Evanna Lynch is the latest “Harry Potter” star to speak out about the ongoing controversy surrounding author and franchise creator JK Rowling’s gender beliefs, which are regularly criticized as transphobic. Lynch played the quirky Luna Lovegood in the “Harry Potter” film series. In 2020, Lynch deleted her Twitter account after commenting on Rowling’s controversy. The actress said “it is irresponsible to discuss such a sensitive topic” as transgender rights on Twitter and “I wish (Rowling) wouldn’t do that,” but added: “Nevertheless, as a friend and admirer of Jo, I cannot forget what a generous and loving person she is.”
Lynch faced criticism at the time for supporting Rowling. In a new interview with The Telegraph, Lynch spoke about her relationship with the controversial author. The two got together long before Lynch appeared in the “Harry Potter” films. The actress was 11 years old and suffered from anorexia. She wrote Rowling a letter about her struggle. The author responded and sent Lynch “incredible, wise letters” during her recovery.
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“I was very naive when I got drawn into this conversation,” Lynch said now of her original comment on Rowling’s anti-trans controversy in 2020. “I didn’t even know there were two sides. I had a view of, like, good and evil. I have compassion for both sides of the argument. I know what it was like to be a teenager who hated my body so much that I wanted to jump out of my skin, so I have a lot of compassion for trans people and don’t want to add to their pain.”
“I also think it’s important that JK Rowling amplifies the voices of people who are reversing their gender reassignment,” she continued. “I had an impulse to say, ‘Let’s just stop talking about it,’ and I think I’m probably a little braver now when it comes to having uncomfortable conversations.”
Lynch said the backlash against Rowling surprised her, “especially when she wrote her essay (in which she revealed experiences from her unhappy first marriage). I just felt that her character has always been to stand up for the weakest members of society. The problem is that there is disagreement about who is the weakest. I wish people would just show her more grace and listen to her.”
Lynch’s Harry Potter co-stars remain divided over the Rowling controversy. Daniel Radcliffe immediately contradicted Rowling’s views in an open letter declaring, “Transgender women are women.”
“The reason I felt such a strong need to say something when I did was because, particularly since I finished ‘Potter,’ I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who identified very strongly with Potter in that respect,” Radcliffe told IndieWire last year of her comments against Rowling. “When I saw her hurt that day, I thought to myself: I wanted them to know that not everyone in the franchise feels that way. And that was really important.”
Voldemort actor Ralph Fiennes, on the other hand, described the reactions to Rowling as “repulsive” and “appalling”. Helena Bonham Carter, who played the role of the evil Bellatrix Lestrange in four “Harry Potter” films, also called the reactions “appalling” and “a load of nonsense”.
“The condemnation of people has been taken to extremes,” Bonham Carter told Britain’s Times last year. “She was speaking her mind, especially when she herself was abused. Everyone has their own traumatic past and forms their opinion based on that trauma. You have to respect where people are coming from and the pain they are in. You don’t have to agree on everything – that would be crazy and boring. She’s not being aggressive, she’s just saying something from her own experience.”
Rowling isn’t worried about how the backlash might affect her legacy. The author is the subject of the recently launched podcast series “The Witch Trials of JK Rowling,” in which she tackles the anti-trans controversy.
“What’s interested me in recent years, particularly on social media, is when fans say, ‘You’ve ruined your legacy. Oh, you could have been loved forever, but you chose to say that,'” Rowling said of the series. “And I think, ‘You couldn’t have misunderstood me more deeply.’ I never intended to upset anyone. But I didn’t feel uncomfortable stepping down from my pedestal.”
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