Harry Potter actor Jim Broadbent shares ‘support’ for ‘amazing’ JK Rowling

A handful of the franchise’s adult actors have defended the controversial author

Another Harry Potter star has come forward in their “support” of JK Rowling amid the author’s ongoing controversy.

Rowling has long been a critic of gender ideology and faces continued criticism for her opinions on trans people.

While former Harry Potter child stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson have spoken out against the author’s views, some of the older actors to have appeared in the fantasy franchise, an adaptation of Rowling’s novels, have jumped to her defence.

One such star is Jim Broadbent, who played Professor Slughorn in two Harry Potter films.

He described the backlash against Rowling as “really sad”, telling The Telegraph: “I think JK Rowling is amazing. I haven’t had to confront [the backlash] myself, but I would support her in that, I think, if it came to it.”

Other stars to have supported Rowling following the criticism levied against her, which has included death threats on social media, include Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes.

Bonham Carter, in an interview with The Times in 2022, called the backlash “horrendous”, stating: “She’s not meaning it aggressively; she’s just saying something out of her own experience.”

Also in 2022, Fiennes told The New York Times: “The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, it’s appalling. I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women. But it’s not some obscene, uber right-wing fascist. It’s just a woman saying, ‘I’m a woman and I feel I’m a woman and I want to be able to say that I’m a woman.’ And I understand where she’s coming from. Even though I’m not a woman.”

Last week, Rowling issued a sarcastic response to the Harry Potter fandom’s proposed boycott of a new TV series based on her books.