I ‘Didn’t Want to’ Join ‘Harry Potter’ Reunion

It was her name. J.Okay. Rowling stated she was not deliberately excluded from HBO Max’s Harry Potter twentieth Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts particular earlier this yr.

“I was asked to be on that, yeah, and I decided I didn’t want to do it,” the creator, 57, informed host Graham Norton throughout an look on his Virgin Radio UK present on Saturday, August 27. “I thought it was about the films more than the book — quite rightly. I mean, that was what the anniversary was about.”

The January 2022 reunion featured Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — who performed Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, respectively, in all eight movies — on the set with dozen of supporting actors, administrators and producers to mirror on making the film. Rowling, nevertheless, was not current. The particular used 2019 archival footage of the Wizarding World creator.

“No one said don’t [join the reunion],” the author, who was selling her newest Robert Galbraith e book, defined to Norton. “I was asked to do it and I decided not to.”

Despite a few of them talking out towards her, Rowling added that she nonetheless retains in contact with the forged. “I have [kept in touch], yes, I do. Some more than others, but that was always the case. You know, some I knew better than others,” she stated.

Rowling first got here below hearth in June 2020, when she shared a number of posts on Twitter that appeared to slam the trans neighborhood. “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased,” Rowling wrote on the time, arguing that she had researched the subject for meany years earlier than sharing her opinion. “I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”

After being labeled a “TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), Rowling doubled down on her stance. “Accusations of TERFery have been sufficient to intimidate many people, institutions and organisations I once admired, who’re cowering before the tactics of the playground,” she claimed in a prolonged June 2020 essay. “Speaking as a biological woman, a lot of people in positions of power really need to grow a pair (which is doubtless literally possible, according to the kind of people who argue that clownfish prove humans aren’t a dimorphic species).”

Several Potter stars appeared to distance themselves from Rowling later that month, together with all three predominant stars. “I firmly stand with the trans community,” Grint, 34, stated in a press release to Us Weekly on the time. “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.”

Watson, 32, inspired donations to trans-friendly organizations Mama Cash and Mermaids on the time. “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are,” the Little Women actress wrote through Twitter.

Radcliffe, 33, wrote an essay for LGBTQ+ group The Trevor Project to sentence her views. “While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment,” the Lost City star wrote amid the backlash. “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”