After Emma Watson offered a thoughtful and nuanced account of her relationship with J.K. Rowling in light of the Harry Potter creator’s anti-trans stances, Rowling responded by lambasting the actress as “ignorant.”
During a recent podcast appearance, Watson described how she’s still able to value Rowling as a person, and the time the two spent together, saying, “I really don’t believe that by having had that experience, and holding the love and support and views that I have, means that I can’t and don’t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with. I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person I don’t get to keep and cherish. I just don’t think these things are either/or.”
Rowling, however, dismissed Watson’s assessment in a lengthy retort on X. “Like other people who’ve never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is,” the author said.
The author did acknowledge she’s “not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created.” And even said that, for a while, she retained a “certain protectiveness” for Watson and her co-star Daniel Radcliffe (who’d also spoken out against Rowling’s views).
But with Watson, she cited the actress’ remarks at the 2022 BAFTA awards (“I’m here for all of the witches”) as a “turning point.” She alleged that the actress had “publicly poured more petrol on the flames” when the backlash and threats against Rowling were at their fiercest.
Rowling also revealed that, around the same time, Watson allegedly asked someone to pass on a handwritten note, which Rowling said read, “I’m so sorry for what you’re going through.” Rowling dismissed this as well, suggesting Watson “thought a one line of expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.”
As for what prompted such a fierce response this time, Rowling blamed Watson, “The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me — a change of tack I suspect she’s adopted because she’s noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was — I might never have been this honest. Adults can’t expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend’s assassination, then assert their right to the former friend’s love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public – but I have the same right, and I’ve finally decided to exercise it.”
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That’s in sharp contrast to what Watson herself said in her original interview — though, it’s unclear if Rowling heard or read Watson’s comments in full, or just regurgitated the bits contained in the clip from the British right-wing TV news station that accompanied her post.
Watson, for her part, said she remained open to reconnecting with Rowling, especially because “a conversation was never made possible.” And she stressed her own desire to be careful about her comments regarding Rowling going forward, likely out of concern for what the author had endured in the past.
“I just don’t want to say anything that continues to weaponize a really like toxic debate and conversation,” Watson said. “It is why I don’t comment or continue to comment. Not because I don’t care about her or about the issue, but because the way that the conversation is being had feels really painful to me.”
From Rolling Stone US
