John Lithgow has said he considered quitting the Harry Potter TV show over the backlash he received due to author J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans views.
The veteran actor will be playing Professor Dumbledore in the upcoming HBO series, set to premiere in 2027 and run for 10 seaons. He and other cast members, such as Hagrid actor Nick Frost, have received criticism for appearing in the show, given the creator’s public hostility toward the transgender community.
Initially, the actor expressed surprise at the backlash, but later confirmed his opposition to Rowling on this subject. “I find her views ironic and inexplicable” he said at the time. “I’ve never met her, she’s not really involved in this production at all. But the people who are, are remarkable.”
He doubled down on that stance during a recent profile by The New York Times, and revealed he considered quitting the show following the criticism. He eventually decided to stay, describing the books as “clearly on the side of the angels, against intolerance and bigotry.” He did accept, however, the fact that in “every interview I will ever do for the rest of my life this will come up.”
The profile describes him as arguing that his recent film Jimpa, where he plays the gay grandfather of a Transgender teenager, “should be seen as expressions of his interest in queer culture, not as heedless appropriations of it. He assumed his loyalties were clear.”
In contrast, his Jimpa co-star Aud Mason-Hyde described his decision as “vaguely hurtful” in an interview with Out magazine, after describing the actor as “such a beautiful human to make work with.”
Recently Katie Leung, who played Cho Chang in the original Harry Potter films, said she would “not want to go back” to her time playing the character. Elsewhere, Cillian Murphy confirmed his lack of interest in playing Lord Voldemort in the show, saying he wasn’t even aware he was linked to the part.
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