J.K. Rowling does not share the same views on trans rights as actor Paapa Essiedu, who will play Severus Snape in HBO’s Harry Potter reboot, but she said that won’t affect his employment.
“I don’t have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn’t exercise it if I did,” Rowling, 59, wrote via X on Monday, May 5. “I don’t believe in taking away people’s jobs or livelihoods because they hold legally protected beliefs that differ from mine.”
Essiedu was among more than 400 actors to sign an open letter following the U.K. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that a woman is defined by biological sex, not gender identity, and only those assigned female at birth can use single-sex spaces meant for women, such as bathrooms.
“We the undersigned film and television professionals stand in solidarity with the trans, non-binary and intersex communities who have been impacted by the Supreme Court ruling on April 17,” the letter read. “The Supreme Court’s ruling that, under the Equality Act, ‘woman’ is defined by biological sex, states that ‘the concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man.’ We believe the ruling undermines the lived reality and threatens the safety of trans, non-binary and intersex people living in the UK.”
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The letter continued, “Film and television are powerful tools for empathy and education, and we believe passionately in the ability of the screen to change hearts and minds. This is our opportunity to be on the right side of history.”
Essiedu was the only one of the confirmed Harry Potter reboot cast members to sign the letter. Other confirmed stars include John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch.
Among the other signatories are several stars who worked on Rowling’s adaptations, including Emma Watson (who played Hermione Granger in all eight original Potter films), Eddie Redmayne (who led the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise as Newt Scamander) and Katie Leung (who played Cho Chang in several Harry Potter movies).
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Several of Leung’s Bridgerton costars added their names as well. Signatories include Golda Rosheuvel, Hannah Dodd, Ruby Stokes and Nicola Coughlan, the last of whom has openly spoken out against the Potter reboot in light of Rowling’s anti-trans rights stance.
Following Rowling’s celebration of the legal ruling, Coughlan, 38, posted a news story screenshot to her Instagram Story captioned, “Keep your new Harry Potter lads. Wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.”
The Irish actress started a fundraiser for Not a Phase, a nonprofit which helps improve the lives of trans adults across the U.K. She raised over £120,000 (around $150,000 U.S. dollars) in one week.
