The British author has received support from the Scottish actor who played Hagrid in the 'Harry Potter' movie franchise amid backlash over her controversial comments about transgender.
- September 16, 2020
AceShowbiz - "Harry Potter" actor Robbie Coltrane has defended J.K. Rowling against allegations she is transphobic.
The author of the wizarding books has been under fire this summer (20), including from stars of the tie-in film franchise, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint over tweets and a blog questioning the idea "sex isn't real" and raising concerns about changes to gender identity laws.
Coltrane, 70, who plays Hagrid in the "Harry Potter" movies, has now come to her defence, however, blaming the outrage on young people being too easily offended.
"I don't think what she said was offensive really," he tells Britain's Radio Times magazine. "I don't know why but there's a whole Twitter generation of people who hang around waiting to be offended."
"They wouldn't have won the war, would they? That's me talking like a grumpy old man, but you just think, 'Oh, get over yourself. Wise up, stand up straight and carry on.' "
He declined to go further, adding, "I don't want to get involved in all of that because of all the hate mail and all that s**t, which I don't need at my time of life."
The row over Rowling's views on gender identity has been reignited following a review of her latest crime novel, "Troubled Blood", published in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, and reported on by LGBTQ+ website Pink News.
The review claimed that the book centres on a suspected male serial killer who dresses up as a woman - correctly predicting it would provoke outrage from her critics.
Rowling has been slammed by social media users, with the hashtag #RIPJKRowling trending on Monday (14Sep20). She is yet to publicly respond to the latest controversy and her publicist declined to comment when contacted by WENN.
