Bel Powley Disagrees With Rowling, Stays in Harry Potter
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Bel Powley, cast as Petunia Dursley in HBO's Harry Potter series, told The Telegraph she "strongly disagrees" with Rowling's views on gender and that "the trans community deserve safety and dignity and respect and total acceptance."
- Powley nonetheless affirmed she "love[s] 'Harry Potter,'" grew up with the books, and is "from that first generation of readers" — a distinction she drew in the same interview.
- John Lithgow, cast as Dumbledore, told The New Yorker Radio Hour in April he considered walking away from the series over Rowling's views but decided "the reasons to do it were much, much stronger than the reasons to protest against what Rowling has done and said."
- J.K. Rowling is executive producing the HBO adaptation, whose first season premieres this Christmas and which has already been renewed for a second season adapting "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."
- The cast also includes Dominic McLaughlin as Harry, Arabella Stanton as Hermione, Alastair Stout as Ron, Paapa Essiedu as Snape, Nick Frost as Hagrid, and Janet McTeer as McGonagall; Mark Mylod directs and Francesca Gardiner is showrunner.
Why it matters: Powley's comments place her in a growing pattern of cast members publicly separating themselves from Rowling's gender views while still participating in her billion-dollar franchise — a tension HBO must manage as it launches a prestige series whose creator has become a polarizing figure among both audiences and talent.
Ask SkimNews
