queer and trans homelessness support network the Albert Kennedy Trust. “A lot of my family are members of the community,” he explained. “It is a huge part of my life, and I think, by saying that, you can probably guess where my allegiances lie in that respect.”

Advertisement

Rankin has appeared on screen intermittently since his “Potter” days and served as a production coordinator for shows like “A Discovery of Witches” and “Downton Abbey.” In the abovementioned interview, he spoke about the risks of invalidating trans people’s identities without explicitly mentioning Rowling. “What is important to highlight is that, when a trans person says they are male or female, that is what they are and that is how we should treat them,” he asserted. “It is damaging to them to say otherwise.” He expressed his hope that the world of Hogwarts can still be a sanctuary for fans who found acceptance in the series and encouraged others to take an empathy-forward approach when it comes to supporting trans folks. “They are a very small minority who have an awful lot to deal with, and the best thing we can do is support them like we would — or should — any other human being on the planet,” Rankin said.

Advertisement

As “Harry Potter” fans have grown up over the past two decades, aspects of the saga that were initially accepted without criticism have begun to come under fire. Why is the Irish kid in Harry’s class known for blowing things up? Are the goblins at Gringotts Bank constructed from offensive Jewish stereotypes? Wait, Remus Lupin’s lycanthropy is definitely a messy and stigmatizing HIV/AIDS metaphor, right? One of these popular observations involved Cho Chang, Harry’s love interest who was mistreated and then largely relegated to the sidelines, and who, according to many readers, also has a racist name.

Advertisement

Scottish actress Katie Leung, whose post-franchise filmography includes “Arcane,” “The Wheel of Time,” and the upcoming season of “Bridgerton,” played Cho beginning in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” Instead of making a full statement in response to Rowlings’ 2020 comments about trans women or mentioning the author by name, Leung cleverly teased a long-awaited answer to fans’ questions about her underserved character (per E! News). On X, Leung posted, “So, you want my thoughts on Cho Chang? Okay, here goes…” Rather than actually sharing her thoughts on the role, though, Leung followed up by posting links to LGBTQ+ resources, petitions, and mutual aid funds that support trans women of color worldwide. She ended the thread with the hashtag #AsiansForBlackLives.

Advertisement

Several “Harry Potter” cast members have given fairly muddled statements about Rowling over the years, from Matthew Lewis telling iNews he wanted to sit the topic out because “both sides of this discussion have had enough of people who look like me telling them what to do” to Jason Isaacs telling The Telegraph he was “not going to be jumping to stab her in the front — or back — without a conversation with her.” But Miriam Margolyes, who played Herbology professor Pomona Sprout in the series, seems to be one of the only former “Potter” cast members to publicly admit to a change of heart as she’s learned more about trans and non-binary people.

Advertisement

In a 2020 interview with the Radio Times, Margolyes expressed empathy with trans people but said she’d rather not make a public statement. “Look at poor JK Rowling. She’s dived into the pool and got very wet,” she said. By 2022, the Australian actress had told the Radio Times (per The Independent) that although gender is a spectrum, “the vituperation that JK Rowling has received is misplaced.” While confessing that she didn’t know Rowling personally, Margolyes said, “I admire her as a human being. She’s a generous woman, she’s a brilliant writer.”

By 2024, though, Margolyes (an out lesbian) was showing more support for Watson, Grint, and Radcliffe, telling The Telegraph, “They’re grown up, and they have opinions. So why can’t they give their opinions? […] They shouldn’t be trammelled because they once were in a film that somebody wrote.” She continued: “There are so few trans people. People should be allowed to get on and be who they are, or be who they want to be, without all this nastiness.” The actress, now in her 80s, has also shared stories about being educated on the use of non-binary pronouns. She once told the Irish Examiner, “If you can make someone happy by calling them ‘they,’ then do it! It’s not hard.”

Advertisement

Oliver Wood may have disappeared after “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” but the Gryffindor Quidditch captain made a big impression when he was around. Sean Biggerstaff played Wood in the first two “Potter” films and has since appeared on stage, screen, and in radio dramas, even winning a Scottish BAFTA for his part in the 2007 drama “Consenting Adults.” Since 2017 or earlier, Biggerstaff has also shown support for trans people via posts on his X account.

Advertisement

Biggerstaff seems to have rarely engaged with Rowling directly on social media, though he once quote-tweeted a post she made in support of someone who an advocacy group once dubbed “a leading voice in the anti-trans movement” (per The Pink News). “Jesus Christ, Jo…” Biggerstaff said in his post. Last year, when Rowling posted that “No one wants to demean or discriminate against trans people,” Biggerstaff quoted her post and simply restated the phrase, as if to point out its irony.

More often, though, Biggerstaff posts about the granular issues and moral panics that trans people face today, from politicized medical care to prison violence to claims that the word “TERF” is a slur. He’s also delivered a few well-timed subtweets of Rowling and other anti-trans activists, including after Rowling’s 2020 tweets and during the 2024 Summer Olympics. One of his most succinct statements came when he commented on an X post from Venice Allen, who wrote, “JK Rowling taught a generation to read and then she challenged them to think.” Biggerstaff wasn’t having it. “This is,” he concluded, “an astonishingly stupid thing to say.”

Advertisement

While they don’t seem to have made public comments about Rowling specifically, two other Hogwarts professors are vocal trans allies. David Tennant, who played dark wizard Barty Crouch Jr. (who in turn disguised himself as teacher Mad-Eye Moody) in the fourth film, has spoken often about trans rights and has been spotted frequently wearing pins showing his support for the community. He accepted an award for his allyship at the British LGBT Awards in 2024 and in a red carpet interview, called transphobes “a tiny bunch of little whinging f**kers who are on the wrong side of history” (per Variety). He also called out politician Kemi Badenoch by name in his acceptance speech, leading Rowling to dub him part of the “Gender Taliban” on X.

Advertisement

Emma Thompson, meanwhile, played loopy soothsayer Professor Sybill Trelawney in the third “Potter” film. Like Tennant, she hasn’t weighed in directly on Rowling’s views, but in 2019, the Oscar winner was one of 70 prominent women to sign an open letter to the Scottish government in support of trans rights. “Trans people have played an integral role in every civil rights movement to date; from LGBT equality to women’s causes,” the letter stated (per The Pink News). It went on to say that while “attempts to airbrush trans people” from conversations about equality “are nothing new,” they also aren’t supported by all women. “They are not representative of us,” the letter continued. “We support trans rights.” Thompson is also set to play a key role in “Hear Me Roar,” an upcoming movie about a real-life trans woman who attempted to break down legal barriers in the UK in 2000.

Advertisement