‘Harry Potter’: Ralph Fiennes defends JK Rowling

The actor, who gave life to the evil Lord Voldemort in the films of the “Harry Potter” franchise, has spoken out about the controversy that has circulated around the author since last year. Fiennes has defined the “verbal abuse” that Rowling receives, through social networks, as “nasty” Y “appalling“, in a recent interview with New York Times.

After this, he mentioned: “I can understand that his vision generates anger because of what he says about women. But he is not some kind of obscene far-right fascist. She is a woman saying: ‘I am a woman, I feel like a woman and I want to be able to say that I am a woman.’ And I can understand what she means.“

All the controversy surrounding the writer arose in June 2020, when the author of the well-known saga of magical novels, mocked an opinion article on Twitter that used the expression “menstruating people“, not to use the term “women“. This tweet generated a wave of criticism that caused Rowling to have to defend herself and even redact the entire an essay stating your opinion.

Fiennes, who has already defended the writer on other occasions, valued the power of the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise in giving youth a voice. “JK Rowling has written some amazing books about empowerment, about young people finding themselves… It’s all about becoming a better, stronger, morally better human being,” commented the interpreter.

Other members of the main cast of the film saga such as Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson or Eddie Redmayne (‘Fantastic Beasts’) openly positioned themselves in favor of the trans community, in response to the controversy. Numerous groups in defense of LGBTQ+ rights and Human Rights condemned JK Rowling’s statements and described them as clearly discriminatory.

Later, with the premiere of ’20th Anniversary of Harry Potter: Return to Hogwarts’, which premiered at the beginning of the year, we could notice the absence of the original author of the story. At the time, when asked about this project, Rowling stated: “I thought it had more to do with the movies than the books,” and continued saying: “That was what the anniversary was about.”

The author’s statements seem to have somewhat overshadowed the luminous franchise. It has been mentioned that ‘Fantastic Animals 3’ had been spoiled by JK Rowling, since its premiere was close to the entire virtual brawl.

The fate of the franchise remains open, we do not know what will happen or if there will be more tapes that continue the magical universe of the author. What does seem quite certain is that, in this case, it will be very difficult to separate the work from the artist. Her words speak for themselves.

All the films in the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Fantastic Beasts’ saga are available at streaming on HBO Max.