Helena Bonham Carter defends JK Rowling and thinks Johnny Depp is ‘blame free’

The writer JK Rowling, creator of one of the most popular narrative universes in the world, ‘Harry Potter’, is from time to time the protagonist of heated debates, not for her work, but following the controversy that aroused some of his comments deemed transphobic on Twitter. From their publication to today, there are several actors and actresses of the film saga who have expressed themselves on this controversy.

This is the case of the protagonists Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), who have expressed on several occasions their opposition to Rowling and their dissociation from the author. The latest to join the list of fantasy universe performers to share her take on the controversy is the acclaimed Helena Bonham Carter, who played Bellatrix Lestrange in ‘Harry Potter’. Carter went beyond the Rowling case and wanted to address the issue of cancellation culture in general, going into other cases such as Johnny Depp’s.

In an interview with The Times collected by The Hollywood Reporter, the actress criticized the idea that someone’s personal life should condition their professional career: “Do you erase a genius for his sexual practices? There would be millions of people who, if you looked closely enough at their personal lives, you would end up discrediting. You can’t ban people. I hate cancel culture. It’s gotten quite hysterical and there’s a kind of witch hunt and misunderstanding.”. Carter also spoke about what lived by Johnny Depp, an actor with whom he shared the screen on several occasions and godfather of two of his children; and Depp’s sudden big advocacy from a certain sector of the industry and fandom after the settlement of the case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard: “That’s the thing with these things (cancellation), that people put themselves on one side and go the other way because it’s the trend and being the center of attention.” The actress also explains that she thinks Depp is now being considered “blameless” and that “It’s fine now, completely fine.”

The actress also shared her dissatisfaction with the large number of negative comments Rowling has received and continues to receive for her tweets described as transphobic: “It’s awful, a bunch of fools. I think she was harassed. People’s judgment has been taken to an extreme. She is allowed to say, especially if she has been abused. Everyone brings their own history of trauma and forms their own opinions from that trauma and you have to respect where people and their pain are coming from. Not everyone has to agree on everything, that would be crazy and boring. He doesn’t say that by attacking, he just says something from his experience of him.”

What Carter thinks of Radcliffe and Watson

Sharing such a strong take on the Rowling controversy and cancel culture, Carter was asked about her screen-sharing ranking against Rowling in ‘Harry Potter’ such as Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. The actress explains that she thinks they should let the author have their own opinions of her, but at the same time they are very conscious of protecting their fan base and their generation.

* The complete saga of “Harry Potter” and “Harry Potter: Return to Hogwarts” are available. Available on HBOMax.