Actor Keira Knightley apologized for lending her voice in the new “Harry Potter” audiobooks after she was told some fans are boycotting the book and film series over author J.K. Rowling’s transphobic remarks.
“I was not aware of [a boycott] ― no,” Knightley told Decider over the weekend.
“I am very sorry,” she added with a laugh.
She continued: “I think we’re all living in a period of time right now, we’re all going to have to figure out how to live together, aren’t we? And we’ve all got very different opinions. So I hope that we can all find respect.”
Some fans, however, did not appreciate her so-called apology.
“That laugh says NOT sorry,” wrote one user.
“The laughing makes it so insincere,” wrote another.
Knightley’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, Pottermore Publishing and Audible announced Knightley would voice Professor Dolores Umbridge in “Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions.”
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” will be the first to be released on Audible on Nov. 4. Rowling, who authored the book series, gave her blessing for the audiobooks, but she will not be involved in the production, according to the official Harry Potter website.
In recent years, longtime fans of the book and movie series have expressed their disappointment in Rowling’s transphobic remarks.
In 2020, Rowling first stirred controversy when she criticized an article that discussed “people who menstruate.” Rowling wrote on social media at the time, “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” Since then, her transphobic comments have continued. In 2023, Rowling said she would rather go to jail than silence her transphobic views, which she called “the reality and importance of sex.”
Plenty of celebrities have spoken out against Rowling, including “Harry Potter” actors Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson.
Shortly after Rowling’s first transphobic post, Watson, who played Hermione in the film series, defended the trans community, writing on social media, “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.”
Radcliffe, who played the lead in all eight “Harry Potter” films, said in a statement via the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ+ youth, that “transgender women are women.”
Meanwhile, fans of the books and movies have been left questioning if they can continue to support Rowling and “Harry Potter.” Some fans even want their “Harry Potter” tattoos covered up.
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