Actress Evanna Lynch has spoken out to defend JK Rowling as a resurgence of backlash continues for the comments made by the Harry Potter author.
Lynch, who played the whimsical Luna Lovegood in the series, has long described herself as a friend and admirer of Rowling and has defended the writer over her controversial comments which were labelled as being 'anti-trans'.
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Rowling initially made the comments in 2020, which angered the transgender community and its allies.
At the time, Lynch joined fellow co-stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, calling out Rowling's insensitivity about the topic on social media but she has since called for 'grace' from others.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Lynch said: "I was very naive when I was dragged into that conversation. I didn’t even know there were two sides. I had a view of, like, good and bad.
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"I do have compassion for both sides of the argument. I know what it was like to be a teenager who hated my body so much I wanted to crawl out of my skin, so I have great compassion for trans people and I don’t want to add to their pain."
She continued: "I do also think it’s important that JK Rowling has been amplifying the voices of detransitioners. I had this impulse to go, ‘Let’s all just stop talking about it’, and I think probably I’m a bit braver now about having uncomfortable conversations…
"I just felt that her character has always been to advocate for the most vulnerable members of society. The problem is that there’s a disagreement over who’s the most vulnerable. I do wish people would just give her more grace and listen to her."
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Fellow Harry Potter actress Helena Bonham-Carter has also defended the author, as she previously said: "She’s allowed her opinion, particularly if she’s suffered abuse. Everybody carries their own history of trauma and forms their opinions from that trauma, and you have to respect where people come from and their pain."
However not all cast members voiced such support for Rowling, with Harry Potter himself coming out against the author in 2020. Radcliffe wrote an essay for The Trevor Project to show his support for the trans community.
In 2022, he later explained his reasoning for speaking out: "The reason I was felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was because, particularly since finishing ‘Potter,’ I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that.
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"And so seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way. And that was really important."
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, Harry Potter, JK Rowling
Niamh Spence