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“Harry Potter” actor Tom Felton defended JK Rowling at Sunday night’s Tony Awards after being asked about the fierce liberal backlash she’s received for her views on gender and biology.
The British actor was on the red carpet at the awards show Sunday, where he was interviewed by Variety about reprising his role as Draco Malfoy in the Broadway play, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.”
The play, based off an original story co-authored by Rowling, takes place 19 years after the final “Harry Potter” novel.
Felton was asked if the controversy surrounding Rowling’s transgender views had affected his work at all, which he denied. Rowling has been a strong advocate for single-sex spaces for women and repeatedly been labeled as transphobic by far-left activists.
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“No, I can’t say that it does. I’m not really that attuned to it,” Felton said before praising the series’ author.
“The only thing I always remind myself is that I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world — here I am in New York — and I have not seen anything bring the world together more than ‘Potter,'” Felton explained to Variety. “And she’s responsible for that, so I’m incredibly grateful.”
Felton previously expressed his admiration for the author in a 2022 interview as she faced criticism from transgender activists for her views.
“I am quick to remind myself and others that ‘Potter’ for some reason has brought more people together across the world and more generations than probably anything else has in the past 20 years, and I’m quick to celebrate that,” he told The Times of London in a 2022 interview. “It came from one person, and that’s her, so I’m very grateful.”
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Rowling’s hugely popular book series, which launched the hit film franchise which Felton starred in, has not lost its appeal with fans.
Beyond the Broadway play, the series is also being adapted into an upcoming HBO television series.
Felton shared his excitement at reprising his Potter role all these years later with his Broadway debut.
“I think we all thought that the fandom flame might be doused over the years, but clearly it’s not,” he said. “The most exciting part is to do it live. It took nine months, more or less, to shoot a film, and this is all compact. This is all reimagined into a very loving, new type of story. And I get to be a dad, which is really fun.”
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