Hollywood star Ralph Fiennes has defended Harry Potter novelist J.K. Rowling against attacks from transgender activists, saying the verbal abuse she has experienced is both “disgusting” and “appalling.”
In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, Fiennes, who played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter movies, addressed the transgender movement’s ongoing offensive against Rowling.
“The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, it’s appalling. I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women. But it’s not some obscene, über-right-wing fascist,” the actor said. “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.”
Fiennes’ comments represent a break from the other Harry Potter cast members, who have either condemned or distanced themselves from the novelist for her views on gender, which include the belief that transgender “women” are different from biological women and that radical transgender ideology could erase womanhood.
LONDON – JUNE 02: (EMBARGOED FOR PUBLICATION IN UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS UNTIL 48 HOURS AFTER CREATE DATE AND TIME) JK Rowling and her husband with Ralph Fiennes (C) arrive at the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation Party at the Hampton Court Palace on June 2, 2007 in Richmond upon Thames, London, England. The night is in aid of the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation – an international fund fighting child cancer. (Photo by Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)
Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint are among those who have spoken out against Rowling’s views or downplayed her contributions to the success of the Harry Potter movies.
But some Harry Potter actors have resisted trashing the novelist, including Tom Felton and the late Robbie Coltrane. As Breitbart News reported, Felton recently expressed gratitude to Rowling for creating the Potter series.
The novelist has publicly stated she has received death threats and has been doxxed by transgender activists who object to her views on gender.
As Breitbart News reported, Rowling received a threat in August following the stabbing of fellow novelist Salman Rushdie. She shared an online message saying “you are next.” Rowling was also the target of a pipe bomb threat from a social media account sporting a transgender flag.
Her latest novel — The Ink Black Heart, which is part of the Cormoran Strike crime series that Rowling writes under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith — features a character who is doxxed, threatened, and ultimately murdered after social justice warriors accuse her of transphobia.
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