Emma Watson: I still love JK Rowling despite rift

Emma Watson has said she still loves Harry Potter author JK Rowling and refuses to “cancel her out”, despite their public disagreement about the issue of gender identity.

Watson was one of several stars of the Potter films who spoke out against Rowling’s views in 2020.

In a new interview, the actress said: “It’s my deepest wish that I hope people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with.”

However, Rowling appeared to rebuff her conciliatory comments, posting a message addressed to “anyone who may be regretting their very public sprint to the front of the mob and is now trying to discreetly shove their pitchfork out of sight.”

Watson and Daniel Radcliffe were among the stars who distanced themselves from Rowling when the author sparked a row by speaking out against trans activism, which she said had eroded the concept of biological sex.

She was accused of being transphobic, which she denied, saying she was worried about the effect on women in single-sex spaces.

Watson has now done an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty, who asked her about critical comments Rowling has appeared to make in recent years about the actress and her co-stars in light of the rift.

Watson said her previous relationship with Rowling means she is still able to “treasure Jo”.

She added: “I think the thing I’m most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible.”

The actress, now 35, praised Rowling for the “kindness and words of encouragement” she gave when she was growing up, and for the opportunity to play a character that “to be honest barely exists in the history of English literature”.

“There’s just no world in which I could ever cancel her out, or cancel that out, for anything,” Watson said. “It has to remain true. It is true.

“I just don’t know what else to do other than hold these two seemingly incompatible things together at the same time and just hope maybe they will one day resolve or co-join themselves, and maybe accept that they never will, but that they can both still be true.

“And I can love her, I can know she loved me, I can be grateful to her, I can know the things that she said [about me] are true, and there can be this whole other thing.

“And my job feels like to just hold all of it. But the bigger thing is just, what she’s done will never be taken away from me.”

Watson played Hermione Grainger in the eight films based on Rowling’s books between 2001 and 2011.

Following the actress’s interview, Rowling posted on X on Thursday: “A little reminder for anyone who may be regretting their very public sprint to the front of the mob and is now trying to discreetly shove their pitchfork out of sight.”

She didn’t specifically mention Watson or anyone else by name.

The author linked to a post she wrote in May, which began: “In light of recent open letters from academia and the arts criticising the UK’s Supreme Court ruling on sex-based rights, it’s possibly worth remembering that nobody sane believes, or has ever believed, that humans can change sex, or that binary sex isn’t a material fact.”

Watson was among 1,600 film and TV figures who signed an open letter saying they “stand in solidarity with the trans, non-binary, and intersex communities” who were affected by the Supreme Court ruling, which said a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.

The other signatories included Eddie Redmayne, who starred in Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts films; Paapa Essiedu, who is playing Severus Snape in the forthcoming Potter TV series; and Katie Leung, who played Cho Chang in the Potter movies.