John Lithgow didn’t expect backlash to ‘Harry Potter’ casting due to JK Rowling: “Why is this a factor?”
John Lithgow has said he didn’t expect backlash from being cast in the HBO remake of Harry Potter due to JK Rowling’s controversial stance on transgender people, questioning: “Why is this a factor?”
The actor spoke to The Times on April 27th about his casting as Professor Dumbledore in the upcoming series, noting that he “absolutely” was not prepared for the backlash that came with the role and that he only took the role because it was suited to his age.
“Of course, it was a big decision because it’s probably the last major role I’ll play,” Lithgow said. “It’s an eight-year commitment so I was just thinking about mortality and that this is a very good winding-down role.”
However, he revealed that a friend of his, who is the mother of a transgender child, sent him an open letter after his casting was announced, titled ‘An Open Letter to John Lithgow: Please Walk Away from Harry Potter’.
Regarding this, the actor said it was “the canary in a coal mine,” before adding: “I thought, ‘Why is this a factor at all?’ I wonder how JK Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her, and I’m curious to talk to her.”
When asked whether the controversy made him consider backing out of the role, Lithgow replied, “Oh, heavens no.”
It comes as actors Pedro Pascal and David Tennant have both criticised Rowling in recent days for her social media posts regarding transgender people since the Supreme Court ruling that a woman can only be defined by biological sex.
Tennant, who previously played a role in the 2005 film Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, said while being interviewed for the ITV show The Assembly: “JK Rowling is a wonderful author who’s created brilliant stories, and I wish her no ill will, but I hope that we can all, as a society, just let people be. Just get out of people’s way.”
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