‘Harry Potter’ star Daniel Radcliffe ‘really sad’ over JK Rowling’s stand against trans agenda
"Harry Potter" film star Daniel Radcliffe lamented creator J.K. Rowling’s critical views of transgender ideology in a new interview published on Tuesday.
Radcliffe, who played the book series’ title character in the Warner Bros. film adaptation, told The Atlantic that he’s "really sad" that Rowling has made critical statements about the transgender agenda on social media, considering how beloved her body of work is.
The actor 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 she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathetic."
Radcliffe and other "Potter" co-stars, like Emma Watson, have expressed opposition to Rowling’s viewpoint that total acceptance of the trans community and their beliefs undermines the existence of biological women.
Watson and Radcliffe have stood firm in supporting the transgender community, with Watson insisting that "trans people are who they say they are" in an X post after Rowling went viral in 2020 for criticizing an article mentioning "people who menstruate" and calling for use of the word "women" instead.
Rowling slammed the two actors earlier this month on X while talking about a recent U.K. National Health Services study conducted by physician Dr. Hilary Cass, which found "no good evidence" for the medical push to transition children's gender, and noted the push had been "built on shaky foundations."
In an X post on April 10, Rowling defended the study from its detractors, stating, "Over the last four years, Hilary Cass has conducted the most robust review of the medical evidence for transitioning children that's ever been conducted. Mere hours after it was released to the press and public, committed ideologues are doubling down."
Commenting on the author’s post, a user mentioned they were waiting for "Dan and Emma to give you a very public apology... safe in the knowledge that you will forgive them."
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Rowling fired back, hitting the pair in the process.
She wrote, "Not safe, I'm afraid. 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 the Atlantic interview, Radcliffe did praise Rowling’s literary contribution and the fantasy universe she created. However, he claimed he couldn’t be beholden to her views just because of how influential she is.
He said, "‘Harry Potter’ would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person. But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life."
The actor disclosed that he has not talked to Rowling since she went public with her views, and mentioned that – as someone who has worked for pro-LGBTQ non-profit – he would have been a coward for not opposing her views.
"I’d worked with the Trevor Project for 12 years, and it would have seemed like, I don’t know, immense cowardice for me to not say something," he told the outlet. "I wanted to try and help people that had been negatively affected by the comments. And to say that if those are Jo’s views, then they are not the views of everybody associated with the ‘Potter’ franchise."
Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley contributed to this report.