Ralph Fiennes defends JK Rowling: “She is simply a woman who says:” I am a woman “”

Ralph Fiennes played the evil Lord Voldemort in the “Harry Potter” saga, but in real life he is not at all comfortable with harassing, insulting and abusing anyone and in any of its forms. Fiennes, which premieres “The Menu” in Spain on December 2, promotes Mark Mylod’s film and in an interview with the New York Times ended up defending JK Rowling (again) from the verbal abuse the author receives on the internet.

Rowling has already been the protagonist of some other controversy, mainly because of her words about trans people, but Fiennes finds no justification in them for what we read on social networks and wants to continue to highlight the values ​​that her novels convey. : “JK Rowling has written these great books on empowerment, about young children who find themselves as human beings. They talk about becoming a better, stronger, more morally focused human being. The verbal abuse directed against her is disgusting, it’s scary. “ It is not the first time that Fiennes has expressed this opinion and already in March 2021 stated: “I find it disturbing the level of hatred people express about opinions different from theirs and the violence of language against them.”

For Fiennes, the interview continues, Rowling is alone “a woman who says: “I am a woman and I feel like a woman and I want to be able to say that I am a woman”” and nothing this can be canceled “obscene far-right fascist”. She was also defended by Robbie Coltrane, Hagrid in the movies, who “I didn’t think I said anything offensive” and I thought it “There’s a whole generation on Twitter just waiting to be offended”; Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) believes Rowling “made the world a better place”; and Rupert Grint loves her “like an aunt you don’t always agree with”; In addition, more than 50 cultural personalities have signed a letter of solidarity with her.

However, it is not that Fiennes defends that one should never get angry and protest, in the same article he assures that “Anger is justified when it’s right, but it often gets a little silly because it can’t make its way through the gray areas. It has no nuances. “

Children’s stuff?

In the interview with TNYT, his sister Martha Fiennes, director of ‘High Society’ also intervenes, who recalls that when her brother Ralph was 7 he was already reading ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ by Thomas Edward Lawrence. Here’s why when she was offered the role of Voldemort, she wasn’t thrilled with the idea: “I think at first it bothered me a bit”he remembers, “I thought ‘this is a child’s fantasy’, I don’t want to do that.” Eventually, Martha managed to convince him to make the role iconic, and she considers her proudest moment when she walked past the son of a set supervisor from “Harry Potter” and the poor boy burst into tears.

As an anecdote for the uninitiated, Fiennes isn’t the only Fiennes in Rowling’s film franchise, his middle son, Hero Fiennes Tiffin (yes, that of ‘After’), He played the younger version of Voldemort, Tom Riddle at 11, in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”.