Brian Cox is offering his support for JK Rowling amid the ongoing debate over the Harry Potter author’s previous comments, which have been criticized as transphobic.
Cox, who plays patriarch Logan Roy on the HBO series Succession, recently appeared on the BBC talk show Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg. During the interview, the Scottish actor described himself as “very proud” that the country’s Parliament last month voted to pass legislation allowing transgender people to change their legal gender without the need for a medical diagnosis. (The UK government said Monday it would block the new law.)
After describing the law as “a long-standing need”, Cox was asked how he felt about the discourse surrounding Rowling, who has publicly opposed the Scottish legislation.
“Actually, I don’t like the way she was treated,” Cox said. “I think she’s entitled to her opinion; She has the right to say what she feels. As a woman, she has the right to say what she feels about her own body, and no one can say that better than a woman.”
He continued, “Well, I feel like, honestly, people have been a little bit cocky about their own attitude toward JK Rowling.”
This isn’t the first time the actor has shared such sentiments. During a May interview with Piers Morgan, Cox called the backlash against Rowling “deeply unjust.”
Rowling’s stance was met with mixed reactions from Hollywood celebrities. While Harry Potter franchise stars like Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint publicly condemned her comments, Helena Bonham Carter, who played Bellatrix Lestrange in the films, called the backlash against Rowling “terrible,” while Lord Voldemort actor Ralph Fiennes previously said of the author that he “can understand where she’s coming from”.