{"id":222179,"date":"2026-02-11T11:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/john-lithgows-co-star-finds-harry-potter-job-hurtful\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T11:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T11:01:17","slug":"john-lithgows-co-star-finds-harry-potter-job-hurtful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/11\/john-lithgows-co-star-finds-harry-potter-job-hurtful\/","title":{"rendered":"John Lithgow&#8217;s co-star finds Harry Potter job &#8216;hurtful&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2026-02-11\" datetime=\"1770807677\" pubdate=\"\">11 February 2026<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/john-lithgow\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,john-lithgow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Lithgow<\/a>&#8216;s Jimpa co-star finds his involvement in the Harry Potter TV series &#8220;vaguely hurtful&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">John Lithgow will play Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter TV series<\/p>\n<p>The 80-year-old actor will play Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming HBO adaptation of J.K. Rowling&#8217;s beloved book series and Aud Mason-Hyde, who plays the screen veteran&#8217;s non-binary grandchild in the queer family drama, admitted they find it &#8220;disconcerting&#8221; that John accepted the role, despite the criticism the author has faced for her comments about trans people.<\/p>\n<p>Aud told Out magazine: &#8220;It was definitely a difficult moment in time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s worth speaking to John&#8217;s reasoning by any means, but I do also think that it&#8217;s a strange decision, for sure. And also I found it disconcerting, maybe, is the right word.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Aud found John &#8211; who plays a university professor and gay activist in Jimpa &#8211; to be &#8220;in some capacity a mentor&#8221; so found The Crown star&#8217;s career decision even more confusing.<\/p>\n<p>\nThey added: &#8220;He is such an incredibly talented actor, but also such a beautiful human to make work with, and that was my experience with John.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I never felt invalidated or questioned or doubted in my identity or in my transness by him. I consistently felt that he was a very loving and a very guiding co-star.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;And so there&#8217;s an element of this that feels vaguely hurtful.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nJohn previously stressed that he has never met Rowling, but finds her stance &#8220;ironic and inexplicable&#8221; because of the messages of inclusivity in Harry Potter.<\/p>\n<p>\nJohn said at a screening of Jimpa at the Rotterdam Film Festival: &#8220;I take this subject extremely seriously. She has created this amazing canon for young people and it has jumped into the consciousness of the society. It&#8217;s about good versus evil, kindness versus cruelty. I find her views ironic and inexplicable. I&#8217;ve never met her, she&#8217;s not really involved in this production at all. But the people who are, are remarkable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Conclave star explained that he was told to &#8220;walk away from the job&#8221; by others because of the show&#8217;s association with Rowling.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe said: &#8220;It upsets me when people are opposed to me having anything to do with this. But in Potter canon you see no trace of transphobic sensitivity. She&#8217;s written this mediation of kindness and acceptance. And Dumbledore is a beautiful role.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;It was a hard decision. It made me uncomfortable and unhappy that people insisted I walk away from the job. I chose not to do that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/john-lithgows-star-finds-harry-potter-job-hurtful-1437494.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>11 February 2026 John Lithgow&#8216;s Jimpa co-star finds his involvement in the Harry Potter TV series &#8220;vaguely hurtful&#8221;. John Lithgow will play Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter TV series The 80-year-old actor will play Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming HBO adaptation of J.K. Rowling&#8217;s beloved book series and Aud Mason-Hyde, who plays the screen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":222180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[13666,1498,10063],"class_list":{"0":"post-222179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","9":"tag-jk-rowling","10":"tag-john-lithgow"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}