Potter star who wants to heal rift with JK
HARRY Potter star Evanna Lynch has refuted claims that JK Rowling has been given the ‘cold shoulder’ by cast members for her views on transgender issues.
Miss Lynch, 30, who played Luna Lovegood in the wizarding films, also denied that Miss Rowling’s allegedly transphobic views were the reason for her absence from the recent Return To Hogwarts 20th anniversary show.
Critics said Miss Rowling, 56, was a Terf – a trans-exclusionary radical feminist – after she attacked the use of the term ‘people who menstruate’ as an alternative to ‘women’.
She also called for sex, not gender identity, to inform safeguarding decisions.
Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Miss Lynch condemned her comments at the time. But yesterday, Miss Lynch told GB News: ‘There’s things we don’t all agree with and maybe don’t understand.
‘I’ve talked to all the cast. They all have great love and respect for her, even if they don’t agree with her beliefs.
‘It’s been a very difficult conversation. I want there to be healing. I don’t want us to keep fighting, so I do reject that narrative that there’s been a cold shoulder.’
Miss Rowling only appeared in the reunion special in archive clips. But Miss Lynch denied this was due to the controversy, adding: ‘I think she’s busy writing books... and she was never on the sets very often.’
Asked if she would work on future projects by the author, she replied: ‘I don’t see how I would turn that down.’
After Miss Rowling’s initial Twitter comments in June 2020, Miss Lynch said she was ‘irresponsible’ and ‘on the wrong side of the debate’.
Miss Rowling has said: ‘Hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me.’