Though J.K. Rowling is extremely involved in HBO’s upcoming “Harry Potter” TV adaptation, not all the actors involved with the project share her anti-trans views. In a new Telegraph interview released Monday morning, Bel Powley, who will be playing Petunia Dursley in the show, noted that she “strongly” disagrees.
“I strongly disagree with J.K. Rowling’s views on gender,” she told The Telegraph. “I think that the trans community deserve safety and dignity and respect and total acceptance. But I love ‘Harry Potter.’ I grew up with the books. I am from that first generation of readers and, again, I love magic and spookiness.”
In the books, Petunia Dursley is Harry’s aunt, a muggle who has a real hatred for the wizarding world, and resents her sister for her magic.
Rowling has long been vocal about her anti-trans views. Just last year, she blasted Glamour U.K. online for dedicating one of its 2025 Women of the Year magazine covers to a group of trans women, and also called Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the film adaptations of Rowling’s books, “ignorant” for her views and how she expresses them.
Powley is not the only new “Harry Potter” star to distance herself from Rowling’s regular anti-trans rhetoric. Last year Nick Frost, who is playing Hagrid in the series, made a similar move.
“She’s allowed her opinion and I’m allowed mine, they just don’t align in any way, shape or form,” Frost told The Observer at the time.
“Harry Potter” is set to premiere on HBO this Christmas.
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