<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Actor John Lithgow is confused about how “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling could believe in biological reality.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The 80-year-old celebrity said as much while speaking at Rotterdam Film Festival over the weekend while discussing some of the backlash he’s gotten for playing the role of Dumbledore in the TV reboot of Rowling’s best-selling series.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I take the subject extremely seriously,” Lithgow said of the trans debate. “[Rowling] has created this amazing canon for young people and it has jumped into the consciousness of the society. It’s about good versus evil, kindness versus cruelty. I find her views ironic and inexplicable. I’ve never met her, she’s not really involved in this production at all. But the people who are, are remarkable.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It upsets me when people are opposed to me having anything to do with this,” he said of the haters who totally wrote off Rowling and all her work. “But in ‘Potter’ canon you see no trace of transphobic sensitivity. She’s written this mediation of kindness and acceptance. And Dumbledore is a beautiful role.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lithgow described accepting the role as a “hard decision.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It made me uncomfortable and unhappy that people insisted I walk away from the job. I chose not to do that,” the actor went on. “I’m the oldest person in this entire room, just turned 80. And yet I signed a contract – I will be playing Dumbledore for the next eight years! I absolutely have to keep at it. I felt: ‘Wow! That means I will live to be 88.’ I have that in writing.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The topic was front and center as Lithgow was at the film festival promoting his latest project, “Jimpa,” which follows the main character Hannah (Olivia Colman) and her “nonbinary teenager” Frances as they reconnect with Hannah’s gay father, Jim (Lithgow).</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The role of Frances is played by director Sophie Hyde’s real-life daughter, Aud Mason-Hyde, who also identifies as “trans and non-binary,” per </span><a href="https://variety.com/2026/film/global/john-lithgow-dumbledore-harry-potter-jk-rowlings-jimpa-1236648292/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Variety</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p>Rowling has been one of the few celebrities brave enough to take a stand against the radical trans agenda, even in the face of massive backlash, boycotts, and vitriol from her peers.</p>
<p>Leftist fans have been furious with the British author since she started speaking out on the topic of biological sex being real in 2020. Most members of the original “Harry Potter” movie cast have denounced her and sided with the trans activists.</p>
<p>Most recently, Rowling and actress Emma Watson got into a public feud, which culminated in Rowling <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shes-ignorant-of-how-ignorant-she-is-j-k-rowling-slams-emma-watson-over-transgender-views?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=%E2%80%98She%E2%80%99s+Ignorant+Of+How+Ignorant+She+Is%E2%80%99%3A+J.K.+Rowling+Slams+Emma+Watson+Over+Transgender+Views" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> Watson “has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is.”</p>

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John Lithgow Describes JK Rowling’s Belief In Biological Reality As ‘Inexplicable’