Harry Potter star Jason Isaacs isn’t ‘jumping to stab’ JK Rowling in the back over her ‘controversial’ views
Jason Isaacs attends Deadline’s The Contenders Film at DGA Theater Complex on 14 November 2021. (Amy Sussman/Getty for Deadline)
Harry Potter actor Jason Isaacs says he won’t ‘stab JK Rowling in the back’ despite the ongoing backlash against her anti-trans views.
Isaacs, who played Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, shared his thoughts about the author in a recent interview with the Telegraph.
He said he didn’t want to discuss trans issues because “it’s such an extraordinary minefield”, but he acknowledged that Rowling’s “opinions” differed from his in “many areas”.
However, he said that “one of the things that people should know about her too – not as a counter-argument” is the “unequivocally good” work that Rowling does through her charity, Lumos.
Isaacs insisted that the author has “poured an enormous amount of her fortune into making the world a better place”. He shared this was one of the reasons he wouldn’t speak out against JK Rowling without speaking to her personally.
“So for all that she has said some very controversial things, I was not going to be jumping to stab her in the front – or back – without a conversation with her, which I’ve not managed to have yet,” Isaacs said.
Many of Jason Isaac’s co-stars across the Harry Potter franchise – including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Eddie Redmayne – have voiced their support for the trans community in the wake of Rowling’s comments.
In 2019, JK Rowling voiced her support for a woman who was pursuing legal action to have “gender-critical views” protected under the UK Equalities Act.
Rowling faced backlash in 2020 after she posted a tweet criticising an op-ed that discussed “people who menstruate”.
She blasted the phrasing of the article and wrote: “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
Rowling then doubled down on her standpoints in a lengthy essay shared on her website days later.
In it, she claimed she had “deep concerns” about the “effect the trans rights movement” was having on the “education and safeguarding” of children. She has denied allegations she is transphobic.
However, her repeated comments about the lives of trans people have been widely condemned by the LGBT+ community, celebrities and Harry Potter fans worldwide.
