Revisit Robbie Coltrane’s wholesome comments on his friendship with J.K. Rowling
When the news broke today that legendary actor Robbie Coltrane passed away, the world was sent into an instant state of mourning. The Scottish actor was one of the finest and most well-respected of his generation, giving us many highlights across his career.
Notably, Coltrane starred in shows such as Cracker and National Treasure, as well as a string of movies that included two James Bond outings, GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough, and Mona Lisa, Ocean’s Twelve, Henry V and Great Expectations. However, it was his role as the loveable Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series that etched him into all of our hearts.
Coltrane first appeared in 2001’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, instantly establishing the character as a fan favourite. Of course, he starred in every one of the Harry Potter films, and not only did his character watch Harry, Ron and Hermione on their journey, but he was also an everpresent through the development of the actors who played the three main characters, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.
As loved in real life as his character was, the sweet anecdote of Radcliffe’s eyes being all “puffy and red” after filming his final scene with Coltrane is a real tearjerker.
Coltrane made his mark on everyone he came across. A principled man in an industry full of unscrupulous characters, he always stuck to his guns and stood up for what he believed in. When speaking to The Guardian in 2012, he gave a great example of this by showing that he took his status as a role model very seriously, saying: “Kids come up to you and they go: ‘Would you like to sign my book?’ with those big doe-eyes. And it’s a serious responsibility.”
Elsewhere, in that same extensive conversation, Coltrane again showed how conscientious he was by discussing his friendship with the series’ now-controversial author J.K. Rowling. He expressed great disdain at the major preoccupation with her wealth and criticised the British for being “mean-spirited” whilst commending his friend for encouraging millions of children to read.
He opined: “They don’t even say ‘Joanne Rowling, who’s done very well with books’. It’s always ‘multi-millionairess JK Rowling’. It fucks me off wildly when they say multi-millionairess. You just think, she’s so much more than that, and she deserves to be rich because you think of all the millions of children she’s encouraged to read who’d never have opened a book in their lives and how good the books were, and how good the films were. It is shocking. I can’t believe how mean-spirited the British are sometimes.”
