JK Rowling just addressed Emma Watson’s recent “ignorant” for using her link from Harry Potter to criticize her views.
She also rejected the claim that she and the former child star treasure each other despite the difference of their point of views on transgenders rights.
Watson and her former co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint are vocal advocates for trans rights and, in the last five years, all three of them have condemned Rowling’s controversial comments that have been criticized as transphobic.
Rowling has now issued a lengthy statement in which she branded the Hermione Granger actor “ignorant” as she has “never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame” along with accusing Emma of “pouring more petrol on the flames” of the abuse she receives.
Days after Watson said she would be open to speaking with Rowling again, the author wrote on X/Twitter: “Adults can’t expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend’s assassination, then assert their right to the former friend’s love, as though the friend was in fact their mother.”
Last week, during her first-ever podcast, the Little Women talent mentioned that just because she and the author have a bit of disagreement between them, does not mean she “can’t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with.”
However, Rowling further mentioned that she “suspects” the actor’s “change of tack” is due to her belief that the “full-throated condemnation” against her has calmed in recent months.
The Harry Potter creator said that “Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology”, but added: “Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right – nay, obligation – to critique me and my views in public.”
“Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created,” JK Rowling concluded.