Voldemort actor Ralph Fiennes defends JK Rowling against her transgender critics

Ralph Fiennes has defended JK Rowling over the ‘disgusting’ abuse she’s received from transgender activists.

The actor, who plays Voldermort in the Harry Potter franchise, told The Telegraph he understands where the billionaire author is ‘coming from’ and her opinion on gender ideology doesn’t make her a ‘facist’.

He also condemned activists who have hurled abuse at Rowling after she wrote a series of tweets in 2020 that were considered transphobic.

Fiennes told the UK publication: “The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, it’s appalling. I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women.

“But it’s not some obscene, über right-wing fascist. It’s just a woman saying, ‘I’m a woman and I feel I’m a woman and I want to be able to say that I’m a woman.’

"And I understand where she’s coming from. Even though I’m not a woman.”

His defence of the famed author contrasts with some of the other co-stars in the Harry Potter franchise, who have publicly denounced Rowling’s statements on the transgender debate.

In 2020, Daniel Radcliffe issued a statement via The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention non-profit for LGBT youth.

He wrote: “Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo [Rowling] or I.”

However, a year after her bombshell tweets, Rowling spoke out about the ‘hundreds’ of threatening messages she's received via social media.

While the 57-year-old was quick to defend her statements on gender identity, insisting she was taking a swipe at the patriarchy, she revealed how intense the backlash was.

In June last year, Rowling shared a tweet that she received from a user who threatened to send her a pipe bomb, adding that this message is one of many.

Her response: “To be fair, when you can't get a woman sacked, arrested or dropped by her publisher, and cancelling her only made her book sales go up, there's really only one place to go.

"Now hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me I've realised that this movement poses no risk to women whatsoever.

"Got to get back to my chapter now, but to all the people sending me beautiful, kind, funny and supportive messages, thank you so much .

"Wish I had time to answer all of you, but Strike and Robin are at a tricky stage of their investigation, so I need to drop a few clues."