Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling's anti-transgender rhetoric has not only divided the books' and movies' community; it's also fractured her relationship with star Daniel Radcliffe, who has become a vocal supporter of LGBTQ rights.
Radcliffe made a couple of rare comments about Rowling and her continued comments against trans women in a new interview with The Atlantic, telling the publication that the entire situation makes him "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," Radcliffe said.
Radcliffe's comments come after Rowling recently wrote on X/Twitter that she wouldn't forgive Radcliffe and fellow Harry Potter star Emma Watson for their support of trans rights: "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," she wrote on April 10.
Radcliffe also revealed during The Atlantic interview that he hasn't had direct contact with Rowling since June 2020, when her anti-transgender tweets began. Since then, Rowling has continued to slam trans activists, claiming they undermine the feminist movement, and has described herself as a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist).
Back in 2020, Radcliffe released a statement in support of trans rights via The Trevor Project, a nonprofit dedicated to suicide prevention of LGBTQ individuals.
“Transgender women are women,” he wrote in his statement at the time. “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 [Rowling] or I.”
Radcliffe looked back on the statement in his interview with The Atlantic, saying he'd worked with The Trevor Project for 12 years and "it would have seemed like, I don’t know, immense cowardice to me to not say something."
“I wanted to try and help people that had been negatively affected by the comments," he went on. "And to say that if those are Jo’s views, then they are not the views of everybody associated with the Potter franchise.”
Radcliffe was joined at the time by Watson and Harry Potter co-star Rupert Grint in speaking out for trans rights amid Rowling's tweets, and the actor says that was treated a certain way by the British press in particular.
“There’s a version of ‘Are these three kids ungrateful brats?’ that people have always wanted to write, and they were finally able to. So, good for them, I guess," he said.
“Jo (Rowling), 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," he continued. "But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.”
And, despite Rowling's comments that she isn't going to forgive Radcliffe for his continued LGTBQ support, it doesn't seem like he's looking for apologies: “I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people, and have no further comment than that," he concluded.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
