J.K. Rowling is not accepting Emma Watson\u2019s olive branch. The Harry Potter author recently made it clear she is still at odds with one of the stars of the film franchise following comments the actress made about the status of their friendship.<\/p>\n
Last week, Watson, who portrayed teenage witch Hermione Granger in the wildly successful Harry Potter film franchise, appeared on Jay Shetty\u2019s On Purpose podcast<\/a> to discuss her decision to step away from Hollywood. The conversation turned to Rowling, who has come under fire in recent years for her comments about trans people<\/a>. In 2020, following the controversy surrounding Rowling\u2019s beliefs, Watson posted on X that she stands with the trans community<\/a>, and in 2024, Rowling shared on X<\/a> that people who have “cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights … can save their apologies.” One year later, Rowling mocked Watson on X<\/a> by hinting that she and Harry Potter costars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint are who come to mind when asked, “What actor\/actress instantly ruins a movie” with their views.<\/p>\n When asked last about her feelings toward Rowling now, Watson told Shetty that even though she and Rowling hold different views, she can still \u201ctreasure\u201d the author and \u201cthe person that I had personal experiences with,\u201d Watson said.<\/p>\n \u201cI will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person, I don\u2019t get to keep and cherish,\u201d Watson said on the podcast, saying it is her \u201cdeepest wish\u201d that \u201cpeople who don\u2019t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don\u2019t necessarily share the same opinion with.\u201d<\/p>\n She told Shetty she is open to having a dialogue with Rowling, saying it\u2019s something she believes in \u201ccompletely.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Rowling has responded to Watson\u2019s comments on Shetty\u2019s podcast. First, the author reposted a parody video to X<\/a>, which mocked Watson\u2019s interview, and wrote that she\u2019s \u201chere for ALL the spoofs.\u201d<\/p>\n Rowling followed up the repost with a lengthy comment on X<\/a> on Monday, writing that Watson and Radcliffe have \u201cevery right to embrace gender identity ideology\u201d as their views are \u201clegally protected\u201d and that she \u201cwouldn’t want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.\u201d However, she took issue with the notion that Watson and Radcliffe had felt an \u201cobligation\u201d to respond to Rowling\u2019s own views in public, as they \u201cassume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.\u201d<\/p>\n Rowling also referenced a comment Watson made at the 2022 BAFTAs, in which she stated she was \u201chere for all of the witches,\u201d<\/a> something Rowling suggests was a reference to trans women. After the award show, Rowling says, Watson wrote a note to the author, saying she was “sorry” for the backlash Rowling was experiencing at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family’s safety,\u201d Rowling wrote. \u201cEmma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n Rowling then criticized Watson and called her \u201cignorant,\u201d writing that the successful actress will likely never find herself in need of same-sex public spaces like homeless shelters or hospital wards. Rowling, meanwhile, said she \u201clived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me \u2014 a change of tack I suspect she’s adopted because she’s noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was \u2014 I might never have been this honest,\u201d Rowling continued. \u201cAdults can’t expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend’s assassination, then assert their right to the former friend’s love, as though the friend was in fact their mother.\u201d<\/p>\n She concluded, \u201cEmma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public \u2014 but I have the same right, and I’ve finally decided to exercise it.\u201d<\/p>\n What have other Harry Potter stars said about J.K. Rowling?<\/p>\n Rowling has faced intense criticism from the public, but few Harry Potter stars have spoken out against her directly, instead choosing to express support for the trans community, which Rowling has heavily criticized for encroaching on the rights of people who are born female.<\/p>\n In June 2020, following the onslaught of transphobia accusations against Rowling, Radcliffe penned a letter published on the website for LGBTQ organization the Trevor Project<\/a>, in which he stated that trans women are women. \u201cTo all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you,\u201d wrote Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in the films. \u201cI really hope that you don\u2019t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you.\u201d<\/p>\n In a 2024 interview with the Atlantic<\/a>, Radcliffe called Rowling\u2019s comments about the trans community \u201creally sad,\u201d as \u201cthe books that she wrote and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2020, Grint \u2014 who portrayed Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films \u2014 gave a statement to the U.K.\u2019s the Sunday Times, saying, \u201cI firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.\u201d In a 2021 Esquire<\/a> interview, Grint said it was important that he was clear in his support of the \u201cvaluable\u201d trans community.<\/p>\n \u201cI am hugely grateful [for] everything that she’s done. I think that she’s extremely talented, and I mean, clearly, her works are genius,” he said of Rowling. “But yeah, I think also you can have huge respect for someone and still disagree with things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n