Rupert Grint joined his “Harry Potter” co-stars in speaking out against J.K. Rowling’s controversial comments about the transgender community, and in a new interview with Esquire he explains that while he may disagree with the author’s views on this subject, it does not diminish the respect that he holds for her.
“I am hugely grateful [for] everything that she’s done,” Grint tells the magazine.
“I think that she’s extremely talented, and I mean, clearly, her works are genius,” he continues.
“But yeah, I think also you can have huge respect for someone and still disagree with things like that,” he adds.
However, he also insists that saying nothing simply wasn’t an option.
“Sometimes silence is even louder,” he says. “I felt like I had to because I think it was important to. I mean, I don’t want to talk about all that… Generally, I’m not an authority on the subject. Just out of kindness, and just respecting people. I think it’s a valuable group that I think needs standing up for.”
Following the publication of Rowling’s controversial essay, stating that trans women “erode ‘women’ as a political and biological class,” Grint issued a statement to the The Times, reading, “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.”
