Radcliffe’s comments on Johnny Depp leaves fans conflicted
LOS ANGELES: Actor Daniel Radcliffe’s comments on Johnny Depp’s presence in the upcoming film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has left many fans conflicted.
A substantial number of them have vowed to boycott the movie, which is months from its premiere.
In the movie, Depp plays Grindelwald, the dark wizard.
Both Fantastic Beasts director David Yates and scribe J.K. Rowling have defended Depp’s involvement, and seem unlikely to change their positions anytime soon. Radcliffe, in the role of Harry Potter, understands the frustration.
He said the controversy is “a very hard thing” for him to reconcile, given that the franchise gave him, as he put it, “a great start in life and an amazing job.” Still, he said, “I can see why people are frustrated with the response that they were given from that . . . I’m not saying anything that anybody hasn’t already said — and this is a weird analogy to draw — (but) in theNFL, there are lots of players arrested for smoking weed, and there is other people’s behaviour that goes way beyond that, and it’s tolerated because they’re very famous players. I suppose the thing I was struck by was we did have a guy who was reprimanded for weed on the (original Potter) film, essentially. So obviously what Johnny has been accused of is much greater than that.”
Jamie Waylett, who played Crabbe in the original Harry Potter films, was indeed absent from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 after he was caught growing cannabis plants in his bedroom.
Last November, Yates offered this take: “With Johnny, it seems to me there was one person who took a pop at him and claimed something. I can only tell you about the man I see every day: He’s full of decency and kindness, and that’s all I see. Whatever accusation was out there doesn’t tally with the kind of human being I’ve been working with.”
Depp had been accused of assaulting his former wife Amber Heard.
On the casting of Depp, Rowling had written on her website: “Based on our understanding of the circumstances, the filmmakers and I are not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies . . . I accept that there will be those who are not satisfied with our choice of actor in the title role. However, conscience isn’t governable by committee. Within the fictional world and outside it, we all have to do what we believe to be the right thing.”