Daniel Radcliffe ‘doesn’t… owe the things’ he believes to JK Rowling

Though thankful for what JK Rowling’s creation did for his career, Daniel Radcliffe has no plans of bending over backwards for her regarding his beliefs.
The Harry Potter star has broken his silence in a rare comment about his fractured professional relationship with JK Rowling over trans rights. Addressing the heated crossfire as “really sad,” Radcliffe, though receptive to her contribution to his Potter breakout fame, the actor claims that he doesn’t owe what he believes to her for life.
In an interview with the Atlantic, the English actor, nominated in the Best Featured Actor in a Musical category for the 2024 Tony Awards, opened up about his ruptured ties with the Harry Potter author. Speaking of her role in his life, he further underscored that it “doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.”
The British author has been under fire since early June 2020, when she spread contentious tweets about her views on the transgender community. The escalating wildfire eventually welcomed heated words from the primary cast members of Rowling’s magnum opus’ cinematic adaptation – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Eddie Redmayne.
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However, Rowling has proactively situated her stance with comments like, “The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women—i.e., to male violence—‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences—is a nonsense.”
Her tweets continued: “I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”
Her lengthy online tirade in 2020 has been followed by several similar accounts in the yesteryears, with the majority of headlines circling her views on the issue and nothing beyond that.
Earlier in April 2024, the emergence of the Cass review of gender identity services fired Rowling up even more than before. Her subsequent tweets went as far as to bash Radcliffe and Watson as “celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors.”
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As the bad blood between the former Harry Potter dream team continues to bubble out of control, this dispute actually dates back to 2020, as mentioned before. Radcliffe has initially released a statement through LGBTQ+ suicide-prevention group the Trevor Project, claiming: “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I.”
Now, jumping back to the present, in his recent interview with the Atlantic, Radcliffe addressed his 12-year-long connections with the Trevor Project. He acknowledged that with those ties in his life, it would have been an act of “cowardice” if he didn’t speak about it.
Dissociating Rowling’s comments from those of the people lined with the Harry Potter franchise, he added: “I wanted to try and help people that had been negatively affected by the comments. And to say that if those are Jo’s views, then they are not the views of everybody associated with the Potter franchise.”
Furthermore, he took note of the “solace” people found in the books and films while “dealing with feeling closeted or rejected by their family or living with a secret.” 
The Harry Potter star confirmed he was no longer in direct contact with the author since the controversy first blew up. Looking back at the memories, Radcliffe claimed to be “really sad” with how things turned out. Addressing his past connections with Rowling, he said: “I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic.” He concluded his remarks by affirming that he will continue to support the LGBTQ people.