Ralph Fiennes defends JK Rowling: “The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting”
Harry Potter star Ralph Fiennes has defended the series’ author JK Rowling in a new interview, decrying the abuse she has suffered recently due to her views on trans issues.
In a new conversation with New York Times, Fiennes clarified his thoughts on the matter and criticised wider cancel culture, saying the “abuse directed at her is disgusting”.
The English actor who played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films said: “JK Rowling has written these great books about empowerment, about young children finding themselves as human beings. It’s about how you become a better, stronger, more morally centred human being. The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, it’s appalling.”
He continued: “I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women. But it’s not some obscene, uber-right-wing fascist. It’s just a woman saying, ‘I’m a woman and I feel I’m a woman and I want to be able to say that I’m a woman.’ And I understand where she’s coming from. Even though I’m not a woman.”
It’s a messy subject, but throughout this period, JK Rowling has denied all claims that she is transphobic, leading to a schism of sorts between Harry Potter fans.
Notably, after tweeting a lot on trans issues, in 2020, Rowling published a lengthy and personal essay discussing her experiences with domestic abuse and sexual assault, as well as gender identity. Since then, things have not been the same for the author, as some of what she said was highly controversial.
Added to this, recently, Rowling posted a death threat she had recieved on Twitter after sharing her concern for fellow author Salman Rushdie, who was violently attacked onstage in New York when giving a talk.
In the interview, Fiennes proceeded to criticise “cancel culture”, explaining his distaste for the black-and-white nature of the way of thinking: “Righteous anger is righteous, but often it becomes kind of dumb because it can’t work its way through the grey areas. It has no nuance.”
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