Daniel Radcliffe expressed sadness at his split with J.K. Rowling

Daniel Radcliffe hasn’t talked to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling in a long time, but he told an interviewer he is upset by her position on transgender rights. In the hugely popular movie adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s best-selling novels, Radcliffe portrayed boy wizard Potter. However, on the difficult subject of gender identification, the two have disagreed.

As a result of her preference for biological sex above gender identity, Rowling has been accused of transphobia, whereas Radcliffe has long supported organizations that support the rights of trans women.

In an interview that was published this week with The Atlantic, Radcliffe stated, “In the end, it makes me really sad.” “Because everything about her—the person I met, the times we spent together, the books she wrote, the world she created—makes me feel so incredibly sympathetic.”

Gender identification has become a contentious political topic in several nations, including Scotland, the birthplace of Rowling, and the United States, where Radcliffe is presently appearing in a Broadway production. Rowling has led the charge in claiming that women are endangered by transsexual rights. She has cited allegations that transgender women who enter restrooms, changing rooms, or jails intended for women inflict damage.

In 2020, Radcliffe issued a statement declaring, “Transgender women are women,” in response to some of Rowling’s remarks on the subject. The British press capitalised on the division in the public, particularly because youngsters worldwide had embraced the phenomenally popular Potter series.

According to Radcliffe, “a lot of people who were dealing with feeling closeted or rejected by their family or living with a secret found some solace in those books and films.” Radcliffe informed the journalist that he and co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint had been treated like “ungrateful brats” by the British media.

Rowling seemed to take aim at the movie’s performers once again last month. She was replying to a social media post that said she would accept an apology from Radcliffe and Watson.

“Apologies for traumatized detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single-sex spaces should be saved for celebrities who cosied up to a movement intent on undermining women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors,” Rowling wrote. When The Atlantic asked Radcliffe to react, he stated, “I have no further comment than that, and I will continue to support the rights of all people.”

While acknowledging that he hasn’t spoken to Rowling directly throughout the dispute, Radcliffe also noted that his success and notoriety would probably never have occurred if she hadn’t started the Potter series. He clarified, “But that doesn’t mean you have to give someone else your whole life in order to believe what you truly believe.”