Evanna Lynch has spoken out in support of author JK Rowling as the Harry Potter author continues to face a backlash about her allegedly ‘transphobic’ opinions.
The Luna Lovegood actress said she had been naive when she supported Rowling in 2020, but now wished more people would listen to her.
The 31-year-old actress, who won the part of Luna after battling anorexia with the help of supportive letters from Ms Rowling herself, said the ‘problem is that there’s a disagreement over who’s the most vulnerable’.
Ms Rowling waded into the trans debate in 2020 when she criticised an article’s use of the phrase ‘people who menstruate’ and then wrote a personal essay defending her opinions on sex and gender.
The author, who also writes crime fiction under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, dismissed claims last month that the trans row would overshadow her Harry Potter legacy.
Evanna, speaking to The Telegraph, said that the debate was difficult and that she understood what it meant to be ‘too triggered’ to have a conversation.
‘I was very naive when I was dragged into that conversation.
‘I didn’t even know there were two sides. I had a view of, like, good and bad. I do have compassion for both sides of the argument.
‘I know what it was like to be a teenager who hated my body so much I wanted to crawl out of my skin, so I have great compassion for trans people and I don’t want to add to their pain,’ she added, referring to her experience of anorexia as a teenager.
She said that it was important that Rowling was promoting the voices of ‘detransitioners’.
The Irish actress said she was shocked by the reaction against Rowling, ‘especially when she wrote her essay.’
‘I just felt that her character has always been to advocate for the most vulnerable members of society.
‘The problem is that there’s a disagreement over who’s the most vulnerable. I do wish people would just give her more grace and listen to her.’
Evanna beat 15,000 other girls to get the role of Luna Lovegood in the later Harry Potter films.
The teenager, who had been struggling with an eating disorder, had written to JK Rowling aged 11, in a letter sent through her publisher.
When a response arrived from the author herself, the two struck up an unlikely pen friendship, even while Lynch was in a residential clinic for her eating disorder.
Two years later, Evanna was trawling through a Potter fan site when she came across a casting call for Luna.
Following Rowling’s controversial tweet in 2020, Evanna wrote an impassioned defence of the woman she refers to as a ‘mentor’.
‘I won’t be helping to marginalise trans women and men further. I think it’s irresponsible to discuss such a delicate topic over Twitter through fragmented thoughts and I wish Jo wouldn’t … That said, as a friend and admirer of Jo I can’t forget what a generous and loving person she is,’ the actress wrote.
She sent Rowling a copy of her 2021 memoir, The Opposite Of Butterfly Hunting: The Tragedy And The Glory Of Growing Up, and said she would work on more Harry Potter projects.
Rowling recently addressed the trans debate on a podcast, The Witch Trials Of JK Rowling.
Chapter One: Plotted In Darkness opened with Rowling addressing the backlash she received after sharing her views on gender identity, saying: ‘I never set out to upset anyone. However, I was not uncomfortable with getting off my pedestal.
‘And what has interested me in the last 10 years and certainly in the last few years, particularly on social media “You’ve ruined your legacy, oh you could have been beloved forever but you chose to say this” and I think you could not have misunderstood me more profoundly.
‘I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy, what a pompous way to live your life walking around thinking about what my legacy will be.
‘Whatever. I’ll be dead. I care about now. I care about the living.’
The latest offering from the Harry Potter universe, video game Hogwarts Legacy, has smashed bestseller records in recent days.
The hit video game racked up a total of $850 million in revenue with 12 million sales, according to figures released by creator Warner Bros. Games.
This makes ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ one of the fastest selling games of all time and the most lucrative launch ever for the Warner Bros. Discovery media empire.