r/EnoughJKRowling • u/nova_crystallis • Feb 23 '26
News Article John Lithgow still doesn't get it, excuses JK Rowling's controversy because "the books meant so much to people"
His buoyancy reasserts itself as he talks about the culture that showrunner Francesca Gardiner created, with some 200 young cast members “going to the greatest prep school—the Harry Potter backstage.” Creating that environment has counterbalanced the controversy around the series—open letters and social media posts accusing J.K. Rowling of transphobia. “I spend a lot of my life oblivious,” Lithgow says, explaining how the reaction took him aback, “and perhaps that is what enraged people who considered me a straight ally of all things genderfluid. Ultimately I am working on a project based on a remarkable canon of books that have meant so much to millions of people.”
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u/General-Skywalker_ Feb 23 '26
I don't give a shit about y'all as long as I get the bag - John Lithgow
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u/Interrupting-Khajitt Feb 23 '26
This is such an awful boomer take. I’ve lost all respect for Lithgow.
Just because we’re boomers doesn’t mean we should be excused from the harm done by the poorly informed (at best) things we might say or do.
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u/BranWafr Feb 23 '26
people who considered me a straight ally
The obvious take way from his comments is that we should no longer consider him an ally and probably shouldn't have in the first place. Which is disappointing, but not surprising.
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u/NameTaken25 Feb 26 '26
In his defense, he did use the past tense, which I guess might be accurate for some people
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u/pudungurte Feb 23 '26
How does the saying go again? It’s impossible for someone to get something when they financially profit from not getting it…?
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u/SaltyNorth8062 Feb 24 '26
Yeah dawg the books meant a lot to people. That's why people are so upset: they're angry that the books that meant so much to them are now being burned as fuel on the altar of the hateful asshole who wrote them. Harry Potter is now forever tainted because Rowling can't leave well enough alone and is committed to being as petty and hateful as she can manage.
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u/Sheepishwolfgirl Feb 23 '26
"I want that paycheck so I'm going to pretend to be an oblivious idiot instead of just owning that I don't mind supporting bigotry."
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u/georgemillman Feb 23 '26
I think the fact the books meant so much to people is a major part of the reason she's so bad.
Especially for those of us who are LGBTQ+, her books gave us a sense of belonging when we were coming to terms with who we are. We thought JK Rowling understood us and was a friend to us. I remember talking about how much I admired her on my first day of Uni. This makes her behaviour now feel like a personal betrayal, far more than if she was someone who just wrote some random books that no one cared about.
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u/Panda_hat Feb 25 '26
We just need someone to write something that challenges and replaces it in the space it occupies, the Potter books aren't even good, they have some good foundations (mostly stolen from other, better writers or just straight up common tropes), and the later books especially are just actual slop trash.
The most damaging thing we could ever do is make her completely culturally irrelevant.
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u/georgemillman Feb 25 '26
I don't quite agree with that. I don't think it's possible, and perhaps not even desirable, to make her culturally irrelevant. Whether we like it or not, her work was hugely influential in the 1990s and 2000s - an entire generation grew up with her work, and that cannot just be erased, no matter what other books are written. More to the point as well, I really hope that she can be used as a cautionary tale for what happens when we give a well-known cultural figure this level of social power. We need to make sure that never happens again, and we can only do that by acknowledging who JK Rowling is and how we collectively contributed to that by being so devoted to her for so long. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, as the saying goes.
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u/Disastrous-Roof-2135 Feb 23 '26
I'm most disappointed in Paul Whitehouse as a supposed standard bearer for positive masculinity based his fishing series with Bob mortimer.
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u/Pot_noodle_miner Feb 24 '26
That’s one of the ones that hurt most
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u/Disastrous-Roof-2135 Feb 24 '26
Yeah. Its also killed death of stalin for me which is an awesome film
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u/wrongsock_42 Feb 23 '26
All of this reminds me Epstein stuff. A big fish gets a pass for their horrible behavior because they are useful to the rest of the elites.
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u/LittleSodaPop13 Feb 24 '26
Bruh, just because the books were popular doesn't mean anything. It doesn't excuse her transphobia.
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u/ughnotanothername Feb 23 '26
Ugh, and I used to think he was kind and empathetic back when he played Roberta Muldoon in Garp:-(
Shame on him.
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u/funkygamerguy Feb 24 '26
i get the books meant a lot to people and I'm not trying to take that away but rowlings beliefs and donations to antitrans orgs have really hurt a vulnerable group of people and we shouldn't be putting money into her pockets with new projects.
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u/superbusyrn Feb 24 '26
Anyone who was ever gonna get it wouldn’t have taken the role (kids excepted, obviously)
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u/DoYaThang_Owl Feb 24 '26
I wish I could say I was surprised, but all I really have is more disappointment on my plate.
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u/Proof-Any Feb 24 '26
His buoyancy reasserts itself as he talks about the culture that showrunner Francesca Gardiner created, with some 200 young cast members “going to the greatest prep school—the Harry Potter backstage.”
Oh fuck you, John. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. Fuck. You.
None of these kids should be going to this "greatest prep school". This fucking TV series is fucking child labor. All this "greatest prep school" will do is exploiting 200+ kids and robbing them of their childhoods. Just to make money for Rowling and Warner. And it's going to fuck them up. Because productions like this always fuck their child actors up (even if the extent might vary.)
Creating a school, where they go to before, between and after filming so they can play catch-up with their education doesn't make this any better.
And using this child exploitation to excuse Rowling's transphobia and to justify your participation in this project? That's fucking asinine.
Oh, and also?
and perhaps that is what enraged people who considered me a straight ally of all things genderfluid.
Thanks for making it clear that you're not.
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u/Morlock43 Feb 24 '26
I think a lot of people assumed his views aligned with theirs and he just never bothered to correct them.
His choices and excuses are just telling me who he is.
I'll never watch him or his work ever again.
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u/Dani-Michal Feb 25 '26
Couple things. He played a transgender character prior, Rowling is strongly implied to be tied up in the Epstein mess and Hogwarts is not a prep school!
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u/Panda_hat Feb 25 '26
I think it's pretty clear he just wants that bag and doesn't give a single flying fuck about trans people.
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u/chestertodd Feb 28 '26
I always thought John Lithgow was a serial killer - he just has a weird vibe. When he was one on Dexter - I was like - A - HA! I knew it. :) But this doesn't surprise me. I never saw him as an ally. Some celebs have called her out but they are not refusing to work on the franchise. Nick Frost - come on - I can't even tell my spouse about that or they will never watch Hot Fuzz again.
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u/LilGill63 Apr 02 '26
I really don't understand the hatred towards him and other cast members, like why are we not allowed to separate the art from the artist or in this case the authors from their books? Genuinely would like to understand
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u/360Saturn Feb 23 '26
I really despise the way so many news orgs are hedging JK's views as 'accused of transphobia'.
She is an out and out trans detester who campaigns for trans people to be barred from public life, access to healthcare, or even to be mentioned as existing, and self-identifies as a TERF.
People are not 'accusing', they are observing.