Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes speaks out about JK Rowling’s trans stance

Harry Potter star Miriam Margolyes has told Sky News she believes JK Rowling is “wrong about some things” when it comes to her stance on trans issues – but says it is also wrong for the author to be left out of “celebrations” for her famous books.

Margolyes, who played Professor Sprout in the film series, said it was “fair enough” to criticise Rowling, who has been outspoken in her gender critical views.

However, the 84-year-old actress said the backlash against the writer had become “unkind”, and highlighted her absence from certain celebrations of the Harry Potter story.

In 2022, Rowling did not appear in a 25th anniversary TV reunion featuring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, who starred in all of the films. All three stars have spoken out in support of the trans community.

Speaking to Sky News presenter Wilfred Frost, Margolyes said: “I think everybody can be criticised, I think that’s fair enough, but everybody’s so horrid and nasty and unkind and I don’t like that.

“I don’t want people to be unkind about trans… I mean, I’m a gay woman myself and you have to just put up with it. I don’t know if [Rowling’s] been badly treated but I think it was wrong that she wasn’t invited to the celebrations for Harry Potter. You know, she created the whole thing.

“She may be wrong about some things. And women’s bodies are tremendously important – I love my body, even though it’s fat and misshapen, and I wouldn’t be a man for anything. But trans – who cares? Let’s be kind, let’s be inclusive. I think there’s an awful lot of nonsense talked about it.”

Between 1997 and 2007, Rowling published seven Harry Potter books – which were turned into eight films between 2001 and 2011. The movies generated more than $7.7bn at the global box office.

The author will be involved in the upcoming Harry Potter series.

Margolyes said she does not know Rowling and has never met her, but praised her work and highlighted her series of crime novels, written under the pen name Robert Galbraith.

“I salute her as a very great writer and I think I like the detective stories best,” she told Frost.

The actress spoke to Sky News as the patron of the Charles Dickens Museum, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. The museum is based at 48 Doughty Street, central London, where Dickens lived for two years and wrote works including Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist.

“A life was lived here,” she said. “A great writer, and he belongs to all of us. And that’s why I want people to come to this museum and enjoy it.”

During the interview, Margolyes also made her thoughts clear on artificial intelligence – an issue that many creatives are concerned about.

“I loathe AI and everything connected with it,” she said. “That is not about everybody sharing, it’s about people stealing and lying, which is what goes on a great deal these days. No, AI is a very bad thing and I won’t have anything to do with it – and I’m pretty sure that Mr Dickens would not like it either.”